TompkinsWeekly for the week of June 29th

Download the newspaper in Acrobat Format Here County Tackles Emergency Prep The flooding in Newfield and Danby on June 14, which stranded people in their homes, made streets impassible and damaged bridges, roads and dwellings, demonstrated the need for swift and effective emergency response. The Tompkins County Department of Emergency Response maintains a Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan to coordinate the many agencies that may become involved in an emergency. Each municipality in Tompkins County also has its own local plan. This, the first in a two part series on emergency preparedness, examines coordination at the county level when disaster strikes. Full Story »   Youth Bureau Launches Ithaca Bike Rental Thanks to a grant from the Tompkins County Tourism Program (TCTP), Ithaca Bike Rental (IBR) is now making bikes available just steps from the Cayuga Waterfront Trail and Stewart Park. IBR is a program of the Ithaca Youth Bureau (IYB), and will employee local youth throughout the summer to run the program while learning about bike repair and entrepreneurship. Full Story »   Design for Varna- Freeville Trail page 2 The Dryden Town Board, Conservation Board, and several other community groups have expressed interest in getting a design put together for a trail that would run from Varna to Freeville. The group Design Connect Cornell has put together a concept plan for such a trail. Full Story »   Congressman Reed pushes for trade, market pressure page 3 Congressman Tom Reed, RCorning, made an appearance last Saturday morning at the Ithaca Town Hall, one of three stops he was making through the Fingerlakes region. Full Story »   Living Wage Study page 4 The first Living Wage study was conducted in 1994 in order to determine how much Alternatives should pay its employees as a starting salary. The credit union engaged an intern from the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University to work with then Assistant Manager Leni Hochman to conduct the study. (Alternatives has partnered with student interns from the ILR School for each subsequent Living Wage study.) Initially intended for internal use, the credit union’s board of directors decided that the information was valuable and released the study to the community. Alternatives has continued to update the Living Wage study every two years. Full Story »   hotpotatopress.org serves up food news and networking page 5 I’m so pleased to introduce a new community resource: Hot Potato Press, the online food news and networking site for Ithaca and Tompkins County. Everyone can access it at www.hotpotatopress.org. Full Story »   “When Marnie Was There” page 9 The sad news is that When Marnie Was There may be the last ever Studio Ghibli offering, as the studio reorganizes after the retirements of Miyazaki and Takahata; at the very least it will be a much more streamlined operation. Full Story »