TompkinsWeekly: January 2015

Sunday, January 25, 2015

TompkinsWeekly for the week of January 26th

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Pipeline Project Questioned
Landowners in Dryden and Freeville are angry about the $1 offer they received from the New York State Gas and Electric Corp. (NYSEG) for a permanent easement giving the utility the right to use their property to install and maintain a 10-inch underground gas pipeline, and permission to sell the easement to third parties.

Morey, Snyder in Special Election
Voters in Tompkins County’s 9th District will choose betwen Republican candidate Glenn Morey, Groton Town Supervisor, and Democrat Neil Snyder, also of Groton, in the Feb. 10 special election to fill the unexpired term of former Tompkins County legislator Brian Robison.

Marcia Fort offers a call to action on Martin Luther King Jr. celebration page 2
“In Ithaca, let us all be dissatisfied until the reality in our 10 square miles is one of justice, equality and humanity,” said Marcia Fort, director of the Greater Ithaca Activities Center (GIAC), to a cheering crowd at GIAC’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Community Breakfast.

Personal accounts to be aired at “People’s State of the Union’ page 3
In what is being touted as a “new national civic ritual,” more than 150 story circles are being hosted throughout the U.S. between Jan. 23 and 30 to give voice to the “People’s State of the Union.” A local gathering will be held in Ithaca at The Space (700 W. Meadow St.) from 6:30 to 9 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 30.

Lane targets state mandates at legislature meeting page 5
In his annual message to the Tompkins County Legislature on Jan. 20, Legislature Chairman Mike Lane said challenges for the year ahead come in the context of county residents’ needs.

Signs of hope in wartorn Kosovo page 8
While serving recently in Macedonia with the Peace Corps, my Country Director announced that the Peace Corps would be opening in the bordering country of Kosovo. We had been prohibited from going there until a year or two before, so immediately I was interested. I knew very little about the war they had seen 15 years ago with Serbia, only that America had helped them considerably while President Clinton was in office.

Kitchen cast tries living in the past page 9
The Kitchen Theatre begins the New Year with a multi-generational production written by artistic director Rachel Lampert. The latest in a series of career-long plays about her own life, “Count Me In” stars Lampert, features composer Larry Pressgrove and is directed by Emily Jackson. Costume Designer Hunter Kaczorowski and Sound Designer Lesley Greene enhance both the characters’ appearances and the mood within the framework of the play.

Environmental racism through the years page 10
In the introductory column on environmental racism and sustainability published here on Dec. 8, it was noted that a key moment in the movement for environmental justice came in 1987 with the publication of the United Church of Christ Commission for Racial Justice’s “Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States.” This report put the issue of environmental racism before the public in a new way.

Sunday, January 18, 2015

TompkinsWeekly for the week of January 19th

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Truck Safety Under Scrutiny
Last June a truck driver hauling an oversized rig carrying cars made a fateful decision on his approach to the City of Ithaca. At the intersection of routes 13 and 366, the driver chose the latter. Somewhere along the way the driver, uninsured, unfamiliar with the area, and possibly with the American language, lost control of his vehicle while traveling down East State Street and crashed into Simeon’s Restaurant.

Wind Farm Moves Forward
It’s been a long road, but Black Oak Wind Farm in Enfield is finally close to breaking ground this year. The wind farm will include seven GE 1.7- megawatt turbines, which will generate about 11.9 megawatt of electricity. Cornell University has provided a big boost to the project, agreeing to purchase all of the power generated by the wind farm.

County Legislature seeks increased scrutiny of online short-term rental operations page 2
After hearing a presentation from Tompkins County Tourism Coordinator Tom Knipe, the Tompkins county Legislature recently approved a resolution encouraging New York State to address issues related to the growth in short-term online rental services, such as Airbnb.

Tracker focuses on animals and habitat page 3
Mammals, unlike birds, can be hard to observe in the wild. Many are active at night and wary of humans. But if we don’t know where local mammals are, we can’t protect the habitat they use. Enter Keeping Track, a Vermont-based organization dedicated to training volunteer wildlife and habitat monitors to aid in conservation.

Land Trust adds parcel to Park Preserve page 5
The Finger Lakes Land Trust has announced today that it has purchased 25 acres as an addition to its Roy H. Park Preserve on Irish Settlement Road in the Town of Dryden. This acquisition expands the preserve to 242 acres and helps buffer Six Mile Creek—the source of Ithaca’s drinking water supply.

Bluegrass festival returns to Ithaca page 8
The fifth annual Winter Village Bluegrass Festival, running Jan 23- 25, returns to The State Theatre of Ithaca with The Travelin’ McCourys with special guests Mr. Sun featuring Tony Trischka and Darol Anger, bluegrass marvel Michael Daves and fiddler Brittany Haas, and local favorites Richie Sterns and Rosie Newton Saturday Jan. 24, at 8 p.m.

Our esteemed film critic bids adieu page 9
In his Gettysburg address, Lincoln predicted “The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here …” It’s hard to know if he really believed this, but there’s no doubt it applies to critics. Of all the professions disrupted by the Internet, professional art criticism was an early casualty. With their profit margins under siege, many newspapers and magazines simply eliminated such stories. Once, every daily newspaper employed at least one full-time movie critic from the local community. Now most just print reviews from syndicated, out-of-town “celebrity” critics— if they print them at all.

