The campaign for a community center for Danby dates back a very long time. In the early 1990s, the Danby Community Council established a child care/ after school program partly funded by the Town. It operated in a number of Danby locations - the Danby Federated Church, the fire house, the American Legion, and rented private houses, always with the intention to find or create an appropriate building. In 1997 the program's use of a rented house on Troy Road was interrupted because of difficulties in meeting code requirements. The Mosher family had offered a site on Comfort Road for a community center to house this and other community functions, and several thousand dollars were raised to begin planning a new building. The proposal was not feasible, however, because the lot was too limited in size, and too remote from main roads and the center of the hamlet, and the program was too limited to meet the actual needs of the town's population. A Youth Bureau questionnaire revealed a widespread demand for a dedicated space for various public functions; a committee formed by the Danby Town Board and Planning Board failed to find a satisfactory existing building.

In 1998 a new Community Council committee, chaired by Mary Oltz, was formed to search for a suitable site for a multi-purpose community center. The principal criteria set for the search were (1) a location both central and easily accessible, and (2) sufficient area for outdoor and indoor community events and facilities. Both the Danby Planning Board and the committee itself took several surveys of the community's priorities for a community center and for public spaces in general. The committee recognized the demand fo a large and smaller meeting spaces, and sports and playground areas. Exploring possible properties and the terms under which each might be acquired occupied over a year. It became apparent that no middle-sized lots, of 10 - 20 acres, were to be had at a reasonable price. To accomodate a good-sized building, and interior and exterior recreation spaces, only 50-acre properties or larger were available. Of these, the 89-acre parcel behind the Danby Federated Church, listed with an Ithaca real-estate broker, had sufficient open and level land for a building and playing fields, and woods adaptable to a variety of trails, and seemed to be reasonably priced, partly because it was landlocked. A case for its acquisition was presented to the Danby Community Council.

The Community Council Board, however, did not feel in a position to take on ownership of land; the Town Board hesitated to make this commitment; the committee learned that another possible purchaser was making a bid. In order not to lose to private purposes a property so central and so adapted to Danby's public needs, the members of the committee submitted a bid, were notified that it was accepted, and determined to buy the property jointly for future dedication to the community center and a community park. The decision was premature, as it turned out: the property was owned jointly by nine family members and the agreement to sell was not unanimous. It took a year of court action for this problem to resolve itself, at the end of which the land had to be put up for public auction in September, 2000. The committee submitted their bid again, and won - - with a slight reduction from the original bid as a generously supportive gesture from the owner family. In order to gain public entrance to this landlocked property, the committee also bought a small empty lot (of about 1 acre) on its west side, fronting on Route 96B, bringing the size of the property intended for a community park to slightly over 90 acres.

Meanwhile, acting on notice of money available for such purposes from the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation, the committee had been encouraged to apply in August, 2000 on behalf of the town for a matching grant of $109, 350 for acquisition and pre-development from the NY State Environmental Protection Fund. This application was unsuccessful, and a renewed application for the same amount was approved by the Town Board in August, 2001. A town account for a Danby Community Park was set up and fundraising projects provided something over a thousand dollars in this account.

The committee then proposed to the Danby Town Board that if the Town would assume eventual ownership of the land as a public park, they would organize a park association to raise money for its acquisition and development. They agreed to sell the property to the town for the amount they had paid. A contract embodying this agreement was drawn up. An advisor in the New York State Comptroller's office, however, warned that although a town account can accept donations and grants, it cannot legally receive solicited funds. In other words, it would be impossible to ask fo community financial support for a town community park fund. He advised that instead of entering into the proposed contract the committee should organize a not-for-profit corporation to acquire, develop, and administer the park.

The Danby Community Park Association (DCPA) was organized at an open meeting on November 1, 2001 as a corporation of which all Danby residents are members. The association received its certificate of incorporation on November 11, was approved by the IRS as a not-for- profit organization under tax law 501(c)(3) in March, 2002 and shortly thereafter granted charitable status and authorization to solicit funds by the New York Department of State. The Danby residents who agreed to serve as the minimum required three officers of the corporation were Douglas Gillogly, President; Cynthia Coleman, Secretary; and Nancy Medsgar, Treasurer (since replaced by Donna Brock when Nancy found herself unable to devote sufficient time to the position); and the committee members - Mary Oltz, Esther Dotson, Bill Farrell, and Nancy Weitzel - volunteered to serve as the board of the corporation until the organization could be put on a sound financial footing and new elections carried out at a general meeting. Kenneth Horst has since been added to the board, and Esther Dotson resigned as a member of the Board but continued as Chair of the Grants Committee.

