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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007-10-18TOWN OF DRYDEN DEDICATION OF NEW TOWN HALL OCTOBER 18, 2007 On October 18, 2007, Town Supervisor Steven Trumbull and board members Stephen Stelick, Mary Ann Sumner, and David Makar gathered with town staff and town residents for the dedication and grand opening of the new Town Hall at 93 East Main Street in the Village of Dryden. Supv Trumbull addressed the group: 1'd like to give a little history of how= we got here. It was 18 years ago that they started talking seriously about building a new town hall. Nothing happened until about four years ago when the town board at: the time decided to really kick it in gear and go after it. We started looking for land, We even looked at buildings to renovate and to rent and nothing really came about. One day l was driving up the road and I looked where this building now stands. It was golden rod and a couple of cat tails. So I went to Henry. I said could we build a Town Hall here. He said "i guess". So we pursued it and put a purchase offer in and things seemed to be going pretty smoothly until there was a bit of a disagreement over a right -of -way and we couldn't get the other side to come to the table to close. So the 'Town Board put their feet down and said "You either get here next Wednesday, or its over and the contract is null and void ". We held our breath because we didn't think it was going to happen for a while. But they stepped up and showed up. So we got the land. The road to success sometimes is kind of rough. We all know that. We had a couple of obstacles. That was the first one. The second was a wetlands assessment:. When Henry and I came out here I said "This is pretty solid, right ?" He said "Yeah ". I said "Pretty dry, right ?" He said 'yeah". So this guy comes down from Syracuse and we're sitting around, waiting and thinking that everything is going to be okay, and he says "You've got wetlands." l said "Wait a minute, There's three cattails." He says "You've; got wetlands." And everybody kind of sat there and the air went out of our lungs. Thanks to Dan Kwasnowski, our environmental guy, we jumped through the hoops and wee got the wetlands permit. Past forward and in August of 2006 we had our groundbreaking and we were off and running. A little bit more than a year and we've got: this beautiful new building, heated and cooled by the earth. We're very proud of it and I hope the people are also proud of it. Some people that come to mind that i dealt with every day, in no particular order. The building committee, Steve Stelick and Marty Christofferson from the board were spearheading that. Jack Bush did a lot of work for us, and his highway department. They laid the trench for the sewer and built this parking lot. John Holmes, our Clerk of the Works, kept us in tune every day with what was going on. He did a very good job relaying things to Henry who relayed them to me. Henry I can't say enough about. He did everything from bringing change orders to the board. Change orders usually mean the cash register is ringing and the price of poker is going up. He also did everything else: in between to ordering the furniture for the new town hall. He is the most valuable player in this operation. He was the hub. We are very proud of this and I have a couple of groups I would like to mention. The Town Boards and Supervisors from the past who put the money away in a very conservative manner so that we didn't have to borrow to build this building. We had the money and they O are like the unsling heroes. I'm sure some of them are here tonight: and if you see any of them here or on the street, please thank them. The residents of the town really own this building. it is dedicated to the residents of the Town of Dryden. Town Boards come and go. This is not our building. It's the people who live there, rand we are very proud that we can turn it over to them. Since 1989 when the fund for building was officially established, these are the people who served the Town on the board or as Supervisors: James H. Schug, Charles Hatfield, Charles Evans, Karl Garlock, Margaret Walbridge, John Baker, Ronald Roberts, Thomas Hatfield, Deborah Grantham, Ronald Beck, Mark Varvayanis, Stephen J. Steliek, Jr., Christopher Michaels, Steven Trumbull, Michael Hattery, Martin Christofferson, Mary Ann Sumner, Daniel Tier III, and David Makar. They have all been involved in this process. We're very happy that we can be here and have it done as quickly as we did. 'Thank you very much. Steve Stelick - All I want to say, to Bambi, is I told you four years ago that we'd have a new Town Hall before the end of my term, so there you go. R Flollenbeck - Thank you, 1 appreciate that. The ribbon was cut by Steve Trumbull, and Henry Slater opened the first bottle of champagne.