TompkinsWeekly for the week of May 18th

Download the newspaper in Acrobat Format Here School Budget on District Ballot On Tuesday the proposed 2015-16 Trumansburg Central School District Budget will be put to a vote. District residents will cast their ballots on a $26,016,051 budget and three additional propositions. Full Story »   Lifton Backs Education Reform Bill The last few months in Upstate New York have seen turmoil in communities uniting in defense of public education. In the aftermath of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s budget proposal, Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton is championing legislation that she has signed onto that proposes several alterations to laws pertaining to teacher and student evaluations. Full Story »   School budget and board members are on the Dryden ballot page 2 The Dryden School District is proposing a 2015-16 budget totaling $37,979,493 with a levy increase of 2.23 percent, which is slightly below the tax levy cap. This budget contains $1 million in restored Gap Elimination Adjustment funds, which have been withheld from the district since 2009. Full Story »   Concerted effort is required to fight Lyme Disease page 3 More than 400 people attended the Lyme Disease Conference at Binghamton University on May 9, hosted by the Southern Tier Lyme Support Group. Attendees were able to visit vendor tables and hear lectures on the latest research, testing and treatment for this rapidly expanding tick-borne illness. Full Story »   Honor Flight is a tribute to veterans page 5 Twin Tiers Honor Flight Inc. honors America’s veterans for their contributions and sacrifices by transporting veterans (male and female) to Washington, D.C. to visit, and reflect at, their respective memorials. Nancy Kane, cofounder of the regional chapter, says that she decided to become involved with the non-profit organization Honor Flight Network because her family has a history of service to their country. “I discovered that there weren’t any flights in our area. Our veterans had to go to Rochester or Pennsylvania,” she explains. Full Story »   Ithaca Shakespeare Company sets summer schedule page 8 In July, the Ithaca Shakespeare Company (ISC) will present the most popular of Shakespeare’s plays in his own time alongside his most popular play today. Full Story »   Star-crossed lovers in a dangerous affair page 9 “Félix and Meira” is a romance happily shorn of the typical Hollywood trappings. Rich in detail of place, culture and the day-to-day of its characters, it also is delicately understated in the unwinding of its plot. The film recently opened at Cinemapolis after triumphal screenings at the Toronto Interna-tional Film Festival and several other sites. Full Story »   PEAKS program establishes crowdsourcing platform page 10 PEAKS, a program of Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County (CCET), is the region’s original crowdfunding and event registration platform, helping local non-profit agencies raise money through online giving. In the past three years, PEAKS has helped more than 60 area organizations raise over $400,000 of funding for a variety of programming including financial literacy, free and low-cost health care, youth educational opportunities and community development. Full Story »