TompkinsWeekly for the week of February 2nd

Download the newspaper in Acrobat Format Here Road Salt Problem Persists Within its winter cloak of ice and snow, the stream that flows by the Ithaca/ Tompkins County Convention and Visitors Bureau in Stewart Park hides a secret. Full Story »   Getting the ‘Boot’ in Ithaca Do you owe the City of Ithaca for an outstanding parking ticket? If so, the city wants to collect, and how. With some $1.5 million in unpaid tickets out there, it's no wonder. Full Story »   County Council of Governments to take a closer look at municipal courts page 2 The Tompkins County Council of Governments (TCCOG) has endorsed the creation of a study panel to review, on its behalf, the current structure and operations of the municipal court system. The panel will be asked to identify potential ways to sustain and improve the efficiency of operations and quality of justice provided by the town and village courts. Full Story »   Mosaic Project grows, piece by piece page 3 In weather better suited to carving ice sculptures, leading members of the 1st Street Mosaic Project met in January to plot the logistics of creating two new installations: “Gaia’s Garden” and “Plantastic!,” which will complement “Power Plant,” a 35-by-7-foot work completed in August. Full Story »   Comprehensive Plan published by county planners page 5 The Tompkins County Planning Department has released the draft 2015 Tompkins County Comprehensive Plan for public review. The Plan is available on the Department’s website for review a t www.tompkinscountyny.gov/com plan. Full Story »   Cornell library puts historical document on display page 8 Abraham Lincoln spent a lifetime working to end slavery in America, but he did not live to see it completed. “Lincoln’s Unfinished Work,” Cornell University Library’s newest exhibition, marks the 150th anniversary of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. Congress passed it on Jan. 31, 1865, but it wasn’t ratified by the required three-fourths of the states until December of that year, long after Lincoln’s death on April 14. Full Story »   Operetta helps Cornell ring in 150th anniversary page 9 The chimes of Cornell ring throughout the campus; it’s a familiar sound that has echoed through the generations. But within those reverberations resides a tale swathed in romance and greed, a tale of the chimes’ origins that have been lost in the echoes of 150 years. Full Story »   Developmentally disabled seek social justice and respect page 10 It is pretty well accepted that any vision of “sustainable community” must include social as well as economic and environmental justice. Race, class, income level, education, ethnicity, age, gender; we know the -isms. I’m writing on behalf of a group that more often than not gets left out: the developmentally disabled. Full Story »   Human Rights Revisited: a celebration page 11 The Human Rights Commission (HRC) and the Office of Human Rights (OHR) will host Human Rights Revisited on Friday, Feb. 6. This event will include the rescheduled “Diversity of Perspectives” panel that was cancelled due to inclement weather on International Human Rights Day, Dec. 10, and the award ceremony for the first annual “What Would MLK Say Today?” poster contest. Full Story »