Archive: Around Town

This week TCAT Announced its Holiday and January 2007 Schedule. 

Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit (TCAT) bus service will be modified slightly during the holiday and January winter break season. The schedule changes are:

Mark S. Lewis The end of the 2006 calendar year brings to a close the first year of my service to the Lansing school and community—a fitting time to reflect on the year’s high and low points and focus on the future. Although the list that follows highlights some of the more apparent circumstances, it is by no means exhaustive. Lansing is an ever-changing, dynamic school community that continuously endeavors to adapt to the complex needs of Twenty-First Century students. In any event, here goes:

Administrative Leadership
Stable leadership is essential to a district’s effectiveness.

The district’s administrative team consists of eight members: superintendent, business administrator, director of curriculum and staff development, director of special programs, building principals (3), and high school dean of students/athletic director. Four of the eight members of the administrative team were appointed within the past twelve months. There is now more stability and permanence within the district’s leadership ranks than has been the case for some time. A fifth new administrator in a little over eighteen months will be appointed this spring when the new principal of R.C. Buckley Elementary School is chosen to follow interim principal, Earlene Carr.

Lansing School Superintendent Mark Lewis presented the results of the 2006 English/Language Arts (ELA) and Mathematics testing at the Board of Education meeting last week.  The results were generally good, but mixed, with 3rd and 4th Grade scores below New York State and Tompkins County, and Grades 5 through 8 matching or exceeding them.  But Lewis says he sees this data as an opportunity for the district to improve.  "We will share this data with teachers to initiate a dialog about how to use this data in the most effective way," he said.

In fact, he illustrated how detailed the data is, and how he plans to use it as a stepping stone for improving performance where needed.  Using a test question based on a Tolstoy passage that 8th graders did poorly on, Lewis said, "That's a basis for discussion.  Taking a look at the item, taking a look at the standard that it measures, and initiating a dialog about what types of strategies we can introduce to bring that number up."

Pet of the WeekHi there my name is Lacey! I am a black cat, but I’m not bad luck! I am declawed so I won’t scratch up your furniture. I am a very beautiful girl so won’t you please come and visit me at the SPCA.

Visit the SPCA Web Page



----
v2i49

Healing WellAnger manifests itself in two ways. We internalize anger. We experience feelings of anger directing it toward ourselves. This behavior represents our own internal depression or suppressed hostility. It can be a short term coping mechanism, but its long term affects are destructive.

People who choose to suppress their anger do so in several ways. Some repress their anger immediately forgetting it or placing it out of the way to be dealt with later or not at all. Others may completely deny its existence and pretend events that provoked the anger never happened. In either response, the failure to find a positive release for this anger causes further harm. Fear, frustration, physical and emotional illness, embarrassment, and guilt are just a few of the feelings that are experienced by people who direct their anger inwardly.

Light in Winter 2008 Receives Grant from New York State Music Fund Ithaca, New York, December 21, 2006 - The Light in Winter Festival announced today that it is the recipient of a second grant from The New York State Music Fund ("The Fund") for Light in Winter Festival 2008.

The 2008 festival will continue Light in Winter's unique approach to science and the arts by programming around the theme of "Identity". The New York State Music Fund was created when the New York State Attorney General's Office resolved investigations against major record companies that had violated state and federal laws prohibiting "pay for play" (also called "payola").

Despite setbacks Lansing officials still plan to bring the oldest known building in Tompkins and Cayuga Counties home to Lansing, where it was originally built in 1749.  At one time the two counties were combined, so when  the cabin was discovered in 1958 the Cayuga Museum in Auburn wanted it.  Later that year the cabin was disassembled and moved to Auburn.  Now the museum wants to dispose of the cabin, and Lansing officials hope to bring it home to make it part of a future Lansing Historical Trail.

A couple of months ago the museum e-mailed Town officials, giving them until January 1 to remove the cabin, or the museum would do it themselves.  The holdup in doing that comes down to money.  Town Officials want the cabin, but not at taxpayer expense.  "We looked at it a couple of years ago and the costs were pretty high," says Town Councilman and Deputy Supervisor Bud Shattuck.  "DOT approval and the things we needed to get done prohibited us from doing it right away."

Thanks to the coordination efforts of a Cornell University intern, several large-scale fleet operators in Tompkins County have committed to buying biodiesel in 2007.

Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit, the Ithaca City School District, Tompkins County, Cornell University, and other not-for-profit and public sector buyers have sent word to New York State that they will commit to a total purchase of 561,000 gallons of biodiesel fuel. The commitment will allow the state to bid out procurement of the fuel, which has not previously been available in Tompkins County.

"The 2006 holiday season is on track for a relatively healthy and prosperous performance," says a report from the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC).  "Despite the worry that the consumer is 'tapped out,' the evidence seems more -- not less -- encouraging that consumer cash flow is improving."  

Pyramid Mall of Ithaca Marketing Director Linn Redder says that while the pattern of shopping is different this year, that prediction should prove true in Ithaca over the course of the holiday season.  "Black Friday went very, very well for some, and for others it was slow," she says.  "But the ICSC saw the trend that the traffic was going to be high.  That sales would be so-so for some.  The trend was going to be that people would come out on Black Friday to take a look at what they want to buy.  I'm pleased with Black Friday."

Steve ColtAnyone who has children in Lansing knows about the Parks and Recreation Department.  And chances are you have talked to Park Superintendent and Recreation Director Stephen Colt.  Steve has presided over an enormously successful recreation program for about 20 years, giving Lansing a lot more bang for its buck than you would imagine in a small rural community, and providing programs and facilities in the parks that are popular and well used.

A lifelong Lansing resident, Colt and his wife Ann have one son, Thomas, who will begin student teaching history in the Groton schools this Spring.  Surprisingly for the sheer scope of the programs the department offers, he only has two full time employees, Patrick Tyrrell , Maureen Muggeo.  But with his engaging style and relentless hard work he has managed to enlist hundreds of volunteers and to attract top notch instructors and coaches for programs that range from soccer, skiing, and basketball, to art, drama and karate.

Lansing Highway Department's new salt and sand storage building is up and running after months of planning, engineering and building.  Looking like a cross between a gigantic Quonset hut and a tent, the new structure towers over the old salt storage building.  With more than 14 times the storage capacity, the new building will hold all 4000 tons of sand needed for a winter season, and enough salt to take care of at least three snow storms.  "It's quite a building," says Highway Superintendent Jack French.  "It's going to help us tremendously."

French estimates the building will cost $180,000 when all the bills are counted.  But this is less than it could have cost.  French estimates his crew saved the town $25,000 to $30,000 by doing the work of laying the concrete slab and walls themselves.  "Most highways don't have the talent," he says.  "That's a big job.  They took pride in it and enjoyed doing it, and they know they're going to get a huge benefit out of it."