Archive: Around Town

The Lansing Fire Department carnival has become a tradition that residents look forward to every May.  Adults and kids alike enjoy the rides, games, carnival food, demonstrations and entertainment at the three day event.  Most popular are the hours when a bracelet gets you onto unlimited rides, and demonstrations by the Tompkins County Sheriff's office are a staple.  Highlights of the weekend are the fireworks and the parade, a favorite for kids who love catching candy thrown from passing fire engines and floats.

Fire Commissioner Dennis Griffin wants this year's carnival to be more community oriented, with more businesses participating.  He hopes to have more booths this year where businesses can sell things or provide demonstrations.  "We want to get the community more involved," says Griffin.  "If there are businesses out there we want them to come in and set up so people know that they're part of Lansing."  He says that it is OK to sell items at the booths as long as it doesn't interfere with Playland's business, which is part of the Fire Department's contract with the amusements provider.

Griffin says he also wants to encourage more businesses and groups to participate in the parade.  "Every time we do the parade you see the same old thing," he says.  Griffin hopes to get more variety into the parade.  "I'd like to see more floats, and people and businesses who want to do something."  He also wants new people to be judges for the parade.  In the past such Town luminaries as Councilwoman Connie Wilcox have been judges.

Griffin says he'd like the carnival to fill the void left when the Community Council stopped producing Lansing Day.  He'd like to get Boy and Girl Scouts involved as well as other groups in the community.  He says the Department views the carnival as a community event, not just a Fire Department event.  "It would be nice if the Town and the Fire Department could get together and make it a community weekend.  We're trying to get the community more involved," he says.


The Fire District and Department are two separate entities.  The District pays for the fire stations and equipment and pays expenses to do with the emergency services.  When the Fire Department raises money it is used for community events including the carnival, the annual golf tournament, Easter Egg Hunt and other events.  The golf tournament raises money so the Department can give a $1000 scholarship to a high school graduate.  In fact the Easter Egg Hunt is coming soon, scheduled for April 15 this year.


Each year the Department contracts with Playland Amusements, an Auburn firm run by Joe and Roberta Sofo.  "One of the things I like about Joe Sofo is that he's out of Auburn, and he gets very offended if you call him a 'carny'.  He says, 'I bus my staff here and I bus them home at night,'" says Griffin.  "He takes pride in his business.  After they set up he tells his staff, 'OK people, showers, shirts, remember who you are.'  Over the years if we've had problems, I've gone to him and they were corrected immediately."

The fire department only makes about $3,000 on the carnival each year.  They get a flat fee for each game and food booth plus a percentage of the ride ticket sales.   How much they earn it is dependent on the weather.  "The reason it got started was that one of the previous chiefs felt that we needed to give back to the community," explains Griffin.  "That was the feeling of the chief, which I liked.  We started the carnival, and every year we do it."  


Griffin says, "I like the carnival because I think it gives everybody a chance to come out and see people they haven't seen."  This year he is hoping they will also see more Lansing groups and businesses there as well.

The carnival is scheduled for May 25, 26 and 27, rain or shine.

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