Archive: Around Town

Ithaca … Can’t come to the shelter? Let the shelter come to you!! Dogs and cats from the Tompkins County SPCA will be at PetsMart on Saturday, January 14th from 12pm to 3pm, looking to find their forever home.

All animals will be spayed/neutered before adoption, are current on their vaccinations and have received a general health and behavior screening.

Before Monday night's Board of Education (BOE) meeting could begin Dan Brown had an amendment to the agenda. "Take 'Interim' out 'Recommendation of Interim Superintendent of Schools,'" he suggested. Indeed Lansing's new Superintendent Mark S. Lewis has been on the job for a week since he began on Thursday, January 5th. Monday he made his first report to the Board.

Lewis has unofficially worked with the board and Interim Superintendent Tiffany Phillips over the past three months, getting up to speed, and participating in the Capital Project work. Last month the BOE held a reception in the Middle School to allow residents, faculty and staff to meet the new Superintendent. "It was an honor for me to be able to share my activities," he told the Board, "but in the next breath to be able to interact with parents and students and staff members about the status of education in the Lansing School District and where we're going from here. There's only one way and that's to continue moving forward."

When you walk into Linda VanApeldoorn's Lansing home office you find yourself in a bright attractive space. The view from the second story room is lovely, and the layout of the space is cheerful and conducive to working. She worked from home once before and didn't like it. "The difference is that I didn't have a designated space where I could close the door and walk away from it. It also wasn't a nice space. I love this space. For me it has a lot of energy. The colors are bright, I have a good view, it's a nice space and a comfortable space to be in. That makes a huge difference."

VanApeldoorn works for a Syracuse-based company called E-Rate Exchange that specializes in filing forms for school systems to get federal grant money for Internet access and communications, part of the 'No Child Left Behind' program. Her boss and the other employee, a Florida woman, work from home offices as well. She had worked with her boss, Shari Dwyer, at a former office job. Dwyer left to start her company and when it became busy she asked VanApeldoorn to join her. Getting the job this way addressed the issues of trust and of interviewing. "I knew Shari before I started working for her," says VanApeldoorn. "So it wasn't an issue of her not knowing me or how I worked."

Chief Scott Purcell reported that while the number of calls to the Lansing Fire Department has remained about the same, the number of calls not responded to has been cut by two thirds this year. He told the Fire Commissioners in their Tuesday meeting that he attributes the drop in "no responses" calls to the use of the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) duty vehicle the department used this year. Ironically, the total number of emergency calls this year was 911, the same as the number you dial when you have an emergency.

All the "no responses" were EMS calls, mainly in the Village of Lansing and all on week days during normal work hours. During these times Bangs Ambulance responds. "They don't go because they know Bangs is there," explains Purcell. "By the time they get to the station and get en route they're going to get half way there and get turned around unless it's serious." The Department responded to all night and weekend calls this year.

Imagine a school very similar to ours. It sits in a rural community, five to ten miles from the city and is near a lake. The big difference between our school and this one is that this one is located in Kenya. The Mbaka Oromo Primary School, Lansing's partner school in Kenya, has 540 students, 80 HIV/AIDS orphans and 9 teachers, including the principal, who also teaches. The Kuoyo Secondary School is also involved within the partnership.

The partnership between the schools began last spring with a group of parents and students who were concerned with how the Lansing community could rally together and help some of the desperate situations in Africa. A fundraiser planned by the PALS (Partnership of African and Lansing Schools) and a support group of parents took place last June to rebuild the roof on the school and was a great success. A chicken barbecue was held, games were played, musical groups preformed, and over $5500 was raised.

Only 30 voters participated in the Lansing Fire District election that was held at the end of last November.  When Town Councilwoman Connie Wilcox asked what the election cost, commissioners estimated the uncontested race cost between $500 and $1000, costing taxpayers between $17 and $33 per voter.

