Archive: Around Town

On Sunday, September 8th, the YMCA of Ithaca & Tompkins County hosted its 2nd Annual PizzaPOLLooza! Members and Non-members alike were able to sample pizza from 10 participating pizzerias from Ithaca and surrounding areas.

The pizza parlors showed up with as much pizzazz as their pies could muster—from Joe's fresh-flatbread bruschettas to College Town's sizzling margheritas and A-1's diverse array of delectable thin-crust slices—ready to battle Ned's, the defending champion, who swept first place in all three categories last year.

Doug Lewis, manager of the Air Traffic Control Tower in Ithaca, was today presented with the 2013 “Manager of the Year” award in a special ceremony at the Ithaca Tompkins Regional Airport.

Doug has been a controller in Ithaca since May 2001, previously recognized as Controller of the Year in 2005, and became tower manager in April 2007.

Randy Walls, Manager of Air Traffic Services, Eastern Terminal Service Area, for Midwest ATC Service, flew in to present the award to Lewis in recognition of his exemplary service as tower manager as well as his dedication to safe aircraft operations by initiating and conducting annual educational sessions for the region’s private pilots in and around Ithaca.

Atlanta, GA - The National Society of High School Scholars (NSHSS) announced in August Lansing High School Student Meeta Shrivastava was selected to become a member of the esteemed organization. The Society recognizes top students who have demonstrated outstanding leadership, scholarship, and community commitment. The announcement was made by NSHSS Founder and Chairman Claes Nobel, a senior member of the family that established the Nobel Prizes.

“On behalf of NSHSS, I am honored to recognize the hard work, sacrifice, and commitment that Meeta has demonstrated to achieve this exceptional level of academic excellence,” said Mr. Nobel. “Meeta is now a member of a unique community of scholars—a community that represents our very best hope for the future.”

The Alcohol & Drug Council’s Clinical staff just completed an intensive FIT (Focus on Integrated Treatment) series of training sessions through the Center for Practice Innovations’ Learning Community. This training provides our professional clinicians with knowledge and skills needed for effective treatment of co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders.

The Cayuga Medical Center Foundation announced that this year’s annual gala, An Evening to Care, had the largest support from our community ever – with the highest attendance ever – 360 people.

The gala raised a net of $108,000 to support Cayuga Medical Center Foundation’s 2013 fundraising initiative – The New Maternity Center Project. Of the $108,000, $32,700 was raised by an auction with auctioneer David Hall of National Book Auctions and Jean McPheeters of the Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce presiding over the live auction.  All of the auction items were generously donated by local businesses and members of our community.

Children in need have access to food programs in their schools that make sure they get at least one square meal each school day.  But those programs don't cover weekends.  The Food Bank of the Southern Tier instituted the Backpack Program™ to provide nutritious, kid-friendly food for Saturdays and Sundays.  That means they have to raise three dollars per kid for each weekend in the school year.  This week Q-Country 103.7's Chris Allinger is "Walkin' the Country" to feed as many kids as possible.

"The idea is that they take a bag of food that is easy for children to prepare themselves if they have to... peanut butter, tuna fish... simple food," Allinger says.  "While the kids are on the playground they discreetly put it in their backpacks inside the school.  The kids take it home and they've got enough to get them through the weekend.  Many times the families share in the food that they're getting.  Three dollars.  For $120 that child can be taken care of for the whole school year."

TCAT riders will get the chance to experience clean, green, cutting‑edge technology on hydrogen fuel cell bus that will be added to the Ithaca‑based transit agency’s fleet – likely within the next 12 to 18 months.

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Transit Administration top official today announced $13.6 million in federal funding to advance the commercialization of American-made fuel cell buses for the transit industry through FTA’s National Fuel Cell Bus Program.

The Snug Planet truck was parked out front and the backyard was full of sawhorses and stacks of insulation, but no one was in sight. After a few more shouted greetings, a muffled response was heard from the depths under the house, followed by the masked visage of Phil Allmendinger, one of the limber and hard-working crew from this successful local green energy business.

Phil was hard at work in the crawlspace of the Buckholtz home in the Town of Ithaca. Max Buckholtz, a noted local musician and composer, had recently received the fifth grant from the Finger Lakes Climate Fund, which allowed Snug Planet to proceed with desperately needed work to address unhealthy and energy-wasting conditions under the house. This household of five includes a small child with health issues intensified by the mold and mildew from the damp crawlspace polluting their indoor air.

Tens of thousands of dogs suffering in substandard, filthy, and overcrowded cages for years on end will finally get the protection they deserve as a result of a rule the U.S. Department of Agriculture will formally adopt today. This change, a long-held aspiration for The HSUS, the Humane Society Legislative Fund, and the Doris Day Animal League, is decades in the making and will extend federal oversight to thousands of puppy mills that do business online.

Of the dozens of puppy mills that The HSUS has assisted in closing down over the past five years, the vast majority were selling puppies online and escaping any federal oversight because a loophole in federal Animal Welfare Act regulations exempts Internet sellers. Because large-scale dog breeders who sell animals to pet stores are regulated, but breeders who sell directly to the public are not, there has been a massive migration of breeders to the latter sales strategy within the last decade or so. If they could sell dogs and escape any federal oversight, why not get in on that act and continue to cut corners on animal care?

The Sciencenter will celebrate science in Ithaca by participating in a 30th Anniversary Scavenger Hunt, open to the public for 30 days, September 20 – October 20.

The unique scavenger hunt will include a variety of questions and challenges. Participants will embark on a fact-finding mission around Ithaca, conducting science activities and learning historical facts about the Sciencenter.

The New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) will hold an open house meeting on Tuesday, September 17, regarding a culvert replacement project on Route 38 over a tributary to Egypt Creek in the town of Dryden, Tompkins County.  The open house will take place from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the Dryden Public High School auditorium, located at 118 Freeville Road, in Dryden.   Preliminary drawings for the upcoming project will be available for review and representatives from NYSDOT will be present to answer questions.  No formal presentation is planned.

The culvert is located on Route 38 approximately 0.4 mile west of the intersection of Routes 13 & 38 and is adjacent to Dryden Public High School.  It carries a ten-foot lane and a six-foot shoulder in each direction over the tributary to Egypt Creek.  The average daily traffic is 4,550 vehicles.

Have you visited Salt Point recently?  You have probably noticed significant changes since only a few years ago.  It's cleaner.  There is significantly less unpleasant and illegal behavior.  There are nature trails instead of the hole-pocked roads that used to thread through the wooded area.  Salt Point is a lot closer to the original management plan vision of a natural area conducive to hiking, hunting, bird watching, and other quiet activities.

"It has really cut down on poor driving and racing of cars," says Lansing Councilwoman Katrina Binkewicz, who has taken the lead on improving the park.  "Last year we had a flipped car and people were almost run down by people racing up and down.  There was poor behavior here such as drug sales and fighting.  If the police came one way the troublemakers would escape in the other direction on the loop.  So they really couldn't catch people who were misbehaving.  Now if someone is drunk and disorderly down on the beach the Constable can walk down and have a conversation with them and give them a warning."