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Yesterday

2008-05-08T13:14:13+00:00

On Tuesday, I got the annuals into the whiskey barrel planter. It's full of slugs, so I put in a slug trap, which I still have to fill with beer, of course.

Then the shipments kept arriving - two sets of trees for Angelika's orchard yesterday, another delivery from Miller yesterday, and then our St.Lawrence Nurseries order.

Angelika moved a rose and planted two dwarf cherry trees and a lot of daylilies, while I planted four blueberry bushes, two American Highbush cranberries, two Titania black currants, two mulberry trees, and some more daylilies. I still have to plant twenty lingonberry bushes, five horseradish plants, and twenty-five asparagus crowns.

Lots to do! More soon.

Recreation meeting tonight

2008-05-08T13:12:55+00:00

It's been a busy few days.

If you have the chance, please go to the Recreation master plan discussion tonight. Recreation's been a key topic in Dryden for years, and an area that the Town has pushed hard to improve in a lot of directions. If you'd like a chance to suggest more directions - activities, trails, parks, facilities, and more - tonight's the best time to get into the conversation.

Cathy Wakeman's Dryden Town Talk offers a roster of events for Mother's Day weekend and beyond.

It sounds like drinking led to a collision at 13 and Lower Creek Wednesday.

The county legislature is aiming at a 3% tax levy increase this year.

There's also more rabies i the county this year. Be careful!

There's an article on the new I Love NY campaign, which I have to agree is about the worst thing to happen to upstate NY since... oh, wait. They're canning the upstate development guy. That's probably worse than squirrels, butterflies, and grass growing. Or maybe we just need the grass to grow over the Empire State Development Corporation?

Gadabout needs more volunteer drivers.

I'll cover the opinion pages in a separate article.

New York DNC seats?

2008-05-08T00:56:27+00:00

I've always wondered how the actual Democratic National Committee gets chosen, and this piece by Liz Benjamin explains a lot of it:

But the governor more than made his presence felt at the [state committee] meeting, abruptly calling for the halt of a scheduled vote on the state's slate of DNC committee members that was supposed to take place Thursday afternoon and angering a number of rank-and-file Democrats in the process...

New York has 14 DNC committee member positions, two of which are automatically held by the state party leaders (that would be Chair June O'Neill and Executive Committee Chair Reggie LaFayette, since Co-Chair Dave Pollack stepped down).

The positions carry a four-year term that starts immediately after the national convention, so the lack of action last week doesn't affect the current members ability to attend the festivities in Denver.

Paterson apparently wants his own selections considered for those positions, hence the conflict that leads to the article.

You can find a 2004 roster, though I'm guessing that Clarence Norman is no longer a member. These folks are superdelegates, too.

What we've accomplished so far

2008-05-06T13:00:02+00:00

We still don't have plants in the ground. Given the frost I found on the ground yesterday, that might be a good thing.

What we have done is:

Installed a bat box - that only took two years!
Built a new chicken paddock behind the old one (with Josh's help), installed a gate, and mostly secured its edges with poultry wire. (Ran out of garden staples.)
Moved the chicks out of the rabbit cages to the new paddock. Gave them the heating plate, which they seem to love.
Moved the ducks out of their paddock and into a 20'x20' electroplastic netting fence in the back. We'll be moving the fence around regularly. (Darth has been reunited with the flock, and all seems well. Feather cannibalism is over.)
Bought annuals for the whiskey barrel out by the road, to be planted today.
Planted a lot of basket willows that Josh had coppiced.
Brought ancient rusted garden fence and tomato cages to metal recycling.
Angelika moved the second compost pile to the third spot, freeing the second spot for the pile in the first spot.
Farewell, cat litter.

Josh also took down some trees in preparation for the duck pond work, so it looks pretty messy back there right now. There's an old collapsed shed I need to empty (barbed wire and other unpleasantness) as well.

Varna to get $20K for generator

2008-05-05T13:22:41+00:00

Update: Wow, the overall state data is a snarl. The Journal's Saturday article used old data, making the discussion below into an incredible tangle. Start with the latest article on it, then jump down to Varna.

Saturday's Journal also noted that state legislators were handing out $147 million for community projects, in member-item spending. It's a grotesque system, and the article notes for example that Senate Republicans, who have a 32-30 majority, have $88 million to hand out, while Senate Democrats get $992,000.

Update: There's more on the Assembly spending at The Albany Project. The Assembly Democrats, who have a 106-42 majority, spent $57.3 million on their projects while Republicans spent $4.9 million.~~It's a mere 11-1 ratio instead of an 88-1 ratio, but only looks better because the Senate numbers are so grossly disproportionate.~~ Update: It looks like the Journal article's numbers were wrong, or maybe for 2007. This piece on the Senate spending suggests that the Senate Republicans have $76.096 million to hand out, and Senate Democrats have $8.983 million. That's more like 8-1 than 88-1, though still pretty awful.

Some of that money, of course, is coming to this area. I haven't managed to sort out Senator Seward's spending yet, but deep inside the barely-organized PDF file of Assembly items (they couldn't make it easy to see the spending, you know!) is this item:

SFY 2008-2009 LEGISLATIVE INITIATIVE FORM
Legal Name, Address, and Telephone Number:
VARNA COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION, INC.
943 DRYDEN ROAD - P.O. BOX 4771
ITHACA, NY 14852
(607) 272-2658
Name of Project Director:
DAWN POTTER
Purpose of Project:
FUNDS WILL BE USED FOR THE PURCHASE OF A 40KW MULTI-FUEL GENERATOR. WORKING WITH TOMPKINS COUNTY RED CROSS, VARNA COMMUNITY CENTER HAS BECOME AN EMERGENCY SHELTER.
Funded Amount:
$20,000
Requested By:
LIFTON
Name of Administering State Agency:
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH

The Varna Community Center also now has a walk-in refrigerator and freezer to support the emergency shelter project, which has had mixed levels of support from the town in past administrations. I hadn't heard that much about this piece of it lately until I stumbled on it in that file.

I've put the rest of the items that were solely sponsored by Assemblywoman Lifton in the extended entry, and I'll do the same for Senator Seward when my patience returns. Search... cut... paste... argh. Feeling impatient? Here's the Senate list of 5,191 items, on 5,191 pages.

Poverty, water-tasting, clean-up

2008-05-05T13:14:13+00:00

Saturday's Ithaca Journal was quiet on Dryden, but their continuing series on poverty is well-worth reading.

Energy East, the parent company of NYSEG, saw its earnings fall.

In today's paper, Bolton Point water, which serves western Dryden, won the annual taste test of local waters. (The article also mentions a Town of Dryden treatment plant - I'm pretty sure they mean Village of Dryden.)

Just to the east, it looks like a teaching winery will be coming to Cornell Orchards soon.

In Darts & Laurels, the Finger Lakes Land Trust thanks volunteers who helped in a clean-up on Irish Settlement Road.

Removing the pestilence

2008-05-04T01:55:12+00:00

It's probably fair to report here on some failed garden experiments, just for completeness, especially when they took a few hours of my morning.