Renters find their comfort zone page 9
Chilly drafts are one way of learning where Arctic air is sneaking into our homes. And bare spots on an otherwise snow-covered roof show us where heated air is escaping instead staying inside to keep us warm.

Sunday, January 11, 2015

TompkinsWeekly for the week of January 12th

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Climate Activist Takes a Hike
Charles “Greenrider” Chandler, a climate activist, retired engineer and grandfather from Fort Bragg, Calif., is currently on a 22-day, 220-mile hike around Cayuga and Seneca lakes. He has created a GoFundMe website (www.gofundme.com/silentwinterhike) to raise money for We Are Seneca Lake (WASL), a group dedicated to preventing the storage of highly pressurized natural gas and liquefied petroleum gases in abandoned salt caverns adjacent to Seneca Lake.

Legislature Leadership Reelected
The Tompkins County Legislature voted to retain Michael Lane as chairman and Jim Dennis as vice chairman at its 2015 organizational meeting on Jan. 6. The two positions are filled each year by a majority vote of legislature members.

Remembering when boats played a vital role in local commerce page 2
Last week, as part of First Friday Gallery Night, the Tompkins County History Center unveiled the second installation of “Captains, Commerce, and Community: The Impact of the Erie Canal on Tompkins County,” with a focus on boats and boat-building in the area. The first installation, which opened in September, showcased commerce, while the last installation, which will run until June, will explore the lives of travelers and community folk.

Discovery Trail sees KDT as a priority page 3
Imagine: A program where elementary school students discover the world—here in Tompkins County—and gain experiences that inspire them to become more engaged students, better critical thinkers and lifelong learners.

The most noteworthy films of 2014 page 7
As a rule, this writer doesn’t go in for “best of the year” lists. When it comes to movies, the exercise verges on the pointless, because many of most prestigious releases don’t even arrive in Ithaca until early the following year—and who wants to read about “the best of 2014” in March of 2015? Nor do the 35 to 40 movies reviewed here in a typical year amount to more than a tiny fraction of what should be considered.

Teacher grants are awarded by IPEI page 8
The Ithaca Public Education Initiative (IPEI) has awarded 17 Teacher Grants totaling $25,000 for projects to be carried out during the 2014-15 school year. The grants are designed to enhance learning for some 1,700 Ithaca City School District (ICSD) students.

Sunday, January 4, 2015

TompkinsWeekly for the week of January 5th

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Sagan Still Inspires Followers
Utica resident Patrick Fish was an inquisitive young boy attending a strict Catholic school system. He questioned the dogma and orthodoxy. His teachers said his thoughts were simply “stupid” and, bascially, told him to obey.

Problem-Solving and Survival Skills
Boynton Middle School sixth-grade students in Vinnie Alcazaren and Keith Harrington’s classes completed a four-week study of pandemics and geography with a culminating project that brought the 40 students to 4-H Acres on Halloween to practice their survival skills with Primitive Pursuits staff members.

Youth can benefit from sharing goals, and reflecting on personal growth page 2
As we greet the New Year many of us use this time of self-reflection to craft resolutions to improve ourselves in the coming year. From healthier eating habits, to increased exercise, to our own elimination of procrastination, often resolutions are focused on our own improvement.

Tax exemptions available to many county residents page 2
The Tompkins County Department of Assessment is mailing renewal applications to all senior citizens who received an exemption on the 2014 Final Roll pursuant to Real Property Tax Law Section 467 (senior citizens with a limited income). Since the Senior Citizen Exemption eligibility is based upon income levels, the renewal application must be filed each and every year by March 1.

Create a better comfort zone in your home page 3
Was the warmth of your holiday season dampened by cold drafts? If you felt a chill wind while hanging out at home with friends and family, take steps now to increase the comfort of your home and save on heating costs.

Shakespeare Company prepares to present cycle of history plays page 6
Over the next two years, the Ithaca Shakespeare Company will present a cycle of Shakespeare’s English history plays, beginning with “Richard II” at the Hangar Theatre, Feb. 13-21.

Authors will present their works at Cornell Reading Series page 6
The Creative Writing Program of Cornell’s English Department launches the spring 2015 Barbara and David Zalaznick Reading Series on Thursday, Jan. 29, at 4:30 p.m., at the Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium in Goldwin Smith Hall, when Caribbean fiction writer Tiphanie Yanique will read from her works.

Drummer keeps the beat for jazz trio page 7
The Argos Inn has quickly become Ithaca’s pre-eminent jazz venue, as well as one of the loveliest spots to hear music in the area. One of the elements that makes the music presented at the inn stand out is that many of the musicians play a regular weekly gig there over an extended period of time.

Twelfth Night event is all about telling tales page 8
The annual Twelfth Night Comm-unity Celebration is an evening of story-sharing, merrymaking and imagination, to mark the end of the holiday season. It will be held on Saturday, Jan. 10, at the Unitarian Church in downtown Ithaca beginning at 7:30 p.m.

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