TompkinsWeekly

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

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Sunday, November 22, 2015

TompkinsWeekly for the week of November 23rd

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IC President Draws Protests
Ithaca College president Tom Rochon faces two separate votes of no confidence, from students and faculty, for what some call his topdown, non-inclusive and autocratic leadership style. The votes are likely to express faculty and student sentiment, but they are not binding.

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County Mulls Biggs Property Sale
The Tompkins County Legislature’s Government Operations Committee recently heard, but took no action on, a request from Planning Commissioner Ed Marx to authorize the listing for sale of 26 acres at the former Health Department (Biggs) property on Harris B. Dates Drive on Ithaca’s West Hill.

Microbeads law is approved by county lawmakers page 2
The Tompkins County Legislature, by unanimous vote on Nov. 17, adopted a new local law that will prohibit the sale in Tompkins County of personal care products containing microbeads.

IPD body cameras bring benefits, concerns page 3
Ithaca Police Department (IPD) officers have been using body-worn cameras for three weeks, since Nov. 2, following over a year of preparation and collaboration among the IPD, the Ithaca City Attorney’s office, camera industry representatives, and other police departments already using the technology.

2016 county budget is approved by the legislature page 5
The Tompkins County Legislature, after two-and-a-half months of deliberation and review, on Nov. 17 adopted the county’s 2016 budget and the capital program for the next five years. The budget was approved by a 13-1 vote, with Dooley Kiefer voting no.

A poignant drama about the early struggle for women’s rights page 8
The stirring mini-epic “Suffragette,” now playing at Cinemapolis, should be on short Oscar-watch lists for its brilliant, moving recreation of a key moment in the movement for women’s right to vote in the United Kingdom. Instead, it is likely to be shunted aside, much like last year’s “Selma.” In part, because like that film, its director is a woman, Sarah Gavron.

Do we have the courage to truly celebrate Thanksgiving? page 10
This Thanksgiving we need new foods to feed our families. The old comfort foods won’t sustain us in a world of refugees, terror, race and class issues, climate disturbances and partisanship.

Cornell student projects earn Family Service Awards page 11
The Ewing Family Service Awards will be bestowed this year on five candidates who seek to use the funds on a diverse assortment of projects set to enrich and improve the Cornell landscape.

Sunday, November 15, 2015

Tompkins Weekly for the week of November 16th

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TCAT Faces Worker Shortage
Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit (TCAT) will bring in up to 10 professional transit contract drivers in the coming weeks to bolster its ranks and to address a shortage of bus operators that is being experienced on the local, regional and national levels. The use of temporary professional contract drivers will help TCAT maintain its high levels of service.

Police Consolidation Moves Ahead
The Tompkins County Legislature, by a vote of 10-2, has authorized the county, jointly with the City of Ithaca, to pursue a state-funded study to examine the potential feasibility of consolidation of city and county law enforcement agencies.

Legislature received input on proposed 2016 budget page 3
The Tompkins County Legislature on Nov. 10 held its annual public budget hearing, the formal part of the county’s budget process devoted to inviting public comment on the County’s 2016 Tentative Budget and Capital Plan for the next five years. The proposed budget incorporates the County Administrator’s Recommended Budget and amendments adopted by the legislature.

Ithaca Health Alliance will seek a new executive director page 3
Ithaca Health Alliance Board President Kelly White has announced that Abbe Lyons has resigned her position of Executive Director effective at the end of January 2016. Lyons has served in the position since 2012. She has a long history with Ithaca Health Alliance as a provider member in the early years of the organization before her current tenure as Executive Director. Lyons said she is leaving to focus on her family.

County Mental Health Dept. leadership under discussion page 4
The Tompkins CountyLegislature’s Health and Human Services Committee is currently discussing two alternatives regarding leadership of the County Mental Health Department.

Federal funding cuts to impact TCAT page 5
TCAT has joined transit agencies across New York state to protest a last-minute amendment to the U.S. House of Representatives’ longterm highway bill, approved on Nov. 4, that would gut about millions of dollars in in much needed federal funding to New York State’s transit systems over the next six years.