Two years ago, we decided to try composting cat litter. Angelika has two cats, Rowena and Puschelwuschel. We switched their litter to SwheatScoop, which works pretty well.

Because cats are carnivores, their litter smells pretty awful to start with. They also carry a variety of diseases you don't want to get, so you should use the compost only where it won't come into contact with anything you're going to eat.

Unfortunately our composting efforts never really succeeded. The compost worked long enough to make us think it was a good idea, but results got worse over time. Aerating and adding straw and newspaper didn't make much difference. Then we took in two of Angelika's cousin's cats for a while, and that totally overwhelmed it.

The composter had to be fairly close to the house, which meant that eating on the deck was best at times with no wind at all. The prevailing winds definitely took the stench right to the deck.

This morning, I finally ended it, emptying a foul container into trash bags and taking them to the dump. Six hundred pounds of incredible nastiness, going to the one place where it might actually fit in. Then I cleaned up the area where it had been, which still has some lingering odor, and took apart the composter and cleaned it out too. Finally, I took a shower to get the stench off of myself. I threw out a pair of gloves, and probably need to throw out a pair of shoes.

We'll try again eventually, probably with vermiculture, in smaller quantities, but for right now we're just going to stop the experiment and focus on other less dreadful projects.

Ellis Hollow Nursery School Open House Saturday

2008-05-02T14:07:17+00:00

It's southwest Dryden education morning here, but there's also an event Saturday:

ELLIS HOLLOW NURSERY SCHOOL OPEN HOUSE
May 3, 9-11am
At the Ellis Hollow Community Center

What's it like to be a 3- or 4-year old child at the Ellis Hollow Nursery School? Find out!

Meet our nurturing and creative teachers, Ellie Biddle and Regi Carpenter

Pot a plant for Mother's Day

Do 10 things with dots (and a lot more)

Listen as Ms Regi weaves a story at 10am

Thinking ahead to the 2008-09 school year? We'd love to tell you more about our community school.

At our non-profit, parent cooperative nursery school, children learn as they do best -- with hands-on activities for observing, exploring, and experimenting.

Classes are held Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, 9am-12noon, from mid-September through mid-June. Find out more online at http://www.ellishollownurseryschool.org/ or contact us at ellishollowns@gmail.com or 227-8006.

Playground build at Caroline elementary

2008-05-02T14:01:58+00:00

On May 9th and 10th, there will be construction days at Caroline Elementary School playground. It's in Caroline, yes, but that school serves Dryden kids from Varna, Ellis Hollow, and Bethel Grove.

I had a good time at a similar building day at Dryden Elementary. This is definitely a great way to help kids, meet people, and even have fun.

Dryden school taxes barely climb

2008-05-02T13:52:43+00:00

Now there's a fun headline. The Dryden schools' property tax levy will climb less than 1% this year. Spending increased 6.48%, but state aid increased 10%. This is a year to be nervous about state aid, however, as the prospects for the state's economy look dim.

There's now an $8,800 reward for the safe return of Bethanie Dougherty, $500 of which was raised at a candlelight vigil Wednesday night.

In yesterday's Journal, Dryden resident Mac Larsen was among those who filed to run for the Ithaca City School Board, one of six for four seats.

On today's opinion page, the Journal wisely shoots down the gas-tax holiday proposals, and some punk named Simon St.Laurent of Dryden writes to suggest that the values that get promoted for school boards may actually get in the way of them doing their job.

Discuss Dryden recreation May 8th

2008-04-30T13:04:49+00:00

If you're interested in Town recreation, there's an important meeting May 8th at the new Town Hall that you won't want to miss. The Town is creating a new recreation master plan, which will set out priorities for the town. There isn't much detail in the release but I'm guessing the conversation will include:

Parks, trails, and facilities - what do we need, and where?
Children's activities - sports and more
Adult activities - what would people like to do?
Entertainment - Music in the Park, Music in the Hollow, and beyond
The relationship with the County Recreation Partnership

You might also want to visit the Draft Official Map of the Town of Dryden, which shows parks, trails, preserves, proposed trails, and more.

Here's the full official announcement:

Important Announcement from the Town of Dryden Recreation Department!
Dear Dryden Resident and Recreation Department supporter,
Please read below for information on a very important meeting coming up on May 8th.
ATTENTION TOWN OF DRYDEN RESIDENTS WE HAVE A RECREATION MASTER PLAN PUBLIC MEETING
MAY 8TH, 2008 7:00 PM at the NEW DRYDEN TOWN HALL 93 EAST MAIN ST, DRYDEN NY 13053
This Plan will create a vision for future recreation programs and facilities offered in the Town. It is important that the citizens of Dryden let their voices be heard on this matter
Additional questions regarding this meeting can be directed to Melissa Bianconi at the Town of Dryden Recreation Department at 844-8888 ext. 228 or the Town's consultant, Thoma Development Consultants at 753-1433.
WE HOPE YOU CAN COME - WE NEED YOUR HELP!
NOW IS THE TIME TO MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD!
I look forward to seeing you there!
Melissa Bianconi
Town of Dryden Recreation Coordinator

If you'd like to know what's been done in the past, you can review the results of a 2006 survey (936KB PDF) conducted by SUNY Cortland.

Vigil for missing woman tonight

2008-04-30T13:01:35+00:00

There will be a vigil for Bethanie Dougherty tonight in Marathon at 7:00pm.

Dougherty, of Killawog, was a manager-in-training at the Freeville XtraMart on Routes 13 and 366 until her disappearance April 1st.

Tompkins County Dairy Princess needed

2008-04-30T12:41:06+00:00

There's no Dryden Town Talk today, but Ulysses Town Talk leads off with this item, complete with Dryden phone numbers:

The Tompkins County Dairy Promotion Committee is seeking young ladies between the ages of 12 and 24 for the roles of Dairy Princess and Dairy Ambassador.
Dairy Princess candidates must be at least 16 years of age, and connected to or sponsored by the dairy industry. The Dairy Princess holds her title for one year, and her responsibilities cover a wide range of public relation activities. A state training seminar is provided to help prepare for the role. The Dairy Princess will be selected at a banquet on May 10.
Dairy Ambassador candidates must be at least 12 years of age, and will assist the Dairy Princess with her duties. She should enjoy meeting people and promoting the dairy industry. For more information on the program, contact Brenda Carpenter at 844-8049, or Linda Foote at 844-8781. The application deadline is May 2.

The rest of today's Dryden news is basically about the county. There's an article about the need to fill recently emptied positions at the Sheriff's Department, which quotes Dryden legislator Martha Robertson. The state of emergency banning outdoor burning has been lifted, and the county's economy looks a little less healthy.

My long-term bet on rising energy costs

2008-04-29T23:09:12+00:00

My long-term bet on rising energy costs

2008-04-29T17:29:49+00:00

I've had a couple of conversations lately with people I like that led to strange places. One was about the seemingly crazy investment I'm making in ducks, chickens, and all the infrastructure they need, and the other was what I get for saying that I think we need to take a serious look at one-room schoolhouses as an alternative to busing kids everywhere.

