Archive: Around Town

When Larry Fresinski left the Village of Lansing earlier this year to move to Las Vegas, it left an opening on the Village Board of Trustees that was only filled a few weeks ago.  Pat O'Rourke has been appointed to fill out his term until next April's election, at which time she will decide whether or not she will run for a full term of her own.  O'Rourke was born and raised in London, England, and came to Ithaca with her husband in 1978 when he got a job teaching Civil and Environmental Engineering at Cornell.  They moved to the Village in 1986, and their daughter is currently a junior at Ithaca High School.

Lansing Star: Have you been involved in the Village government before?  

Pat O'Rourke: I was initially involved with the Sundowns development, which didn't happen, years ago.  I would have joined one of the boards sooner -- the Planning Board or Trustees -- but I only became a citizen of the U.S. about four years ago, so now I'm eligible to be in office.

LS: Did you have an interest in government before?

PO: Not necessarily government.  Over the years I've served on lots of committees.  I was on the local bank committee many years ago when I was in business.  I've been on the Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce Board.  I was on the Family and Children's Board for several years.  But most of that was when I was in business.

I actually owned a business in the Village of Lansing.  I co-owned it with another person, and then for the last eight to ten years I ran it on my own.  It was Quinlan O'Rourke Travel.  So, since I've lived here I've been involved with the travel industry.  Then I merged with a downtown agency, Beam Travel, and it became O'Rourke Beam Travel.

In 2001 I decided it was time to maybe look at something else.  We sold the business, and I went back to school.  Going back as an older student is not easy, but doable.  I got my degree at Wells College.  I went to TC3 for a year and a half, because my records from England were so far back that they decided they needed me to take a few more exams.  Then I transferred to Wells College and came out with my Bachelor's Degree in psychology.

One of these days I think I will go back to get my counselling degree.  I'd love to counsel youth.  I'm very interested in children and youth counselling.  But at the moment I'm substitute teaching in the Ithaca School District.  This suits me because I can not necessarily work every day.  I'm available to take my daughter around to various activities.  I can work, too, so that's nice.

LS: Are you part of the Community Party?

PO: Yes, I am.  Why did I decide to do this?  I spoke to the Mayor.  I just felt it was time for me to do something in the Village, because I was interested in what's going on.  If you're interested in what's going on, a good way to find out is to be a Trustee.  There is a tremendous amount of building going on and new things happening in the Village.  It's where I live.  It's my community, so I thought rather than asking questions maybe it was a good way to find the answers.

When Mayor Hartill said that the position had opened up as a fill-in position because of Larry Fresinski relocating, to me that sounded good because it would give me six to eight months to see if I really liked it, and then I'd have to run if I decided to continue.

So it was a nice way to test the waters, so to speak, and to see if I'm suited for it.

Right now it's very new, so I'm a little overwhelmed after just two meetings and all the things going on.  I'm sure things will be a lot clearer.

LS: You've lived here for a long time, so you obviously have a sense of the place...

PO: Definitely, and my daughter was born and brought up here, and she adores it here.  Well, we all do.  The reason we came back here was that my husband was an undergraduate at Cornell and his dream was to come back to teach.  And we've been here since '78, so that's been 32 years.

LS: So you have an idea of what you like now.  What would you like to see change in the Village?

PO: One thing I would like to see -- we obviously need development.  We need that tax base -- but I would not like to see it overpopulated, because one of the nice things about the Village is that too much building has been (prevented).  I'd hate to see lots of housing complexes come along.  I think the planning board has done a great job of keeping it low key.

I think the Village has done a very good job so far.  I'd hate to see another downtown devlop around Route 13, not that I think we have the space for that.  There are parts that still are pretty and it would be nice to keep it that way.

LS: This village is a little unusual because it doesn't have a village.  I think it was (Trustee) John O'Neill who said to me that the character of this village is in its neighborhoods.  Do you think that's true, or would you like to see a small village square some day?

PO: I think the character is in the communities.  We're not like a typical village.  We don't have this village area.  Ideally it would be lovely to have some of the parks like they have in places like Boston, where they have a village square area.  I would like that.  I think that would bring people together and we would be more noticeable as a village.

I must admit that when people say to you 'where do you live' and you say 'the Village of Lansing', numerous times they have said 'where is it?'  Then you explain that it starts with the bridge and it has this area.  Then you have to explain how it all happened.

But the people that live in the Village feel we are a village.  And we're very proud to say it's the Village of Lansing.  Not to say that we have anything against (the Town of) Lansing, but we're our own little neighborhood.

You equate it to some of the neighborhoods downtown.  I think of Fall Creek.  It's Ithaca, but it seems like it's it's own little area and they'd like to keep it that way.  That's where I am right now on that.


LS: What particularly would you like to be involved in?

PO: I'm very interested in the youth in Ithaca and in Lansing.  I want to get more involved in what's happening for youth with all these different committees.  I think that's going to be one of my projects, so to speak.  I have touched base with some of the downtown people.  I just want to get a feeling for what's going on, and are the youth of the Village participating.  If we are allocating funds for that it would be nice to know that our kids were using it.

I think going in as a trustee is going to help a lot more than just going in as a private person and saying I'd like to know what's going on.  Being interested in youth, too, made me interested in doing this.  Funds are tight, so you need to know where to allocate them and who is using them.

I'd like to take that as one of my major involvements as a Trustee.

LS: Do you have other key areas of interest that you know you would like to pursue, or are you waiting to see what responsibilities you will inherit from Larry Fresinski?

PO: I want to help another trustee, Lynn Leopold, because she has so much on her plate.  Now she's been made Deputy Mayor, so I think she needs some sort of help.  I know she attends every Planning Board meeting.  I'm going to go to the next Village Planning Board meeting just to see if I could maybe trade off -- where I go to a couple and she goes to a couple...  I will offer to help there.  I've already spoken to Lynn.  It will be nice to ease her load.

LS: What are you looking forward to as a trustee.  Has anything struck you in the two meetings you've attended so far?

PO: What struck me is they're a very congenial board.  They're very, very nice and friendly, and it's very efficiently run.  I've been to board meetings in the past over the years and you can sit there for hours thinking, 'what did we do?  Anything?'

So far I haven't gotten that feeling.  That's a nice thing because I like to be able to go to a board meeting, find out what has got to be done, and get decisions made.  That's one thing I've noticed in the two meetings I've been to.

The other thing I'm looking forward to is being part of what's going on.  Take this deer hunting issue... I didn't even know there were areas that have agreed to come together where they allow hunting.  It's things like that.  That's exciting, because it's what's going on around you.  Maybe the questions I've wanted to ask for the past few years I can now ask.

Learning all of that is going to be really good.  I'm a great question asker.  I love to ask questions.  Years ago I'd be afraid to put my hand up and say I don't understand something, but now I'm not.  I'll say nobody understands that so can you explain it before we vote on it?  I'm looking forward to that.

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