Hangar production takes a fresh look at classic poetry page 8
“I and this mystery, here we stand,” high school student Anthony intones, at the top of Lauren Gunderson’s teenaged two-hander “I and You.” The 2014 Steinberg/ ATCA New Play award-winning and Susan Smith Blackburn Prize finalist play opened Nov. 8 at the Kitchen Theatre Company.

Bond is back, older and wiser page 9
Most criticism of the James Bond franchise emphasizes how the series stays relevant by adapting to the times. And sure enough, in Spectre it officially enters the post- Snowden era, as our hero fights a Big Data cabal plotting to turn our planet into a digital panopticon. But what’s equally important are the ongoing legacies—the “product DNA”, as developers like to call it— that make the Bond films stand apart. While people have been predicting the demise of the franchise for decades, it won’t truly be dead until it is indistinguishable from those Mission: Impossible and Jason Bourne movies.

Ethical fashion respects workers and the environment page 10
Millions of consumers enjoy shopping for clothing in large chain stores full of inexpensive frippery. There is so much to be had, for so little money! The truth behind most mass market clothing is less attractive.

Sunday, November 8, 2015

TompkinsWeekly for the week of November 9th

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Teachers’ Action Sends Message
Recent investigations have revealed that Exxon Mobil knew by the late-1970s about the long-term impacts the fossil fuel industry would have on our climate. Despite uncovering this information, the company spent the next few decades funding climate change denial and misrepresenting the state of the science. Protests have been taking place worldwide, including one last week staged by two local teachers at the Exxon station at 540 W. State St. in Ithaca.

County Sets Green Power Example
Tompkins County government has achieved recognition by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a Green Power Partner. The designation recognizes the county’s efforts to reduce the risk of climate change through the use of alternative sources of power.

Local writers featured in new anthology page 3
The many facets of local literary talent are on full display in a new anthology that features the work of authors, academics, journalists and other wordsmiths who riff on life in Ithaca and its environs.

2015 Tompkins County election results page 4
Unofficial final results for the 2015 election from the Tompkins County Board of Elections.

Grant funds Cornell program to study the human brain page 5
Cornell Neurotech, a collaboration between the colleges of Arts and Sciences and Engineering, will launch thanks to a multimillion dollar seed grant from the Mong Family Foundation.

Musician’s album considerd for Grammy award page 8
Jon Petronzio (JP) has been rocking the Ithaca music scene since his days at Ithaca College, and all of that hard work has paid off with his new album “Road Man: Light at the Speed of Life” being considered for a Grammy nomination. He won’t know if he gets on the final Grammy ballot until later this month; in the meantime he’s enjoying the surge in attention that this recognition brings to his music.

Two takes on a notable documentary about a flamboyant queen page 9
Cornell Cinema offers a startling, electric, rare pairing of films this week and next: a beautiful restoration of Shirley Clarke’s revolutionary 1967 documentary “Portrait of Jason”—widely hailed as the first portrait of a black gay man on film—and Stephen Winter’s new fictional revisitation, “Jason and Shirley”, which recreates one possible version of the 12-hour alcohol- and-drug-soaked filming, centering on the duel between subject (Jason) and artist (Shirley) as each tries to place their stamp on the film.

Hydrilla project reports progress and plans new strategies page 10
The transition to fall marks the end of another growing season for local terrestrial and aquatic plant communities. Leaves change color and drop, in a spectacle both brilliant and pleasing to the senses. Crops mature and are harvested to feed communities across the region. Plant communities senesce, as roots and seeds prepare for winter survival until spring arrives next year. It is a dynamic transition, both familiar and reassuring at the same time.

Sunday, November 1, 2015

TompkinsWeekly for the week of November 2nd

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Grant Aids Fresh Foods Effort
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has awarded Finger Lakes Fresh (FLF), an enterprise of Challenge Workforce Solutions, a $100,000 grant to support its efforts to promote the region’s farmers and their products. This will help bring together local producers and Upstate New York institutions seeking fresh, healthy, locallygrown food.

