Archive: News

Today marks the 6th anniversary of the Lansing Star.  On July 22, 2005 the first issue was published, featuring a series of articles about the Rogue's Harbor Inn, an update on the Searles Road cell tower, a proposed domestic partner policy for town employees, a report on the beginnings of the triphammer Road reconstruction project, and something we were most proud of, an editorial by Matthew Shulman, the editor of the Lansing Community News that kept residents in touch with the town from 1996 until 2000.

Like the Lansing Star, the Lansing Community News was a mom and pop operation published by Matthew and his wife Aline with contributions from local writers.  The paper was tabloid in format, a free paper available at popular local spots.  I always made sure to pick up my copy, and looked forward to learning what was going on around town.

Matthew also had a peppery editorial style, often taking local officials to task.  He covered many of the same issues we cover in the Star, and as I look at some of his old headlines they bear a striking resemblance to headlines I've written.  Low attendance at school budget hearings is a perennial headline.

He also wrote some outstanding profiles of Lansing people and businesses.  I loved the in-depth piece he did on the Cargill Salt mine with the headline "City of Salt Spreads 2300 Feet Beneath Cayuga Lake."  And his April Fools article about a helipad going into the field across the street from the Town ballfields was a classic, with one resident actually getting ready to sell their house to get away from the helicopter noise.  That story inspired my own April Fools piece last April about the county airport moving to the same field.  We certainly got a range of reactions to that one!  Although I was careful to include an April Fools note at the bottom, evidently some people didn't read the whole thing, because they believed it.

We've been proud to be the successor to The Lansing Community News, and were lucky to receive Matthew and Aline's blessing and support when we came up with the idea, plus advice that has proven to be right on target.  We have continued some of the traditions they started and tried to come up with some of our own as well.  The Lansing Community News lasted about five years.  My goal was to publish the Star for five years and then see what happened.

Next week we begin our seventh year.  The town and its people are as interesting to me now as in 2005.  There seems to me to be a new excitement about Lansing as the idea of a town center has finally taken root and is beginning to yield tangible results.  A new sewer project seems more likely to succeed than the last one did.  A revitalized Lansing Community Council has turned expectations upside down, adding plenty to the already rich fabric of the community.  I don't know where people in the town get the energy to do as much as they do to make the community and the world better.  But they do, and that provides the material for the Lansing Star.

I remember talking about the prospect of a newspaper back then and wondering if enough was happening in Lansing to sustain a weekly newspaper week after week.  We had committed to the idea and I was having cold feet moments panicing about the prospect of having no news for issue after issue.  Was there enough news here to make a newspaper worthwhile?

The answer must be yes, because we have cranked out 48 issues every year for six years.  This never would have happened without our readers and advertisers, and especially the countless people in the community who have contributed articles, columns, comics and content to their community newspaper.  Six great years reporting an a really great community.  And looking forward to our seventh.

(Click here for last year's anniversary interview about the Lansing Star.  And click here to see some archived issues of The Lansing Community News.)

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