I'm doing a lot of things that might strike people as strange or even inconsistent, but the driving force in most of it is an expectation that energy prices are going to keep climbing. I could, of course, be wrong, but unless we discover fusion technology, I feel pretty comfortable arguing that this is going to be the case for a long time. Demand keeps climbing, while supply isn't looking so great.

This doesn't mean I've disconnected my house from the grid, built a barbed-wire fence around my compound, and set up a world that's all about preserving me, whatever prices may do.

It does mean, however, that I'm looking at the world in a very different way. I'm trying to invest in things now that will serve us well later. The new roof, furnace, and insulation were key components of that, as is all the gardening, the apple trees, and terracing the yard. We've learned how to can and freeze food.

All of these are good things to do anyway, even if energy prices don't climb. Okay, I do worry that converting my yard into a garden may make the house harder to sell in this lawn-obsessed country. On the other hand, the return on investment for some of them will take a long time. The furnace and insulation have probably paid for themselves by now, and, well, you always need a solid roof.

The rest of the investments are pretty much a gamble. I can certainly drive to East Hill Plaza and buy groceries more cheaply at P & C than I can grow them here today. Setting up the garden, and especially the fenced areas for the chickens and ducks, is an expensive adventure, if an interesting one. How many eggs does it take to pay for a $200 fence? Plus a coop, and all the feed the chickens ate in the meantime? And the time it takes to feed and attend them?

If I run these calculations based on current costs, I'm pretty clearly going to lose money. If, however, I calculate these investments as advantages in a world where energy and food rapidly become more precious, I may well come out ahead. (Looking at the rapid climb in wheat and rice prices, it's looking like a good bet sooner than I expected, though I expect they'll come down again before climbing over the long term.)

I'm already coming out ahead in knowledge, since I now know all kinds of things that I had no clue about before. (I still have much to learn.) Because I'm showing these ideas off both here and on my gardening site, I hope to plant seeds in people's heads as well - the "I can do that" seed that develops into projects.

(And I'm also taking a look at policy related to these issues through the lens of TCLocal.)

So if I come off as kind of strange, pushing ideas that don't all make sense at first glance, try to remember the context I'm working in. I live in the current world and do enjoy it, while planning ahead for a world that I expect will be pretty different. We'll see what Sungiva thinks of all this when she's older.

Trucks rerouted through Dryden

2008-04-29T13:28:01+00:00

The biggest Dryden story in this morning's Ithaca Journal doesn't mention Dryden. Route 79 in Ithaca is getting resurfaced between Mitchell Street and Bridge Street, closed to all through traffic. (This closes 79 above the intersection with 366.)

Trucks are being diverted at Richford to take Routes 38 and 13 into Ithaca. That should give folks in Bethel Grove a brief break (until around May 30th) from truck traffic, while adding to the traffic pouring through the four corners intersection in the Village of Dryden and down 13. I'm curious whether this will include the controversial garbage trucks - I guess we'll see how those respond to the blockage.

Speaking of the garbage trucks, the Journal's editorial lets Lifton off the hook, mostly, focusing on Governor Paterson's stepping in to address the issue and leaving the rest in a confusion of Democrat vs. Republican fighting - which it really isn't. Oh well.

On the opinion page, Liam Murphy writes about county courthouse security.

Big dig in Gutchess yard

2008-04-29T02:55:41+00:00

Sadly, the Cortland Standard keeps shrinking the amount of news they put on their website. (They did have a piece on TC3 students trying out teaching.)

Elsie Gutchess let me know that the Standard had an article on April 21st, about Ithaca College students filming a 10-minute piece about a 9-year-old who tries digging to China, and the support his community gives him. Thanks to some green paint and artificial flowers, they managed to make it look summery even before the recent weather. There's a picture, and hopefully there will be more to this story when the DVD gets shown at the Dryden Community Cafe eventually.

I know I'm missing a lot of Dryden news in the Standard, and I should call them again to see if I'm still too far west for them to get to. If you see something interesting, let me know.

NYSEG and Borg-Warner

2008-04-29T02:51:09+00:00

I missed an interesting article in this morning's Ithaca Journal - thanks to David Makar for pointing it out.

Borg-Warner will be moving 174 jobs from Oklahoma to their Lansing plant thanks in part to a $400,000 incentive from NYSEG. I'd love to see more details on how this works, and the article sounds kind of like a press release, but I'm guessing this will increase demand for housing across the line in Dryden as well.

Looking for a dose of spring?

2008-04-28T13:18:24+00:00

Today's colder and rainy, sure. My ducks like it, and we need the rain, but it's not a lot of fun.

If you'd like something brighter, stop by Craig Cramer's Ellis Hollow blog. He has all kinds of pictures from the past few weeks of "hyper-spring."

New York State and energy

2008-04-28T12:33:54+00:00

A few quick notes while everyone is asleep and all the animals are fed -

This morning's Ithaca Journal has an editorial on state laws and energy, citing bills that might make some small dent in the cost of a tank of gas. The ones that just plan to lower the taxes on gas seem unlikely to have much effect to me - I never noticed the prices on the Thruway dropping much below the surrounding stations despite the signs proclaiming reductions. I agree with the Journal that locking A9211 to be "held for consideration", probably forever, is ridiculous, yet another abuse of legislative procedure. I don't think Senator Winner's proposal for reducing the power of gasoline brands is likely to make a whole lot of difference either.

Gas prices march toward $4.

The problem with our gas prices, though, is not the oil companies, state or federal taxes, or (especially) the gas station owners. Sure, I'd like to see oil companies operate at a lower profit margin, but that's not the cause of our higher prices. The cause is simple: supply and demand. The "invisible hand of the market" doesn't always work in our favor.

We've built our nation and grown our economy on the assumption that energy costs will remain cheap. That lets us live wherever we want, taking advantage of cheap energy to drive to more exciting housing filled with all kinds of energy-using devices that make our lives easier or entertain us. Americans have taken this further than anyone else, but there are lots of people out there working to emulate us. Not only that, but they're using lots of energy to make things to sell us.

On the supply side, we still have plenty of oil and coal for now - but little room to grow, and what looks like a long slide toward more and more expensive energy. We've used up the best of our coal, though we still have lots left. On oil, new discoveries keep getting big headlines as saviors - but then a few days, weeks, or months later the reality of the new fields looks smaller, more expensive, and generally less bright. Production can't climb as fast as demand.

New York never had the Pennsylvania coal fields or even their oil fields, though we do have a bit of oil in western New York. We certainly have hydropower - think Niagara Falls - but we've blown way past that capacity. New York State as a whole is much more energy-efficient than the rest of the country, but that's largely because of the New York City area's concentration of services, especially transportation.

We're on the edge of a strange new world, one in which everything we've learned about energy for the past century and a half is going to change. We'll still have energy, even oil - but the prices aren't likely to come down over the long term. It's a good time to batten down the hatches and get ready for a long (probably slow) change in the way we live.

Update: This doesn't help.

Don't burn things today

2008-04-26T13:06:21+00:00

I'm too tired to write much now, but please don't set fires and don't dump your trash where it doesn't belong.

