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The tastiest event of the year, the Etna Chocolate Festival, will be this morning from 10:00am to noon at Houtz Hall, on Lower Creek Road in Etna.

Tonight from 7:00pm to 11:00pm, there will be a Valentine's Day dance for adults benefiting the Dryden Senior All Night Extravaganza June 25th.

I'm not sure why the state didn't notice a stream at the location of a gas well for which it issued a permit, but Dryden seems to have presented a case in how local officials can find genuine issues the DEC doesn't. This had come up at the January Town Board meeting, and I'm glad to see they got a positive response from the drilling company - who I suspect is aware that their popularity in the area is limited.

The future of the well isn't clear either, despite the permit having been issued by the state:

"There's a question of whether that well will even be drilled," said Jim Oursland, Anschutz's vice president of engineering. "The Cook well is one that we proposed, but we don't have any immediate plans within the next six months of actually drilling that well."

I'm very glad that the Town pursued this, especially given the state's attempts to minimize local control over everything related to gas drilling. State pre-emption of local regulation has really bothered since I first heard about gas drilling, and this seems like a step forward on that. We'll see what happens with the actual well, which isn't a Marcellus Shale well, so moved ahead under older rules.

In very different news, the SPCA is struggling after a seizure of 100 animals and hopes residents will come in and adopt them soon. Temple Grandin, an autistic professor and advocate for humane livestock handling, will be speaking at TC3 on February 23rd.

I've been holding off on writing about this, because it seems to come drip by drip. There are more of them appearing lately, though - Liz Benjamin, NGD, and now Capitol Confidential. The New York Times seems to be the journalistic epicenter of the story - we'll see what happens, I guess.

Destiny may not always be what it seems. If this turns out to be real, I fear for New York State going forward.

Arise, web developers! Our time has come to dominate!

The iPad repeats Steve Jobs' all-in-one vision of the 1984 Macintosh 128K in a shiny new package. Does this spell danger for creativity?

I'm not sure what the official count was, but I'm pretty certain over 100 Dryden residents came to Town Hall last night for the opening special meeting on the new zoning law. There wasn't enough parking, even. It was a mix of people broadly supportive and openly dismissive, with a lot of people checking the maps to see where their property was and what might change.

After a presentation, the meeting broke up, with Environmental Planner Dan Kwasnowski talking to builders, architects, and contractors in one room while three listening stations (and a lot of Town, Planning, Conservation, and Zoning Appeals board members) collected comments. It was actually pretty overwhelming, and I think I'll submit my comments in writing instead. There were questions at the end, but a relatively few people spoke.

They're planning another meeting in March in Varna, and I don't think this is going to leap ahead. I suspect a lot of people who weren't that attentive when the Comprehensive Plan passed are going to be a lot more awake, now that binding zoning is in the works.

Update: Here's the Ithaca Journal story on the meeting.

Last night, the Dryden Democrats gathered in Dryden's Village Hall to select two candidates to run for the two two-year Village Trustee positions that are up for election this March. Unfortunately, we didn't have any candidates this year, and for the first time in a long long time, there will be no Democratic line on the ballot.

The Republicans will be running incumbent Trustees Charlie Becker and Don Norman, who they selected at their caucus, also held last night.

While it's still possible for candidates to get on the ballot by petitioning for an independent line through February 9th, it seems quite likely that Village of Dryden elections will be quiet this spring.

If you're interested in the future of the Town of Dryden, this is a meeting well worth attending:

A Public Workshop will be held on January 26, 2010 at 7 PM at Town Hall (snow date the 27th) on the Draft Zoning Revisions. The draft documents can be viewed here.

Definitely take a look if you have a chance. It will implement the Comprehensive Plan, but the details are always important! I'm worried about the implications of "Artist Studio / Craft Workshop" and how that differs from home occupations, as well as the mysteriously restrictive zoning on the most attractive parcel for development in all of Dryden. (Yes, that was in the Comprehensive Plan too, but I'd call that a mistake.)