Archive: Around Town

Aurora, NY - From above, Earth appears as a water planet with more than 71 percent of its surface covered with this vital resource for life; water impacts climate, agriculture, transportation, industry and permeates art and music in cultures the world over. Wells College, in cooperation with the Museum Association of New York, will examine water as an environmental necessity and an important cultural element as it hosts "Water/Ways," a traveling exhibition from the Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street (MoMS) program.  "Water/Ways" will be on view Friday, Aug. 16 through Sunday, Sept. 29 at Louis Jefferson Long Library on the Wells College campus in Aurora.

"Water/Ways" explores the endless motion of the water cycle—water's effect on landscape, settlement and migration, and its impact on culture and spirituality—while also looking at how political and economic planning have long been affected by access to and control of water resources. The exhibit also examines the ways human creativity and resourcefulness continue to provide new avenues for protecting precious water resources and renewing respect for the natural environment.

The National Science Foundation awarded Cornell University on Thursday $54 million to create CHEXS, The Center for High Energy X-ray Sciences. CHEXS will be a sub-facility of the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source, more commonly known as CHESS.  CHESS is a national research facility that annually attracts more than 1,200 users who conduct X-ray analysis and collect data for research in materials, biomedical and other science fields. CHESS has been funded exclusively by the National Science Foundation since its commissioning in 1980. In April of 2019, Cornell transitioned to a new funding model in which multiple partners will steward facilities at CHESS.

"NSF's support will enable the creation of CHEXS, an exciting new center that will help keep high-energy, x-ray research at the cutting edge," said Anne Kinney, head of NSF's directorate of Mathematical and Physical Science. "It also marks a new phase of NSF's support for CHESS at Cornell. We now have a partnership that will continue to advance science across a multitude of disciplines."

Lansing Middle Schools's 6th Grade Green Team lobbied the Board Of Education (BOE) at its June 17th  meeting to reduce single-use plastic use in their cafeteria.  A couple of weeks ago at the July 8th meeting School Business Administrator Kate Heath reported to the board on how the Food Services department is responding to the student's ideas.  Heath said she met with Food Service Supervisor Sandra Swearingen about changes that will be implemented next school year.

"We're going to use spoodles, which are basically metal sporks with a knife on the side, K through 12, so all three buildings will have spoodles," Heath said. "We're going to move to paper straws, as opposed to plastic straws.  And we're going to move to single-serve yogurt.  Right now she gets those disposable cups that they put yogurt in in bulk.  She'll move away from that and go to single-serve yogurt, because those cups are recyclable.  We're going to look at more changes we can make moving forward.  But those are some really simple, easy things we can do that can make a huge difference."

The New York State 'No Student Goes Hungry' program has five laudable goals: to ban school lunch shaming, require schools to offer breakfast at high-needs schools, expand the Farm-to-School program, increase the use of fresh fruit and locally grown foods served in school cafeterias, and require food pantries on all SUNY and CUNY campuses.  The program offers increased "the reimbursement schools receive for lunches from the current 5.9 cents per meal to 25 cents per meal for any district that purchases at least 30 percent of its ingredients from New York farms".  For districts like Lansing the 30% is a catch-22.  Lansing doesn't receive enough aid to be able to afford to buy 30% of its food from New York farms.  But Lansing School Business Administrator Kate Heath told the Board of Education last week that Food Service Supervisor Sandra Swearingen will do what she can.

"Sandy and I have had conversations about that," Heath said. "While reaching the 30% mark is probably not obtainable for us, it doesn't mean we don't do it, because doing some of these initiatives is still the right thing to do, bringing healthier, fresh foods to our kids.  We also want to look at opportunities to include students via student gardens, sample tasting opportunities and some other projects to get student and faculty buy-in."

By Adam Kramarsyck

Meet Henry, a handsome 2.5 year old boy. He is very shy of people for now but he gains confidence from having another cat around. His previous owner describes him as being playful on his own. He absolutely loved chasing balls around the house, but he does not play interactively with his human friends. He is neutered, micro-chipped, and up to date on his vaccinations. He is just waiting for the perfect home. Is it yours? NYS Reg. RR254

Visit the SPCA Web Page

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Each year May through November marks 'Kitten Season' for animal shelter staff when more than 600 kittens come through the doors of the SPCA's rescue building. Before finding their forever homes, kittens—those not old enough yet to stay in the Pet Adoption Center—live with the shelter's dedicated foster families until they have been fully vaccinated and are old enough to be spayed or neutered.

The SPCA is already seeing a high volume of kittens coming into the shelter and already have dozens available for immediate adoption. "Unfortunately, this is creating quite a backup of cats and kittens for us" says Executive Director Jim Bouderau. "While our population was low coming out of the winter, we have dozens of cats who require single cat only homes."

Tompkins County is one of 53 local health departments across the country to be recognized for innovative public health projects in response to critical local public health needs. The National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) awarded Tompkins County Health Department with two 2019 Model Practice Awards at the Annual Meeting in Orlando, FL last week. The two awards are for Ithaca College Public Health Initiatives and the SafeCare® Program.

On July 16, the Health Department presented at the regular meeting of the Tompkins County Legislature. Rachel Buckwalter, BSN, RN, Community Health Nurse and Nina Saeli, Public Health Preparedness Coordinator each provided a 5-minute description of their respective programs.

The National Historical Publications and Records Commission, a branch of the National Archives and Records Administration, announced the award of a Public Engagement with Historic Records Grant of $132,946 to The History Center in Tompkins County in support of HistoryForge, a dynamic way to explore local history using census records and historic maps.

Rod Howe, Executive Director of the History Center, states that "This award is an impressive achievement for a small history center and a tribute to three years of hard work by the project manager, Bob Kibbee, the web developer, David Furber, History Center staff, and the hundreds of volunteers who have worked on the project over those years. Special thanks to Julia Corrice from the South Central Regional Library Council for developing a convincing metadata plan for the grant proposal. We are already using HistoryForge to back our popular programs exploring neighborhoods and ethnic and professional groups and look forward to using the grant funds to continue to develop this powerful new way of exploring our local history."

As it looks more and more that the moratorium on new natural gas will be permanent in the Town and Village of Lansing, government officials and residents have been asking  what New York State will do to to provide 'energy equity' for the Lansings.  The question was partially answered Monday when HeatSmart representatives explained to the Town Planning Board the benefits of heat pump technology and New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) incentives for installing it.  Intensives that are specifically targeted at the Lansings because of the moratorium.

"NYSERDA came up with this clean action plan in response to these gas moratoria, saying we're going to help these communities to transition off of fossil fuels onto more sustainable types of home heating," said Lansing HeatSmart Coordinator Lisa Marshall. "The way they're going to do that is to lower energy costs for consumers, promote economic development, and deliver more resources."

The weather was quite warm, but family and friends of Lansing seniors filled the bleachers to watch the Class of 2019 graduate from Lansing High School last Friday (June 28th).  As she has each year Lansing High School Principal Colleen Ledley listed the classes collective accomplishments before the degrees were awarded.

"This year we honor 75 graduates," Ledley said. "I am proud to say that over 58% of the class of 2019 will be receiving a Regents Diploma with Advanced Designation. Out of 75 of our students 9 have earned a Technical Endorsement through their work at TST BOCES in addition to their diploma.  23 of our seniors have been recognized as scholar athletes.  11 of our seniors will be joining the workforce, an internship or the military. 13 students will be attending a 2 year college and  51 will be attending a 4 year college."