For more entertainment, Carol Kammen recommends a great site of online historical images, or you can visit my recent duckling stories.

Oh - the county budget's going to be ugly this year, thanks to the combination of a 2% decrease in state aid, and an $840,000 increase in unfunded mandates.

Lifton digs deeper

2008-04-25T13:23:06+00:00

I wrote about Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton's garbage truck trainwreck earlier, and of her fellow Democrats who undermined her case completely in their quest to get things done.

There's a strange thing about a trainwreck, though. In movies, where there's a stunt crew making sure the destruction is visually exciting, they're a lot of fun. In reality, where someone has to clean up the many disasters left behind, they're not much fun. Instead of being exciting spectacle, it becomes painful to watch.

Unfortunately, Lifton pushes forward into that pain zone in this morning's Ithaca Journal, penning a guest column that never mentions the name "Schumer". She keeps plowing forward, arguing that it's just those Republicans and a transition at the DOT that made it look like her train was off the tracks. Democratic U.S. Senator Schumer, the state DOT, and Governor Paterson pretty much pulled the rails out from under her - that's why her train is wrecking.

To make things worse, her proposed solution sounds even more perverse than the "blue-ribbon commission, let's study it" option that earlier articles suggested she was proposing:

I am working on a bill that calls upon the governor to form an independent commission that would designate routes to be used by tractor trailers. This commission would have the power to recommend and execute policy and would operate under a specific timeline with the full inclusion of local stakeholders. Unlike DeFrancisco's bill, it does not leave the fate of truck routes in the hands of a state agency indefinitely.

You know, once upon a time I thought we had a State Department of Transportation that was supposed to maintain and manage state highways. I'd really like an independent commission to take a look at making Route 366 livable, too, but for some reason the DOT is in charge of that. The role reversal in hearing a Democrat call for keeping the fates of truck routes out of the hands of a state agency might have been ironic, if it was actually a good idea.

And "independent" is not a very meaningful word in New York State government. Who appoints the members? For what terms? Somehow I'm guessing that the legislative leadership would get to have a hand in that, and maybe they'd even get around to appointing members, eventually. I also expect that the commission would include plenty of representatives from the places where the trash comes from, who might not be excited about a "solution" of any kind.

A lot of the rest of the article is outrage at the DOT for having a different position from hers today when she's still doing what she thought they told her to do months ago, and blasting at the Republicans for not being her friends. As much as I hate to defend Republican State Senators, this is deeply disingenuous:

It's worth noting that DeFrancisco has said he has been working on this issue for 10 years but never drafted a bill to respond until recently. He also apparently never asked his close political friend and ally, former Gov. George Pataki, during his 12 years in office, to address this problem by issuing an Executive Order to the DOT. DeFrancisco suddenly drafted a bill last August well past the end of our session in Albany.

Lots of people have complained about truck traffic for a long time, but the current garbage truck problem is a relatively new one, caused by shifts in how New York City and New Jersey handle their trash. This wasn't the pressing issue under the Pataki administration that it is today.

The only sensible thing I can find in this article is Lifton proposing the use of rail to move the garbage instead of trucks. That makes sense to me. I hope it goes further than the rest of this, which seems to be an effort to justify Lifton's position in ways that only work if you haven't been paying any attention whatsoever to the actual unfolding story.

Some days it's best just to stop, issue a press release thanking the Governor and the Senator for their interest in a pressing matter and express the hope that you can be a constructive part of the solution. Instead, Lifton seems intent on riding her original position as far as she can.

Also on the opinion page, former Dryden resident Richard Couch of Cortland congratulates Dryden schools for choosing a superintendent who's already part of the community, and writes about the challenge of superintendent salaries.

The Journal also has an editorial on the dangers of brush fires. It's the time of year when the soil may be wet, but the plants aren't. Be careful!

Remembering Nedyrd Co-op

2008-04-24T13:45:13+00:00

Our efforts to eat locally keep reminding me just how important the connection between people and food is. Over the past century, our country disconnected itself further and further from the food foundations it started with. Starting in the 1960s and 1970s, though, some folks noticed what they were missing, and some of those people were in Dryden.

Nedyrd Cooperative logo.

Margaret Brownell Lorenzen, founder of the cooperative, led the discussion, and then lots of other people who had been involved added their own memories. The following is a summary - please let me know if I've gotten something wrong!

Nedyrd started in 1977, and closed in 1992, though it took a long time after 1992 to finally dissolve the corporation.

Margaret Lorenzen got the idea when she went to a conference in New York City, which had workshops on how to hold a local food day (which she also did) and how to start your own food cooperative. Dryden residents who wanted food beyond the usual had to drive to Cortland or Ithaca, and often found it expensive in any case. She and her husband printed up 1000 fliers and distributed them with the help of local children.

A group of residents came together as a result of those fliers, and got started as a buyers' club, meeting in the Presbyterian Church. Lorenzen attended meetings at Greenstar and another cooperative in Geneva to figure out how the ordering worked. They put together orders for bulk, and then had to meet a truck with their own containers to collect the food. If they had almost enough for an order, they'd place the order and save the leftovers. If they didn't have enough for that to make sense, they'd wait to place the order. Early on, they also took orders for fresh fruits and vegetables, though that didn't last very long because of constant price changes. (Gina Prentiss remembered being amazed at how little they cost, though!)

The leftovers accumulated, and they moved them to a back porch. Then they moved to an old and trashed house where the A-1 parking lot now is, and spent some awful time cleaning it. Then they moved to 2 East Main Street, later the Villa Trinceri, around 1980.

The emphasis was on whole foods, foods that hadn't been processed to remove their food value. Lorenzen noted flour in particular as a food we process severely, losing most of the nutrition, and there was some discussion of the mills the cooperative got flour from, including New Hope Mills up in Moravia and another in King Ferry. All these grains meant they had a huge challege in fighting off flour moths, which would arrive in the products and then reproduce in the store.

Cheese, molasses, and peanut butter also came up as popular items.

They didn't make a lot of money. Lorenzen remembered a lot of negative balances, and a 1989 Ithaca Journal article suggested a lot of zero balances. Because of their cooperative structure, they could only sell to members. Members who worked in the store (I think two hours a week) paid $12 annually, and it was $30 for non-working members and $6 for senior citizens.

Markups were low, originally 5%, and some goods, like spices, seemed especially cheap but had great quality. Dryden Town Historian Sue Olmstead said that she joined the co-op to take advantage of the prices, but ended up learning a lot about nutrition.

The cashbox and keys were kept at Hill Drugs, next door to the Dryden Food Mart on Route 13. Members used a set of labeled shoebags to collect orders, and five-gallon buckets were a key part of the operation. There were some spiral notebooks used to record the comings and goings.

Muriel Likel remembered the friends she'd made working at Nedyrd, and Gina Prentiss reflected on the early conversations there which led to the creation of the Dryden Town Historical Society.

