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ALTERNATIVES TO EXPANDING FOSSIL FUEL INFRASTRUCTURE

Thursday, Feb 19  6-7 pm

Dryden Town Hall

Hosted by Dryden Town Board, the Town Planning Board and the Town Conservation Board

 We often hear the refrain that clean energy technologies hold much promise but are not sufficiently developed for near-term deployment in today’s market. This presentation will not only demonstrate that these technologies are currently technologically viable but also cost effective.

Over the past several months a group of about 40 community members have come together to question the need for a 7-mile natural gas pipeline through Dryden that has been proposed by NYSEG. Before committing our community to an increased dependency on methane by locking our region into an expanded fossil fuel infrastructure, decision- makers should become familiar with the full costs, risks, and benefits of methane as compared to alternative energy strategies.

Our group has undertaken energy and economic modeling to compare the costs of space heating and domestic hot water for residential and commercial buildings, fueled by either methane, ground-source heat pumps, or air-source heat pumps coupled with improvements to building envelopes and renewable sources of energy. Included in this work is also an exploration of both the economic impacts of projected price increases over the next two decades for these energy systems as well as the climate impacts and other externalities that the wider community must bear if we were to expand our dependence on methane. As a group of concerned members of the community, our ultimate objective is a full cost accounting approach to making decisions on our choice of energy resources to help identify those most aligned with the overall public interest.

The program will be specifically tailored to address the energy needs of an increasingly densified City of Ithaca. The costs and disruption to the City of expanded natural gas infrastructure has been readily apparent over the past 2 years. Improvements in building energy efficiency as well as the utilization of on-site renewable energy technologies may allow us to avoid such intrusive community impacts.

Join us for a presentation by Dr. Brice Smith, Graduate Program Coordinator in Sustainable Energy Systems, SUNY Cortland.  Melissa Kemp, Program Director of Solar Tompkins, and Gay Nicholson, President of Sustainable Tompkins, will also provide contributions to the program.

This should be of interest to both builders and home owners who are looking to save money on energy costs.

Light refreshments will be served.

PROPOSED AMENDED ZONING ORDINANCE

The Town Board of Dryden has made minor amendments to its Zoning Ordinance and introduced it as the Town of Dryden Zoning Law.  The Town Board will hear comments and consider its adoption at a public hearing during the scheduled Town Board meeting on Thursday, January 15th at 7 PM for public comments. The Zoning Law with proposed changes can be found here.

A synopsis of the proposed changes can be found here.

TOWN AND COUNTY TAXES 2015

Town and County Taxes for the year 2015 have been mailed. If you do not receive your bill(s) in a reasonable amount of time, feel free to contact the Town Clerk at 607-844-8888, option 3 OR you can view, print and/or pay you bill(s) through the Town of Dryden’s website by clicking on NYS Tax Glance (in the right hand column) OR click here. Please be aware that paying your taxes on-line will result in an additional processing fee.

You can pay your taxes at, or mail the payment to, the Dryden Town Clerk’s Office, 93 East Main Street, Dryden, NY 13053. Taxes are due, without penalty, on or before February 2nd. Taxes may be paid in two installments as long as the first half is paid by February 2nd.  The last day you can pay taxes at the Clerk’s office is March 31st.

The Town Clerk’s Office will be open Monday through Friday 8AM – 4:30PM and (January only) Saturday 9AM to noon .

2015 Budget

The 2015 Adopted Budget can be found here.

Highway Department assists in Western New York

Kudos to our Highway Department for helping Western New York after the storm.

Click here for the story!