Tompkins Weekly for the week of November 16th

Download the newspaper in Acrobat Format Here 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. Full Story »   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. Full Story »   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. Full Story »   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. Full Story »   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. Full Story »   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. Full Story »   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. Full Story »   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. Full Story »   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. Full Story »