- By Dan Veaner
- Around Town
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Happy Anniversary!With this issue the Lansing Star is one year old. While the Star began "sporatic reporting" in April of 2005 with a story about the resignation of School Superintendent Corliss Kaiser, our first regular issue appeared July 22. One of the top stories was the approval by the Town Board of the Cingular Cell Tower at the corner of Conlon and Searles Roads. Another covered the Town Board's debate about granting benefits for employees who are in non-traditional couples.The Lansing Library had just checked out the new Harry Potter book for the first time, and had hosted a Vaudeville show as part of its Summer Reading Program. The Star featured the historical Rogue's Harbor Inn and had the first of a three part interview with Lansing Schools Athletic Director Ed Redmond (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3). Our first Star of the Month was beloved 2nd grade teacher Sue Frahm.
The Star is a Mom and Pop operation. Mom was behind the camera
at the 2005 Fire Department Carnival, where we first introduced
the newspaper to Lansing
| "The Lansing Star is a great new community asset. I love it. I check it every week to see what's happening with the sewer, and I check the obituaries, and now I like the food column and the movies. It's a great local community asset." |
By far the biggest ongoing story has been the progress of the Town sewer committee in their quest to bring sewer to the Town of Lansing. But it would be hard to pick a favorite story of for the year. An exciting one was the airplane crash on Reach Run. It was a miracle story in which nobody was hurt, despite the plane nicking a house and landing in the yard of a dense neighborhood with lots of children. The bad weather probably saved lives as everyone stayed indoors.
Possibly the most inspirational story was the one about four year old Blake Hunter, who saved his Mom, Meredith Sears, and their home when he discovered their kitchen was on fire in the middle of the night. That was a testament to the Lansing Fire Department. Blake had attended one of their programs only days before and learned what to do in case of a fire.
| "I congratulate the Lansing Star on its first anniversary. You have become a fixture in the community, in just year. I know that the Town of Lansing Board agrees with me. I hope that the community will continue to support your efforts. Thank You, for a job well done." |
The most moving story had to be the Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) drunk driving demonstration. Our front page picture showed Lansing fire fighters wrapping student Kayla Griffin in a body bag as Kirk Shreve and his crew from Lansing Funeral Home stood by. Some students were very upset -- one actually fainted, injuring himself and was whisked away by Bangs paramedics who were on hand as part of the enactment.
The most joyous story was the dedication of Lansing's only synagogue. The congregation had been meeting in Ithaca's Unitarian Church. They marched their Torah from the church to its new home in Lansing, taking turns holding it. When it arrived it was greeted by the joyous blatt of many shofars, the ceremonial ram's horn used most notably to herald the Jewish New year, Rosh Hashana.
| "The Lansing Star has quickly become an essential facet of life in Lansing. Most people I know view it to be their primary means of gaining insight into what's going on in our community. Personally speaking, the Star has been an invaluable resource in helping me to acquire insights into the community's perceptions and priorities as they pertain to our schools. Congratulations to the Lansing Star, its writers and editors for an extremely successful inaugural year." |
The most fun for me was seeing children on field trips , excelling in school , or just having fun. In sports it was incredible how successful Lansing kids are at every level from Recreation Department programs for young kids to Varsity teams.
The most controversial stories came from the Board of Education this year as they struggled to hire a Superintendent who wouldn't leave after one year, to pass next year's budget and craft a capital project that will be acceptable to taxpayers. Equally compelling has been the saga of Lansing's sewer and the struggle to bring it to realization.
When I started this article I realized I wouldn't be able to include everything here. But I want to thank Lansing for supporting the Star. When we started out we wanted to try to fill the shoes of Matthew and Aline Shulman, who published the beloved Lansing Community News for five years. Matthew wrote a guest editorial for our first issue and unbeknownst to me called Town Supervisor Steve Farkas to tell him a new newspaper was coming to Lansing. So when I introduced myself to Steve I was surprised when he said, "Oh I already know about you!" The Town and Village have been very supportive of our being here, and in appreciation we named a star in the northern sky after Lansing and presented it to the Town Board in January.
I hope we do a fraction as good a job as the Shulmans did to keep you informed with "all the news from home." We wanted the Star to be an on-line main street for Lansing, a resource to keep people informed, to give residents a voice, and to celebrate a great place to live. I look forward to reporting our second year and hope we can continue to serve the community for many years to come.
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