As time passed, it got harder to sustain the co-op. While Lorenzen emphasized that "I just can't tell you the feeling of community among the members," she also described changing times that made it harder and harder to keep it going. The 1990s were "more stressful," with more people working, making it harder for them to commit to work at the store. New member orientation was sometimes the last they'd see of a new member. Founding members' families had grown up and moved away, reducing demand. Missed shifts meant the storefront was sometimes closed when it was supposed to be open.

Jean Warholic reflected a bit on the challeges of dissolving Nedyrd, describing the maze of state bureaucracy she had to navigate. Mike Lane helped out with advice, while former Assemblyman Marty Luster provided some necessary pressure.

It sounds like the co-op considered closing a few times before it finally did, in the end selling much of its equipment to Kathy and Rich Duell, who started a store, The Olive Branch, specializing in local food and handcrafts while maintaining the bulk food ordering of Nedyrd. That only lasted a few years. There was another store (whose name I missed), and today we have Back to Basics at the intersection of 13 and Irish Settlement. Back to Basics' Kim Schenk was at the event to share her memories of Nedyrd as well. As she put it, "we just figured out how to do it, working together."

A number of people mentioned the Dryden Community Cafe, which seems to working much like that today.

I've posted a small gallery of photographs from the evening.

Youth opportunity and volunteer firefighter taxes

2008-04-24T12:37:55+00:00

Most of today's Dryden news is on the opinion page in today's Ithaca Journal. The Dryden Youth Opportunity Fund has a letter from Paul Streeter and Michael Dick of Dryden encouraging readers to remember the DYOF and:

consider providing your own economic stimulus package: invest in young people. The dividends are virtually incalculable.

Dryden Town Board member (and volunteer firefighter) David Makar writes in support of the Journal's editorial supporting Congressman Maurice Hinchey's proposed $1000 federal tax credit for volunteer firefighters, and also points out that Congressman Mike Arcuri is a co-sponsor.

There are a number of articles at more of the county level: one on the Tompkins County Foundation changing its name to the Legacy Foundation, one on Sara Pines and the Friendship Donation Network, and one on prospects for wind power in the county.

NEDYRD Cooperative presentation tonight

2008-04-23T13:27:43+00:00

Tonight, the Dryden Town Historical Society will be hosting a presentation on Dryden's former NEDYRD food cooperative. The Dryden Village Hall doors open at 6:30pm and the presentation starts at 7:00pm.

Thirty years ago, before the proliferation of local farm stands and whole foods choices now available in the Dryden area, a group of women came together to form a food buying cooperative. The Nedyrd (which is Dryden spelled backwards) Food Co-op was a way for local families to obtain affordable and nutritious food. Margaret Lorenzen, a founding member, will open the program and discuss the history of the organization.

It was open from 1978 to 1991, apparently. Come learn more!

Moving forward on truck re-routing

2008-04-23T13:13:10+00:00

The Journal has the latest on garbage truck routing this morning. I'm not sure if the Journal was unkind in its selection of Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton's quotes, or if she really was as unfocused as they make her seem.

Yesterday's news was that Senator Chuck Schumer had called Governor Paterson Thursday, probably after the meeting Lifton held where Schumer's aide had challenged Lifton's concerns about constitutionality. Two Downstate politicians seem to have agreed on the need to fix an Upstate problem.

Between Schumer's challenge at the meeting and the Department of Transportation's disavowal of her take on their position on the bill, Lifton was left pretty much high and dry. I've speculated on Lifton's being unwilling to challenge her conference, but what she told the Journal was:

Lifton expressed cautious optimism over the news. She said she thinks it is a good thing that the governor is involved, but that this is a difficult issue to address and could still take some time.
"It's a kind of big problem - a problem that has to do with state and federal governments, major issues around New York City and the New York City area," she said. "Obviously it would be a huge help to have the governor jump into this and try to use the power of his office to do something quickly here."
Lifton's concern is that state legislation could violate the federal interstate commerce clause and wind up in courts for a prolonged time period, which happened in New Jersey years ago....
Lifton said the governor could put forward a governor's bill, or he could use some executive authority, though that authority is limited.
"There may be some executive powers," Lifton said. "He could ask the DOT to do this. He has some narrow authority, it's not broad authority (as) I'm told over and over again by Schumer's office, by the counsel at all levels from the DOT to the (Department of Environmental Conservation), that it's not broad authority that the states have. It's narrow authority to do some truck designations."

No one else in the article - whether from the DOT, Schumer's office, or the Upstate New York Safety Coalition Task Force - seems to share her caution. Apparently this isn't a major constitutional breach, or even that difficult for the governor and DOT to do. Schumer's spokeman explained:

To get trucks off local roads such as routes 89, 79, 38, 41 and 90, the governor can use executive power to designate a routing agency or he can designate the routes himself, said Alex Detrick, a press officer for Schumer. Trucks can also be removed from roads through joint legislation signed by the governor. The former option is the quicker of the two.

The DOT spokesman sounds pretty happy about this too. There's still a ways to go on actually implementing this, but I suspect it's gotten over the biggest hurdle, and I doubt Schumer's office will let it disappear.

I wish I could think of a good reason Lifton invested her political capital in an effort that seemed to both serve her constituents badly and damage her credibility, but I can't.

Red Cross coming to Dryden tonight

2008-04-23T13:04:16+00:00

There's an article in today's Ithaca Journal on the Tompkins County Red Cross's new director, Jennifer Yarbrough. The first few paragraphs have some interesting bits about the organization's reaching out geographically:

This vision and past vistas will be on display at the chapter's "Night of Nostalgia" tonight at the Dryden Mutual Insurance Company on Ellis Drive. The event will include music, refreshments and the historical photographs of Verne Morton, a late 19th-century photographer. The public event will also showcase the services of the Red Cross -- which are available to the entire county, Yarbrough emphasized.

"Right now, I perceive that we're too Ithaca-focused," said Yarbrough, who became the director in December. "I think we rely too much on the community to come to us. For 91-plus years we've been part of this community, and we hope to deepen our relationship with the community and expand our services."

They have done a fair amount in and with Dryden, but this is all good to hear.

NYSEG is upgrading its distribution transformers, and should lose less energy to heat as a result.

At the state level, there's more discussion of streamlining local government.

On the opinion page, Nancy Neaher Maas contrasts state legislators' concern for their own salaries with their lack of interest in judicial salaries.

Dryden School Board race contested

2008-04-23T03:27:34+00:00

I'm very sad to see that most local school board elections are uncontested, but happy to see that the Dryden schools actually have five candidates for four slots. Three of the candidates - Kathy Zahler, Chris Gibbons, and Karin LaMotte - are incumbents, and Bill Harding and Jennifer Davis are running for their first terms. The seats are for three-year terms, with one one-year term. (Ithaca's deadline is later, April 30th.)

Also in today's Journal, they reported on Governor Paterson, whose common sense I'm really admiring at this point. Why? He wants a hiring freeze in state government, and recognizes that the STAR property tax breaks are not necessarily the most effective way to address the growing challenge of property taxes.

