On the ground

The Sidney Democratic Committee is pleased to announce that it will sponsor a Meet the Candidates event in the Village of Sidney.

The Committee will hold the event to provide members of the community with an opportunity to meet all three Democrats running for local office in this year’s general election, coming up on November 3rd. The candidates — Dawn Rivers Baker for Supervisor, C. Pete Cordes and Veronica Crandall for Town Council — are all expected to attend the event.

The ‘meet and greet’ will be held at the Sidney Memorial Public Library on October 24, 2009 from 1 pm to 3 pm in the Smart Community Room. Refreshments will be served.

WHO: Sidney Democratic Committee

WHAT: Meet The Candidates: Dawn Rivers Baker, C. Pete Cordes, Veronica Crandall

WHERE: Sidney Memorial Public Library, Main and River Streets, Smart Community Room

WHEN: Saturday, October 24, 2009, 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm

I am very proud to announce that the Delaware County Democratic Committee along with many wonderful volunteers, turned out over 120 students we registered from Suny Delhi to vote yesterday! This is out of 159 registered with the campus as their address. Amazing!! Thanks to all, and our work has only just begun.

Congresswoman Gillibrand, who lost by over 1200 votes in 2006, carried Delaware County by 1179 votes over Sandy Treadwell: 8226 to 7047 (unofficial of course)

Obama lost in the county, but not by much: 8562 to 9875. HE WON IN DELHI, MIDDLETOWN AND SIDNEY!!

Delhi: 868 Obama to 735 McCain (gee, do you think this has anything to do with all those college students!!??)

Middletown: 740 Obama to 645 McCain

Sidney: 1104 Obama to 984 McCain

Everyone I have spoken to says they wept for joy, and relief. It’s a good day.

>???????? ????? ????????MEDIA ADVISORY * *

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: CONTACT: Rachel McEneny

May 29, 2008 518-581-8247

Rep. Gillibrand to Hold Neighborhood Office Hours in Masonville and Sidney

Hudson, NY – Today, local Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand announced that her staff will hold Neighborhood Office Hours on Thursday, June 12th at the Masonville Federated Church located on Route 206 and the Sidney Municipal Center located at 21 Liberty Street.

These satellite Congressional offices will have staff on hand to hear concerns and to help constituents with any problems they may be having with federal agencies – such as veterans benefits, Social Security checks or other federal issues.

“I realize that with busy work schedules and soaring gas prices, it is often difficult for my constituents to travel to a district office, so I’ve decided to take my office out into the communities I serve, to hear your needs so I can better represent the families of the 20th district” said Congresswoman Gillibrand.

Congresswoman Gillibrand, a member of both the Armed Services and Agriculture Committees, encourages local residents to come out to meet her staff and share their priorities for Congress, opinions on important issues and requests for help with federal agencies.

WHO: Congresswoman Gillibrand

WHAT: Neighborhood Office Hours to help local residents with problems with federal agencies

WHEN: Thursday, June 12th

Masonville: 10:00am-1:00pm

Sidney: 2:00pm-6:00pm

WHERE: Masonville Federated Church

State Route 206

Masonville, NY 13804

Sidney Municipal Center

21 Liberty Street

Sidney, NY 13838

# # #

The first in our series of meetings, called Conversations On … , went off without a hitch yesterday and an informative time was had by all.

The Sidney Democratic Committee played host to Leon Kalmus, former District 4 representative to the Otsego County Board of Representatives and, while he objects to the term, he really is an expert on town power.

More specifically, he is an expert on the history of town power, the legislation that allows it and a lot of the mechanics involved in launching a municipal power company anywhere in the state.

We were pleased to see a decent number of people joined us for the meeting, very interested citizens who asked really good questions. Sidney Mayor Jim Warren, who received a personal invitation from the Committee, joined us for the conversation. Recently elected Otsego County legislator Rich Murphy was also a member of the audience.

From what we learned, it seems that the option of municipal power is one that is worth exploring further. The town of Sidney (and, for that matter, Delaware County) has that option because it is written into the laws of the state. We could either buy from NYSEG or we could get into generating our own power and even building our own transmission and delivery infrastructure, if we wanted to. And, the best part about it, doing so really would lower the cost of electricity for the homes and businesses in our community.

We hope this is a conversation that will continue in the months ahead. That, after all, was the point of the exercise.

The Sidney Democratic Committee met last night in the Board Room at the Civic Center and first on the agenda was Richard Rich, one of three very strong Democratic candidates for Supreme Court Justice in the 6th Judicial District of New York.

Rich generously spent time discussing not only his own candidacy but that of all three Democrats on the ticket. A spirited question and answer session followed, and the conversation ranged from the various sorts of cases usually heard by the State Supreme Court to constitutional questions about the Bush Administration’s detention and torture of foreign nationals on foreign soil.

Following Mr. Rich’s presentation, the meeting continued with a recap of last month’s County Committee reorganization meeting, and voter outreach and candidate recruitment in Sidney. As a first step, the committee started planning a pre-holiday party in mid-November for Sidney Democrats (probably to be held at the Sidney Memorial Library).

We also made plans to start a rotating schedule to attend and monitor Town Board meetings to stay on top of what is happening with town government (particularly since the local press is strangely silent on the subject), and to work on filling the four remaining vacant seats on the Committee.

In all, a longer-than-average but very successful meeting.

The next meeting of the Sidney Committee will be held on November 14th at 7 p.m. in the Board Room of the Sidney Civic Center.