TompkinsWeekly

Sunday, September 27, 2015

TompkinsWeekly for the week of September 28th

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New Volunteer Outreach Effort
Nationally the number of volunteer firefighters has been decreasing for years, and locally that trend makes it hard for local fire companies to respond to all of the calls. To reverse this trend, MBA students at Cornell’s Johnson School have launched a multi-year study to research why number are declining and to propose ways to recruit more volunteers.

Hazards Persist at Ithaca Falls
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is once again removing lead-contaminated soil at the base of the gorge at the Ithaca Falls Natural Area, near the intersection of Lake and Falls streets in Ithaca. This time, the federal agency is taking out some 200 cubic yards of loose stone and lead-contaminated soil from a quarter of an acre of land.

City of Ithaca seeks county funding for waterfront parks page 2
Tompkins County Legislators acting as an Expanded Budget Committee last week continued deliberations on County Administrator Joe Mareane’s recommended 2016 county budget, with presentations from six more county departments and agencies.

Quilters find inspiration in adversity page 3
One evening in 2003 Aafke Steenhuis heard a loud bang in her front yard and went to investigate. A car had crashed into a large tree, killing two young people she’d known from her West Hill neighborhood. The crash and its aftermath were traumatic experiences for her, but they unleashed a torrent of art in the form of quilts.

Local writer has some “Damn Good” stories to share page 5
Reading Steve Lawrence's local column over the years, I never thought of it as a sports column per se, but rather as a community column. Covering triumphs and defeats, births and deaths, personal stories woven with universal truths, Lawrence uses sports as a metaphor for life. The same can be said of his new book, for even as the stories recount very personal tales, they also show how we are all connected.

Open Studio dates are a chance to meet the artists page 8
The 2015-16 season of the Community Arts Partnership’s Greater Ithaca Art Trail has begun. The trail’s two October Open Studio weekends, on Oct. 10 and 11 and 17 and 18, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day, give art enthusiasts the opportunity to take a self-guided tour of 37 artist studios that are open simultaneously throughout the county.

About women and the choices they make page 9
Now playing at Cinemapolis, “Grandma” is a little movie with a big heart. Paul Weitz’s best film since “About a Boy” (2002), it gives Lily Tomlin not only the lead, but a compelling character to boot.

Exhibit spotlights feminist activism page 11
The Wells College String Room Gallery announces the opening of “Practical Work,” a group exhibition featuring historical and contemporary examples of artwork made to advocate for feminist social justice causes.

Sunday, September 20, 2015

TompkinsWeekly for the week of September 21st

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2 Seek Open Legislature Seat
Tompkins County Legislator Kathy Luz Herrera, who represents Ithaca’s Fall Creek and Northside neighborhoods, announced her immediate resignation on Sept. 15. The next day, two candidates stepped forward to run for her position.

Writer Touts Whistleblowers’ Role
Syndicated columnist and whistleblower defender Norman Solomon emphasized the role that whistleblowers, such as Edward Snowden, play in shining the spotlight on deceptive government policies during a lecture sponsored by the Park Center for Independent Media at Ithaca College on Sept. 10.

Dog day afternoon planned in Ithaca page 2
Dog-lovers, and their well-behaved canine companions, are invited to Cass Park for the second Ithaca Dog Fest on Saurday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Families with room for new dogs in their hearts and homes can meet available pets while perusing vendor booths, enjoying food, and listening to an acoustic string band.

Youth Bureau seeks to build its mentoring programs page 3
The Ithaca Youth Bureau (IYB) held a concert at Stewart Park on Sunday, Sept. 20, to rally community members as the organization pushes to meet the goals established in the Community Mentoring Challenge.

Luz Herrera resigns from the legislature page 5
Saying that he provides the information “with a heavy heart,” Tompkins County Legislature Chair Mike Lane relayed to his colleagues at their Sept. 15 meeting a message from Legislator Kathy Luz Herrera (D-District 2) regarding her resignation from the legislature, effective Sept. 16.

A contemporary fairytale on the big screen page 8
Cornell Cinema brings us the Ithaca premiere of the remarkable “La Sapienza” by the Americanborn but decidedly French director and writer Eugène Green on Thursday and Sunday, Sept. 24 and 27.

Diva’s prize possessions on display page 9
A plum satin evening gown, heavy with jet beads and stiff on the mannequin. A porcelain automaton doll, awash in a froth of lace, whose tiny hands float up to blow perfect, round bubbles from perfect, round lips. A restaurant-grade frozen yogurt machine, whirring with tidy efficiency beside a candy-red popcorn maker. Behind the counter, a man waits, gracious and only a little ridiculous in his turn-of-thecentury sleeve garters and apron.

Young musician displays many talents page 10
Owen Lennon is happy. His gig with the punk rock band Anansi drew a good crowd at the Chantiloft downtown. “I've got this ringing in my ears and these blisters on my heels and I think I’m in love with life,” he posted on his Facebook page after the performance.