Police Consolidation Considered
Tompkins County has several municipal law enforcement agencies within its borders. The Ithaca Police Department, Tompkins County Sheriff ’s Department, and village police departments in Dryden, Trumansburg, Groton and Cayuga Heights all provide services to area residents. Additionally, there are three colleges located in the county that have police forces.

Supervisor and town board seats are on the Groton ballot page 2
When Glenn Morey stepped down as Groton Town Supervisor to take a seat on the Tompkins County Legislature, that left a vacancy for the position. Filling in since then has been Deputy Town Supervisor Donald Scheffler. This year Republican Scheffler isrunning for supervisor against Democrat Edward Neuhauser.

STEM opportunities for girls outlined page 3
The local district of the American Association of University Women convened at the Paleontological Research Institute on Oct. 24 to discuss a girl’s place in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields. Women from Cortland, Oswego, the Mohawk Valley and Southern Tier joined their Ithaca colleagues to share research and strategies for STEM education.

Legislature reviews proposed drone law and Biggs property page 5
The Tompkins County Legislature’s Government Operations Committee last week resumed its discussion of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), more commonly referred to as drones, discussing a preliminary draft of a proposed local law, which, if moved forward, could regulate use of the devices in Tompkins County.

Love amid turmoil during the Cultural Revolution page 9
Quiet beauty. Great sorrow. Enduring love. The elements of Zhang Yimou’s masterful “Coming Home” (now at Cinemapolis) are simple yet elegantly blended.

Health Alliance meets local needs page 10
Can you imagine a community where everyone is connected to compassionate, quality, integrative health care? That’s the vision of sustainability that inspires more than 120 volunteers at Ithaca Health Alliance, including all Free Clinic health care providers.

TCAT will use contract bus drivers page 11
TCAT will bring in up to 10 professional transit contract drivers in the coming weeks to bolster its ranks and to address a shortage of bus operators that is being experienced on the local, regional and national levels. The use of temporary professional contract drivers will help TCAT maintain its high levels of service.

Sunday, October 25, 2015

TompkinsWeekly for the week of October 26th

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County Mulls Drone Law
The rise of new technologies is often followed by unforeseen legal questions, prompting legislators to create laws that address the new issues. With the cost of a personal unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), or drones, now below $300, more people are buying them and flying them, which raises privacy and safety concerns regarding their use.

Budget Amendments Adopted
The Tompkins County Legislature has formally adopted amendments to the County Administrator’s 2015 Recommended Budget and the Capital Program for the next five years, as recommended by the Expanded Budget Committee. There were no changes to the package recommended by the Expanded Budget Committee before the legislature’s vote.

A celebration of insects at Cornell page 2
Cornell University’s Entomology Department opened the doors of Comstock Hall on Saturday, Oct, 17, and invited the neighbors in. More than 1,500 people visited the student- organized insect fair dubbed Insectapalooza. This year was the 12th anniversary, celebrating the “Bizarre, Bad, and Beneficial” denizens of the bug world with an arthropod zoo, origami, face-painting and an entire room set aside for the Battle of the Bugs.

Council seats on the ballot in Caroline page 3
Town of Caroline voters will elect two town council members in November, with four candidates vying for the four-year seats on the ballot. And a changing of the guard will take place in the town next year when Don Barber steps down after 22 years as supervisor, to be replaced by Mark Whitmer, who is running unopposed for the leadership post.

Wine and spirits producers get a boost from New York State page 5
“The whole winery is bubbling away,” says Maren Hosmer, owner of Hosmer Winery, referring to the fermentation of red wines on site in Ovid, north of Ithaca on State Route 89. On sunny weekends like those this fall, the tasting room has been full of folks enjoying Riesling, Cabernet Franc and many other varieties.

Carbon offset effort benefits area residents page 8
Anybody who is concerned about climate change hits a very slippery slope early on in the thought process, namely: Isn’t it at least a little hypocritical to rail against fossil energy exploration when it is highly likely you drive a gas-guzzling car and/or heat your house with fossil fuels? What about taking airplane trips to visit friends and family or to pursue your business? How does this behavior jibe with a sincere attempt to support green energy alternatives and slow down climate disruption?