At the beginning of 2002, Professor Adleman of the Cornell Department of Landscape Architecture suggested that a program for the layout of a park and community center with playgrounds, sports fields, picnic areas, and park plantings on the property might be adopted as the first Spring Term project of a graduate level class. This offer was accepted with enthusiasm; the officers and board of the DCPA visited the class at various stages; and the thirteen plans which resulted were shown at a meeting in the Danby Town Hall in the Spring of 2002 for public comment to identify which features came closest to people's vision of what the park should be. With the help of these comments, and the judgement of the instructor of the course, a tentative plan was chosen and the student designer became a consultant on the park layout. In the Fall of 2002 an application for a Tompkins Trust Company / Cornell University grant designed to connect students' skills with community needs was awarded for the salary of this student.

Meanwhile, the Association itself had applied again, in June, 2002, for the EPA grant for acquisition and development of the park property. In July, 2002 we heard with delight a radio announcement from Governor Pataki's office that a matching grant of $109,350 had been awarded for a community park in the Town of Danby. When the official notification was received, it became clear that the grant was in response not to the DCPA application in June, 2002, but to the application of August, 2001, on behalf of the town, which assumed that the town would be the owner and administrator of the park. A request from the Town Supervisor redirected the grant to the Danby Community Park Association. In September, 2002, a gift from an anonymous local donor and a loan from a board member enabled the DCPA to acquire title to the 90-acre park land for the development of which the state grant had been awarded.

The procedures of the State Office of Parks have involved several new obligations on which work proceeded in 2003; a fresh appraisal of the property, an archeological survey, and new layout designs to separate the location of the community center from the park proper. This last requirement results from the regulation that only recreational programs and supporting services can be offered in a park under the State Office of Parks grant, whereas many other functions are desired in the community center.

More serious delays have been caused by the objection of the Town Board and of a number of community members that the planned access road was dangerously located on a curve in Route 96B where visibility is limited and cars enter the hamlet at unsafe speeds. Permission to develop the park could not be obtained until a safe entrance could be arranged. Prolonged negotiations to obtain a site for such an entrance have delayed further work on the park for over two years, but have finally reached a successful conclusion. The 50-acre property directly opposite the Danby Town Hall has been acquired in exchange for the eastern 50 acres of wood- land of the original land purchase and will accommodate both an access road and the proposed community center. Another plot behind the houses north of the church, between the original and the new park properties, has been purchased with funds donated for the purpose. The required permits from the NYS Department of Transportation and from the Danby Planning Board to build the access road to the park and to begin construction of the desired park facilities and community center may be obtained within the next several months. The addition of the new properties, however, and the loss of part of the original parcel has required new surveys, appraisal, and revised plans. Another cooperative arrangement with a Cornell University department - this time the Department of Architecture - is providing the services of an advanced student in the deopart- ment, under the supervision of Professor Felecia Davis and funded by a grant from State Senator James Seward, to explore architectural possibilities for the community center building.

We believe that the principle delays and obstacles to the park development are finally overcome, and that work on realizing the park and community center plans can make considerable progress in 2005. The Board of Directors has been reconstituted; four new members have been elected: Deborah Adams, Jason Brennan, Joanne Church, and Ron . Douglas Gillogly and Bill Farrell have resigned from the Board. The Treasurer and Secretary continue on the new Board, which will elect a new President and Vice-President from their number.

During this extended effort, several grants have been applied for. In addition to the award from the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation, grants have been awarded by the Rotary Club, the Tompkins Trust Company, Cornell Cooperative Extension, and State Senator James Seward. Several applications are still outstanding, including one for a further New York State matching grant for park facilities, submitted at the suggestion of the local representatives of the Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation.

The community has had a long wait. For several years it must have seemed that no progress at all was being made toward the development of a park and community center. We believe that we are now in a position to move ahead, to make use of the help already volunteered by many Danby residents, and to enlist the enthusiasm of the community in planning and achieving an outstanding public resource.