Sunday, September 13, 2015

TompkinsWeekly for the week of September 14th

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Pipeline Measure Approved
The Tompkins County legislature approved a resolution on Sept. 1 that asks the New York State legislature to assess the health and environmental risks associated with new, large-scale natural gas pipelines and compressor stations. The measure passed by vote of 10-3.

The Struggle to Make Ends Meet
Most locals will tell you that the costs of living in Ithaca and Tompkins County are high, higher than neighboring communities.

City Comes Alive with Celebrations
The streets of downtown Ithaca will be bustling on Sunday, with three celebrations rolled into one as Streets Alive!, the Food Justice Fair and the Latino Multicultural Festival and Parade all take place.

The Tompkins County Legislature begins 2016 budget review page 2
Tompkins County Legislators acting as an Expanded Budget Committee last week began review of County Administrator Joe Mareane’s recommended 2016 county budget, hearing the first eight presentations from county departments while beginning a committee review process that will run through most of October.

Extolling the value of indigenous wisdom page 3
Robin Kimmerer is a botanist who studies mosses and restoration ecology. On Sept. 2 she kicked off the Cornell Plantations fall lecture series with insights on the contributions of indigenous ecological knowledge to our understanding of the natural world.

Workers converge for Labor Day Picnic page 5
Efforts to push for a living wage for local workers, and higher education employers, were in the spotlight at the 32nd annual Labor Day Picnic sponsored by the Midstate Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO, and the Tompkins County Workers' Center. The theme this year was “Organizing for Success,” and a throng of local union members and labor supporters gathered at Stewart Park in Ithaca to enjoy a picnic-food buffet on a sweltering day.

Documentary profiles a jazz icon page 8
The legendary jazz innovator and iconoclast Ornette Coleman died this summer. Known for kicking off the Free Jazz movement of the 1960s, he also experimented with fusion and African mysticism, electronic, and classical. Polyrythms, instruments playing in different keys, fragmented melodies, lack of a pianist laying down harmonic chords at center, all characterize his revolutionary approaches.

Cherry Artspace sets up shop in Ithaca page 9
It’s no secret that Ithaca theaterlovers have it good. Like, really good. For a city of our size and location, we have an impressive number of local theater offerings to choose from on any given evening.

Examining diversity on the farm page 10
It’s that special time of year; new beginnings, old endings, school starts and our little ones depart. On Sunday, Sept. 20, the first conscious effort (of my knowing) to bring three non-profit 501C3s in a collaborative effort as a team, to inform all communities of diverse backgrounds and to highlight the preliminary work being done in our community and afar.

Sunday, September 6, 2015

TompkinsWeekly for the week of September 7th

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Pipeline Measure Approved
The Tompkins County legislature approved a resolution on Sept. 1 that asks the New York State legislature to assess the health and environmental risks associated with new, large-scale natural gas pipelines and compressor stations. The measure passed by vote of 10-3.

County Budget Proposal Unveiled
Tompkins County Administrator Joe Mareane has delivered to the county legislature a 2016 Recommended County Budget that maintains services, reinvests in infrastructure, addresses organizational pressure points and remains within the county’s projected property tax cap.

Reading marathon provides a boost for the library page 2
The Tompkins County Public Library’s (TCPL) annual fundraiser is moving apace toward its goal of collecting $25,000, and the highlight of the drive, a 24-hour reading marathon starting at noon on Friday, Sept. 15, is almost full-up with eager readers.

New farmers connect with land owners page 3
The cost of starting a new farm can be prohibitive to beginning farmers, so Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) has established a LandLink program to connect landowners who would like their land farmed with beginning farmers looking to get established or current farmers looking to expand.

Legislature takes city properties off of the tax rolls page 5
The Tompkins County Legislature, by unanimous vote at its Sept. 1 meeting, approved an agreement for the county to forgo collection of county taxes, for the years 2014-16, in an amount not to exceed $5,400, on two parcels on Lake Street, now owned by the City of Ithaca, adjacent to the Ithaca Falls Natural Area, in support of the parcels’ addition to this public resource.

Cornell fundraising at an all-time high page 8
In a banner year for fundraising, Cornell University raised $672.9 million in fiscal 2015 that ended June 30, vaulting the Cornell Now campaign above $6 billion and setting new records for dollars raised and participation. Cash giving to the university totaled $590.6 million, surpassing last year’s record $545.4 million.

Growing pains, and pleasures page 9
It’s been a good season for girls (that is teen or younger) in film. From the major studios we had Pixar’s “Inside Out,” with its gutsy, lonely pre-teen soccer player, and Brad Bird’s “Tomorrowland,” with a teen girl rebel-scientist; from Studio Ghibli, a haunting story of the strength of girl friendship in “When Marnie Was There.”

Better building practices promote energy efficiency page 10
In Tompkins County, as in most places, our built environment—the collection of buildings we live, work and play in—is responsible for a large portion of energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. This article describes two projects that the City of Ithaca and the Town of Ithaca are working on to address this issue: the Residential Energy Score Project (RESP) and energy efficiency standards for new construction.