Game Farm Road to stay closed intermittently

2008-04-23T03:23:48+00:00

This evening's Ithaca Journal web site notes that the County will be closing Game Farm Road intermittently between Stephenson and Route 366 through June 26th. Not everyone loves the work they're doing.

The incarceration of Darth Duckling

2008-04-23T01:37:08+00:00

When we realized that we had eleven chickens instead of ten, we joked that all of our problems were the fault of that 11th duckling. As it turns out, we weren't entirely wrong.

After the ducklings had been outside a few days, I noticed that their feathers were coming in, and then disappearing. There were a lot of squawks out there as ducks had their feathers pulled. At first, it looked like nearly every duck had damage.

Damaged ducklings.

Looking through the duck books, it seemed I had the mysterious "feather cannibalism", which had kind of mysterious causes - diet? stress? close confinement? - and no clear cures except trimming bills, which I'm nowhere near capable of doing.

After a few days of observation and panic, though, it became clear that one duck had nearly all of his feathers. I also saw that same duck attacking lots of other ducks. This morning while I was setting out their water and food, I saw him attack five ducklings.

Over the weekend, I'd pulled that duck out to look at him.

Darth Duckling.

I know - never name the livestock. We'd planned to slaughter and eat ducks based on personality - mean ducks first. Unfortunately, he's only four weeks old, so small and covered with largely unpluckable feathers. That wasn't a great option, for now.

(He also fought and squawked, and it was really clear he wanted to be back with his friends/victims. He even escaped the cage as I was bringing him back and forced his way back in through the fence, but got his foot stuck. I freed him from that disaster.)

So, today I built a separate little cage in a corner of the main cage, using the same fencing plus chickenwire to make sure he can't escape into the main area. Darth has food, water, the heating block from the chickens' water, and no one but himself to blame.

Darth Duckling jailed.

So far, the results are promising. He can't bite at his fellow ducks, and he doesn't whine like he did when I took him far away. He would clearly prefer to be in the main cage, but he can't be. I've heard much less pained squawking from the ducks, though I wonder if another duck will rise up in Darth's place.

One thing that's funny - the other ducks come over to visit him. They never spent much time in that corner of the cage until today.

Darth Duckling holds court.

We'll see how it goes. I'm hoping that isolating the worst perpetrator will at least give the other ducks a chance to grow their feathers back and generally heal from their wounds. I don't think Darth was the only one doing it, and I'll be keeping an eye on the rest. I definitely don't want to have to build eleven little cages in there.

An hour a day in the garden has kind of turned into an hour a day with ducklings. Hopefully this will settle down soon.

Governor Paterson: Let's fix the garbage truck problem

2008-04-22T23:21:33+00:00

When the Syracuse Post-Standard last looked at the garbage truck question, the conclusion was:

Lifton said after the meeting that she is not going to back down and needs to do this the right way. When asked if she would take the suggestion of a meeting attendee and discuss DeFrancisco's bill with Gov. David Paterson to see if he has a problem with it, she said, "That's not the way it's done."

As it turns out, well, that's definitely a key part of the way it's done, if you're a different Democrat, U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer. The Post-Standard's latest doesn't even mention Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton, but there's some sharp contrast between this and her highly nuanced position of last week:

Garbage truck issue in Finger Lakes gets boost from governor

Central New York residents fighting tractor-trailers hauling New York City garbage through the Finger Lakes are getting some help from Gov. David Paterson.

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. called Paterson Thursday seeking his help on the issue.

Morgan Hook, speaking for Paterson, said the governor is turning to state agencies such as the Department of Transportation to do "a thorough review of state laws and regulations" to see what he can do on this problem.

He also has his staff, deputies and lawyers looking at the issue.

When asked if Paterson can order the state DOT to set routes for these garbage trucks to use, Hook said "he's looking into that."

"He wants to do everything in his power and the state's power" to solve this issue," Hook said.

"These trucks have created a problem that desperately needs a solution," Paterson said in a release. "I have already begun to work with the New York State Department of Transportation and other state agencies to conduct a thorough review and find a solution that will not only preserve quality of life, but also protect the rights of businesses in New York state."

Schumer's calling Thursday is interesting timing, especially as Lifton's meeting was that day.

The Upstate New York Safety Coalition Task Force chair sounds vastly happier with Paterson than she was with Lifton. Contrast:

"We're not going to spend our time with her. She obviously doesn't support us."

with:

"We're thrilled that he's working on this."

Paterson also talks about the need to figure out the best solution, but he puts in a way that suggests he's interested in immediate forward motion, not in "blue-ribbon commissions."

(Thanks to NYCO for pointing out the story!)

Update: I should have checked the Journal site - they have the story as well, and mention Lifton more specifically. And here's the press release from Senator Schumer.

Bear between Midline and Irish Settlement

2008-04-22T15:21:28+00:00

Bears are definitely returning to Dryden, as Kathy Zahler demonstrates with a picture and a couple of stories.

Bears have been moving north for a while.

Dryden Police leaving Freeville

2008-04-22T13:02:15+00:00

The April 16th issue of the Dryden Courier leads with an article on the end of Village of Dryden police covering the Village of Freeville. Freeville had been paying $42,000 a year, but according to Dryden Mayor Reba Taylor, "Their taxes are going way up next year. They simply won't be able to afford us any more." I haven't seen anything from Freeville on taxes, but maybe news on that will surface. (The Dryden police log in the paper doesn't list anything for Freeville.)

The strange part, though, is that there's no mention at all in the article of cuts to the Dryden Police department. You'd think that a $42,000 cut would mean a reduction in the department that suffered it, and maybe it happened, but I don't see it.

There's one last bit I'd like to point out. Mayor Taylor crows at the end about how "Most of the budget work was done during a board work session, which Taylor said was open to and attended by some of the public. Trustees and village resident Mike Lane all had a part, she said." That's the nicest face she can put on it - she routinely delivers the budget after election time, and prepares it herself beforehand. The Village of Dryden budget is hardly a showcase of open government.

There's an update on the Tuttle House, next to the new Town Hall, which seems doomed to demolition because of its asbestos siding. The Town bought it for the land, but the house itself has proven impossible even to give away. Between the asbestos and the need to move the house, no buyers emerged. Demolition will cost between $16,000 and $25,000, largely thanks to the asbestos, while renovation would cost around $119,000.

Inside, there's an interview with Sandy Sherwood, the Dryden Elementary School principal who's moving up to become superintendent.

On the opinion page, it looks like Finger Lakes Newspapers, the publishers of the Courier, have decided that "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em", and set up a blog-based online presence. Right now the detailed articles are pretty Trumansburg-centric, but hopefully that will broaden.

Also on the opinion page, regular Dryden columnist Kelly Horrocks looks at conservation and alternative energy education possibilities, noting wind but also pointing out Dryden's abundance of cow manure. Her conclusion sounds promising to me:

It has been said that Americans always do the right thing, once they have exhausted every other possibility. Maybe, with our support, our schools could take the lead by modeling how there are ways to become fiscally sound and environmentally conscious. Not only would it take the bit out of the spring budget vote, it would create and upcoming generation of economically aware and environmentally responsive students.