Radical vision is documented in film on Black Panthers page 9
There’s a clip of “Soul Train” early in “The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution” (playing at Cinemapolis) which lightly but succinctly makes the point that the Panthers were at the center of the zeitgeist in the radical Sixties.

Pets have adverse ecological impacts page 10
The book “Time to Eat the Dog? The Real Guide to Sustainable Living” by Brenda and Robert Vale reports on ecological effects of owning pets. Owning an average sized dog uses the yearly energy equivalent in dog food and other aspects of dog care of twice that of an average SUV driving 6,000 miles per year. A cat’s carbon footprint is around that of a compact car.

Artists will go the distance in CSMA Marathon event page 11
For two weeks of creative exchange in November, the gamut of community artists, arts patrons and enthusiasts will devote or “get back to” their artistic callings on behalf of the Community School of Music and Arts and its charitable mission: to keep local arts education accessible to anyone and everyone.

Sunday, October 18, 2015

TompkinsWeekly for the week of October 19th

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2 Legislature Seats on Ballot
Rich T. John, 56, is running as a write-in candidate against Elie Kirshner, 19, to represent the 4th District on the Tompkins County Legislature. An Ithaca resident for 50 years, John has lived in the legislature’s district for 18 years.

Black Lives Matter Event Planned
Racial tensions in the U.S. have escalated over time following a number of tragic events involving police and citizens, such as the shootings of Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, Freddie Gray and Tamir Rice, as well as the church shooting in Charleston, S.C. In response to these events, and the systemic problems that contributed to them, communities have responded by organizing Black Lives Matter (BLM) events. The first major BLM event in Ithaca will be held on Saturday.

Impacts of wind farms on bird populations are scrutinize page 2
Bill Evans studies nighttime migration calls of birds. He’s also one of the local experts who have studied the impacts of wind turbines on bird populations. Evans visited the Cornell Lab of Ornithology on Oct. 12 to share his perspective on avian impacts of wind energy in our region.

Dryden voters face supervisor and town board races page 3
After 8 years as Dryden Town Supervisor Mary- Ann Sumner has chosen not to seek re-election. This vacancy will be contested as current Deputy Supervisor Jason Leifer, a Democrat, faces Dryden Independence challenger Craig Schutt.

Local musicians provide film score page 5
Jay Craven’s new seaside film drama “Peter and John,” starring 2014 Golden Globe winner Jacqueline Bisset, will play in a special screening at 6:30 p.m., on Thursday, Oct. 22, at Cinemapolis. Director Craven will introduce the film and lead a post-screening Q & A that will include Craven’s longtime music collaborators Judy Hyman and Jeff Claus of the local band the Horse Flies.

Film series bring the world to Ithaca page 8
Most weeks, this column takes on one film. But we are lucky in Ithaca to have more than the latest Hollywood and independent features on hand. We also have many film series, principally at Cornell Cinema, but also sponsored by community groups at Cinemapolis, while Ithaca College brings us the Out of the Closet and Onto the Screen Film Series sponsored by their Center for LGBT Education, Outreach & Services.

‘Mountaintop’ exposes the real Dr. King page 9
I’m willing to wager that any American could identify a picture of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. On classroom posters, stamps, Tshirts, Internet memes, television specials, films, and art: his face is one of the most ubiquitous and beloved in recent U.S. history. But the image of MLK that Memphisborn playwright Katori Hall serves up in “The Mountaintop” is anything but commonplace.

City adds new bicycle infrastructure page 10
In the past year, the City of Ithaca invested in three significant bike infrastructure projects: the Cayuga Waterfront Trail, new bike lanes and a bicycle boulevard across Ithaca. With six miles of new non-motorized trail, three miles of newly traffic-calmed streets and nearly one mile of new bike lanes, Ithaca is moving toward sustainability and livable, inclusive neighborhoods as prioritized in the city’s Comprehensive Plan and the county’s Long Range Transportation Plan.

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