TompkinsWeekly: November 2015

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.

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