Getting there will be difficult, I fear, but that's the right direction to head.

In sports, there's a report of the young Dryden lacrosse team's loss to Maine-Endwell, and Matt Colbert of the Dryden Baseball team is an Athlete of the Week for a game against Union Springs with four shut-out innings, eight strikeouts, 2-for-4 batting with three RBIs, including a key RBI near the end of the 14-13 Dryden win.

There's an article on how the Town is looking for alternatives to the SPCA for animal control, as the cost keeps climbing rapidly, and another article on Groton's provider, Country Acre Pet Services in Homer.

There's an announcement of tomorrow's Nedyrd Food Cooperative talk, presented by the Dryden Town Historical Society at Dryden Village Hall, 16 South Street, at 7:00pm.

Dairy Day will be having an amateur photo contest, under the theme "Fly Your Flag for Dairy." Photos should be sent to Elsie Gutchess, 19 E. Main Street, Dryden, NY 13053 by June 6th, and should have your name, phone, age division (12 and under; 13-19; adults 20+), and category (vintage photo, contemporary photo, computer-enhanced photo) on the back of the photo.

In Anecdotes & Brevities, Harry Weldon explores Dryden's pioneer days, telling the story of Lyman Hurd, who settled in Willow Glen in 1800.

And more Sungiva

2008-04-22T02:04:34+00:00

Everyone I talk with wants more Sungiva photos. I'm continuing to build a collection, so here's a gallery of her first twenty-six days, with new photos starting here.

Here are some previews of Sungiva at her baby-finest.

Sungiva makes a point.

Sungiva grips her carrying sling.

Life and death on the kitchen window

2008-04-21T23:49:11+00:00

Spider hunts fly

Spider eats fly

Garbage truck trainwreck continues

2008-04-21T12:13:50+00:00

"Clearly, people don't understand how state law is made."

Hmmm.... Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton seems to have put herself in a tight spot after last week's meeting on garbage truck traffic on two-lane highways. Maybe headlines as far away as Syracuse titled "Assemblywoman Lifton irritates garbage truck task force, others" were a bad sign (though the print edition had the milder "Task Force Hits Detour".

Today's article presents Lifton asking for clarification of the Department of Transportation's position, as "there may have been a lapse in communication as personnel changed in state offices." These two paragraphs seem to cut to heart of the matter for Lifton:

Lifton's letter to Commissioner Astrid Glynn said that over the past year and a half, DOT counsel told both the Assembly central staff and Lifton's staff that DOT has "many concerns" with the Senate bill sponsored by Sen. John DeFrancisco, R-50th. Lifton also said in her letter that, "Some must think I'm not telling the truth," based on the fact that it appears as if she is not saying the same thing DOT is saying....

"I hardly know how to respond," Lifton said of the comments made against her. "I'm actually trying to work on a bill that the DOT would approve and the governor would sign into law to help mitigate this problem. I find it an incredible misunderstanding on where we are. Clearly, people don't understand how state law is made."

This Journal article presents the conflict as one between Democratic and Republican bills, which is unfortunate, as the original article included a representative from Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer, whose office found the Republican proposal constitutional.

There are some pieces in the two articles and in the background story that I think might explain what's happening, though doubtless someone will show up to tell me that "Clearly, [I] don't understand how state law is made." Still, if you connect the pieces, there appears to be a pattern. First, the background:

Senator Schumer's office has been active on this issue for a long time. In fact, I'm pretty sure I first heard of it because of his office. I'm not a huge fan of Senator Schumer, but he recognizes that the entire state elects him, and does push hard on Upstate issues.
This is an issue that Upstate Republicans have united on. They're not huge fans of regulation generally. However, their constituents are definitely annoyed by the truck traffic, this affects people in a number of different Assembly and Senate districts, and a lot of the traffic comes from New York City, making it even easier for constituent temperatures to rise.
Democratic legislators are much less happy about this issue generally. Many of them represent districts where the garbage originates, and their constituents would have to bear the burden of the extra costs.

Today's article adds two things:

The article notes that Lifton is not even optimistic about the possible fate of her proposed "blue-ribbon commission" bill, never mind the more concrete Republican-sponsored bill - "She said at the meeting that she does not think her bill could get through the Assembly by the end of the year."
The role of the DOT leadership in this remains murky. What's the story on the earlier statements? Were they telling Democratic legislators what they wanted to hear, for better or worse? Lifton's letter to the DOT (missing a page) notes that "Tomika Bennett, an attorney on your staff, was slated to come to Ithaca to explain why the DOT is opposed to that specific bill, but cancelled shortly before the meeting due to illness."

To me, the telling part is Chuck Schumer's aide coming to the meeting and saying bluntly:

"We've done a lot of vetting and truck agencies absolutely can be created. There are states where they exist. The key element is that reasonable access is afforded because that is where we get into some of those interferences with clauses. As long as that's done we have every assurance that there is precedent constitutionally to do so."

With that comment, she blew the story wide open. It's hard to oppose this on grounds of constitutionality when a Senator from your own party not only disagrees, but points to its use in other states. Schumer, of course, isn't very worried about what the Democratic conference wants - he needs to make sure that Upstate knows he's working hard for us.

So overall, I think:

Lifton is trapped between her constituents who hate these trucks and an Assembly that won't likely pass any bill on the subject;
Lifton is unwilling even to push for a bill with stronger language because that would be bucking the Democratic conference in the Assembly;
Lifton is unwilling to come out and say something like "the Democratic leadership just handed us $2 million for dredging Cayuga Inlet - why would I challenge them this week?" That would force her to acknowledge some ugly things:
- that one constituency might be more important than another;
- that money gifted by the leadership is more important than passing legislation;
- that money from the leadership has something to do with one's loyalty to the conference's wishes rather than to one's loyalty to the district.

I'm pretty confident in that analysis. Of course, though, "Clearly, people don't understand how state law is made." And no, I haven't asked her office - I doubt I'd get any different answer on the record than she's given the Journal or made at the meeting.

Update: I just noticed this on the WHCU news page, which felt like a stronger statement from Lifton than I see in the Journal:

Lifton Asked For A Clarification And Said If It Turns Out The DOT Has No Objections She Will Introduce The Bill In The Assembly.

That led me back to look more closely at Lifton's letter, where she writes that:

If you are indeed supportive of S6461, please let me know immediately, and I will introduce that bill in the Assembly and push for its immediate passage. If you are not supportive and you would urge the Governor to veto such a bill, perhaps you would explain your opposition to the public and offer another remedy to [cut off]

This sounds like Lifton is leaving her position up to the DOT, which is itself a very strange position for a legislator to take. She's supposed to represent her constituents to the DOT, not the other way around. Beyond that, I suspect there's a large gap between "supportive" and "would urge the Governor to veto such a bill." And why would she have to introduce the bill herself, when Barclay's already introduced it?

(I really don't like Barclay after the State Senate race in the 48th, but side-stepping a bill that's already introduced is just more Assembly shoving around, I think.)

I think this part was meant to sound strong, but sadly, it just comes across as more weakness.