Sunday, August 30, 2015

TompkinsWeekly for the week of August 31st

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Food Recycling Effort Grows
Food scraps recycling is proving popular in Tompkins County, with the Solid Waste Division recently reaching the 2,500 mark in the number of recycling tool kits distributed to residents.

‘Savor’ Event Shares Local Bounty
The Finger Lakes region is blessed with more than 100 independent breweries, wineries, cideries and distilleries, plus a vibrant variety of farms, artisanal food producers and restaurants. Yet not everyone can afford to take advantage of our region’s bounty, a situation that the Healthy Foods For All (HFFA) program hopes to remedy.

IC gets grant for STEM student program page 2
A $600,000 grant from the New York State Department of Education will aid Ithaca College in its efforts to increase the number of students who have been traditionally underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and health-related fields.

Museum’s Dino Lab adds new attraction page 3
Steggy, a life-sized stegosaurus presiding over the Museum of the Earth’s new Dino Lab, is not just a life-sized representation of a dinosaur that lived over 144 million years ago, he’s also a piece of history. Constructed from papier-mâché for the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition, Steggy spent the next 107 years at the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC.

Local currency issues new notes page 5
The development of Ithacash as an alternative currency took another step forward as they unveiled the design of the $5 Ithaca Dollar (i$5) note at an Aug. 20 ceremony at Rev: Ithaca Startup Works on the Commons. Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick, Jennifer Tavares of the Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce, Gary Ferguson of the Downtown Ithaca Alliance and numerous community members showed up to show their support.

Yiddish Festival planned in Ithaca page 8
Yiddish theater grabs you by the kishkes (guts) and doesn’t let go. Now the tradition that inspired Broadway is coming to Ithaca, with all the humor, pathos and meaning of its long history.

On the Road with David Foster Wallace page 9
What if someone filmed a seriousminded bromance? Which is just what James Ponsoldt’s “The End of the Tour” is, though not without abundant humor.

Sustainable land use, past and present page 10
Understanding and using historical ecological knowledge to properly manage the landscape is one of the great tasks of landowners in our time. Over the past 50 to 100 years, forests around the region have been coming back, due largely to the widespread abandonment of farm fields. The inevitable restorative nature of the forest is a blessing to our generation, but one we must not take for granted. With rising fuel costs and an increasingly extractive culture, we have a danger of repeating the mistakes of the past, of turning an emerging legacy into devastation.

Sunday, August 23, 2015

TompkinsWeekly for the week of August 24th

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Day of Giving Has Broad Appeal
Starting at 12:01 a.m. on Friday, Tompkins County will hold its first “Giving Is Gorges” campaign, a 24- hour countywide day of giving. The online challenge celebrates local nonprofits and affirms the community’s culture of giving. More than 100 area nonprofits have signed up for the event.

Lifton Petitions for Airport Rule
Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton (D- 125th District) and several of her upstate Assembly colleagues have signed a letter urging the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to uphold the 1,500-mile perimeter rule at LaGuardia International Airport in Nerw York City.

County legislature approves an agreement with union page 2
A new, three-year collective bargaining agreement between Tompkins County and its White Collar Unit (Civil Service Employees Association, Local 855), the county’s largest employees union, was approved by the Tompkins County Legislature on Aug. 18. Approval came without dissent, with Dan Klein abstaining since a family member is covered under the White Collar contract. Union membership ratified the tentative agreement July 30.

Sheriff’s Office seeks more funding page 2
The Tompkins County Legislature’s Public Safety Committee is considering a request from the Tompkins County Sheriff ’s Office to appropriate more than $360,000 from the Contingent Fund to cover anticipated shortfalls in the 2015 budget related to overtime expense in the Road Patrol and Corrections divisions, and inmate boardout costs.

Time to celebrate completion of the Commons project page 3
A two-day bash to celebrate the long-awaited completion of the Ithaca Commons construction project will be held Friday and Saturday, Aug. 28 and 29, with something for everyone in downtown Ithaca.

Entrepreneurs create new recipe for fast food page 5
A new Ithaca-based company, MacroFuel, will launch a Kickstarter campaign on Monday, Aug. 24, to raise capital for production of its namesake product, a powdered meal alternative that claims to be different from those already on the market.

New season begins for Cornell Cinema page 8
The colleges have started up; cars turning the wrong way on the oneway streets around the Commons, long lines at Wegmans, a lot more people everywhere. One silver lining to the end of a sultry summer is that Cornell Cinema has also started up for its fall screenings.

The Pope’s plan for saving the planet page 9
“Laudato Si’, mi’ Signore”— “Praise be to you, my Lord”—so begins Pope Francis’ June 2015 encyclical on the environment. The Pope quotes from a famous canticle (chant or religious song of praise) composed in 1225 by Saint Francis of Assisi.

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