If I had known that meeting was going to be that interesting I'd have gone. I guess the best ones get away, sometimes.

The Journal's editorial calls for more attention to keeping volunteer fire departments healthy, and also calls for people to come out to run for school board. (Petitions are due today - maybe they should have run that earlier?)

I'm a little disappointed in the list of qualifications they provide for school board members - after the recent run of disasters in the Ithaca schools in particular, I'd have thought there might be more openness to board members who question how things are run rather than striving to always be a team player.

Why bother?

2008-04-20T21:16:12+00:00

Yes, this is pretty much why.

More soon on the ducks - who are an hour a day plus by themselves - plus some actual, you know, plants for the garden.

Dredging up a trucking trainwreck in the 125th

2008-04-19T13:20:04+00:00

It's been a very up and down week for Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton.

On the bright side, she announced $2 million for dredging Cayuga Inlet, addressing an expensive problem that had been getting worse for a long long time.

On the other, she generated headlines like "Assemblywoman Lifton irritates garbage truck task force, others" because of an event she held where she was would be "facilitating a meeting with the Upstate New York Safety Coalition Task Force to discuss the ongoing issue of trucks hauling solid waste on two-lane state highways".

It sounds like the meeting didn't quite go as planned. Her Republican fellow legislators asked why she wasn't joining them in sponsoring legislation that would "designate the state Department of Transportation as the truck-routing agency that would have the authority to designate what routes trucks can travel."

Lifton protested that the DOT was opposed, and that the bill wouldn't pass constitutional muster. Democratic U.S. Senator Schumer's representative at the meeting, however, disagreed:

"I do have to respectfully disagree in terms of the constitutionality component," she said. "We've done a lot of vetting and truck agencies absolutely can be created. There are states where they exist. The key element is that reasonable access is afforded because that is where we get into some of those interferences with clauses. As long as that's done we have every assurance that there is precedent constitutionally to do so."

The DOT doesn't seem so clear in its opposition, either:

Skip Carrier, a public information officer at the DOT, said the department has not taken a position yet. Carrier was not at the meeting.
"We're looking at the legislation and are reviewing it," he said. "We haven't taken a position on these bills yet."

Lifton's current position seems to be that a "blue-ribbon commission" is needed to further study the issue.

So, what do you think? Is this a case of a Democratic Assemblywoman doing a properly cautious job, or a case where a legislator doesn't want to push on a Democratic conference (and maybe the Governor) who'd prefer to keep trash rates down?

[Sorry, Robinia - this was just too richly conflicted a story to pass up.]

More on missing store manager

2008-04-19T12:53:20+00:00

On today's opinion page, the Journal's Opinion Editor, Andrew Tutino, reflects on the life and disappearance of Bethanie Dougherty, talking with friends about the manager-in-training at the XtraMart on 13/366.

Food prices climbing

2008-04-19T12:38:40+00:00

Today's Journal notices what the Cortland Standard noticed a few months ago: increasing grain prices are making it harder for local bakers and others who use lots of flour. There's also a more general piece on wheat prices and another piece that examines energy and food inflation.

Food prices are climbing for a lot of reasons, but as the article on bakeries notes, energy is a key component. It just plain costs a lot to truck 100-pound bags of flour around, and diesel prices seem to have climbed even more than gasoline prices.

Even before you get the food into the truck, though, nearly our entire agricultural system today is bound to oil. I first started figuring this out in 2004, when Richard Manning's The oil we eat shocked me with this simple story:

"A two-pound bag of breakfast cereal burns the energy of a half-gallon of gasoline in its making. All together the food-processing industry in the United States uses about ten calories of fossil-fuel energy for every calorie of food energy it produces....

That number does not include the fuel used in transporting the food from the factory to a store near you, or the fuel used by millions of people driving to thousands of super discount stores on the edge of town, where the land is cheap."

It doesn't help that we're turning large areas of good land into source of ethanol fuel, or that Australia is having serious drought, but in general the cost of food is going to climb as the cost of energy increases. We've enjoyed cheap food because of cheap energy for a long long time, and we need to remember that that was a privilege, not the natural state of things.

At our house, we're lucky at the moment, having bought local wheat in bulk last summer, but I don't think the Town of Dryden is likely to see a resurgence in wheatfields. However, I do hope that our garden will help ease our budget and our impact on everyone else's budget, and encourage more people to try it.

Varna firefighter honored; truck route controversy

2008-04-19T12:15:54+00:00

The County Legislature honored Will Hine of Varna as the county's Distinguished Youth for April. Hine, 19, responded to more than half, nearly 200, of the company's calls. (The Journal's Wednesday editorial also supported a federal tax break for volunteer firefighters.)

It sounds like a truck meeting turned into a trainwreck for Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton. Dryden residents on Route 79 may be especially interested. The Journal starts with some questioning by her Republican fellow legislators and the Upstate New York Safety Coalition Task Force :

Sen. John DeFrancisco, R-50th Dist., and Assemblywoman Lifton, D-125th Dist., disagree about whether a bill proposed by DeFrancisco in the Senate could stand up in court. The Upstate Task Force sided with DeFrancisco, along with many audience members.

The same bill has been put forth in the Assembly by Assemblyman Will Barclay, R-124th Dist., and Lifton said she has not signed on because everything she has heard indicates that Gov. David Paterson will veto the bill.

The bills in the Assembly and the Senate would designate the state Department of Transportation as the truck-routing agency that would have the authority to designate what routes trucks can travel. Lifton said a bill stating that the DOT can designate routes "is not going to meet constitutional muster."

"That means the governor is going to veto it and it's not going to happen," she said.

There's no discussion here of whether it's a good idea - Lifton seems simply not to want to vote against a veto of an unconstitutional veto. But there's more here - not even from Republicans knocking down both of those claims. First, the DOT claims not to have taken a position yet:

Lifton said transportation officials have told her the bill would not hold up constitutionally.
"State DOT has read the DeFrancisco bill and they say that they will turn around to the governor ... and urge the governor to veto that bill," Lifton said. "That's what's going to happen currently. That's what DOT is telling me."
Skip Carrier, a public information officer at the DOT, said the department has not taken a position yet. Carrier was not at the meeting.
"We're looking at the legislation and are reviewing it," he said. "We haven't taken a position on these bills yet."

Then, a representative of fellow Democrat Chuck Schumer's office questions the "unconstitutional" claim:

Amanda Spellicy, a legislative aide for Schumer, disagreed with the fact that the bill is unconstitutional.

"I do have to respectfully disagree in terms of the constitutionality component," she said. "We've done a lot of vetting and truck agencies absolutely can be created. There are states where they exist. The key element is that reasonable access is afforded because that is where we get into some of those interferences with clauses. As long as that's done we have every assurance that there is precedent constitutionally to do so."

Lifton's answer to all this seems to be the classic Albany approach to making it look like you want a problem solved without actually having to take action that might bother someone: creating a "Blue Ribbon Commission."

The Syracuse Post-Standard also has a blog entry - "Assemblywoman Lifton irritates garbage truck task force, others and an article - " Task Force Hits Detour".