The district maintains two voting sites at Central Station and the Oakcrest Road fire house in Lansing Village.  With half of emergency calls from the Village, Commissioners feel they must maintain this second polling place, even though only four people voted there.  The second polling place was established in 1992.

CurlyHi my name is Curly! I was rescued in New Orleans. I am a adult pit bull mix and I am a great friend that needs a little love why don’t you start out your new year with a new friend! Please consider adopting me at the A.S.P.C.A.

Visit the SPCA Web Page

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Ask IMOAsk IMO

 Lansing's Advice Column


Dear IMO,

I recently entered into a debate with a co-worker about New Year’s resolutions. I told him that they were silly, a waste of time, and a sign of weakness in a person’s character. Millions of people declare their intentions to lose weight, quit smoking, play a musical instrument, write a book, and other resolutions too incredulous to mention. By the second week of January, those poor fools find themselves eating more, smoking more, finding places to hide their music lesson book, and still working on paragraph one of their great novel. They would be better off not making any such resolutions and leave the rest of us in peace.

As I finished my last sentence, he glared at me and responded with some uncharitable words that described me as Scrooge’s sister. He also used the words, “heartless, callous, and miserable old wretch.” His anger and outrage surprised me.

Making New Years Resolutions is, surprisingly enough, one of the world’s oldest customs! The majority of research resources agree that it probably started in 153 B.C., when the image of a mythical king of early Rome was placed on the Roman calendar. With two faces, King Janus could theoretically look back on past events as well as forward to the future. The Romans named the first month of the year “January”, after Janus, and began a custom of making resolutions because they felt the two faces of Janus were symbols of both beginnings and endings. Thus, at midnight on December 31, Romans exchanged gifts and made resolutions as they imagined Janus looking back at the old year and forward to the new.

Julius Caesar is credited with developing the Julian calendar in 46 BC. His goal was to have a calendar that would more accurately reflect the changing of the seasons than had the previous calendars. He decreed January 1 the beginning of the New Year. A later change had December 25, the commonly celebrated date of Jesus birth, as the date of the New Year. Yet another change established March 25 a holiday called “The Annunciation”, for New Year‘s Day. Finally, in the 16th Century, Pope Gregory XIII revised the Julian calendar, and the celebration of the New Year was returned to January 1.

As I was putting together this week's edition I read with interest Marie Almon's Worship column, which deals with New Years resolutions, their history and some resolutions from figures in Lansing's worship community. She mentioned a Web site with facts about New Year traditions, so I went to look.

I haven't been able to work up the enthusiasm to make resolutions this New Year, so I really needed help. The web site lists the top 10 most common New Year resolutions, so I thought, "why not pick some of them?" So I pick 1, 4, 7 and 10. I would add 8, but I don't actually work with anybody. Well, I do, but our offices are on opposite ends of the house and we get along pretty well anyway.

Every January 1 for the past 44 years bird enthusiasts in Tompkins County have gotten up early to count birds within a 15 mile circle. This year about 100 participants, organized by the Cayuga Bird Club, surveyed a circle that includes Lansing, Ithaca, Dryden, Caroline and Danby. The circle was broken into nine regions, including one that includes Lansing as far North as the southern end of Myers Park. Eleven counters covered the Lansing area, participating in what the Audubon Society calls "citizen science.".

"Observers identify and count all the birds they see or hear," says Lansing birder John Greenley. "At the end of the day, all gather for a pot-luck supper at the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology in Lansing, and the counts are totalled and announced for all to hear."

The Lansing Star Online stepped into the news Thursday when the publication presented a star to the Town at the Town Board's first meeting of the new year. The publication named a star for the town, officially calling it "The Lansing Star." It is located in Ursa Major, also known as the "Big Bear" constellation. This places it in the Northern sky near the "Big Dipper" so that residents can easily find their town's new star.

"This community is filled with inspiring people in it that make you want to do and be better yourself," said Editor Dan Veaner in a prepared presentation. "It's a caring hands-on, involved community. It's a town that takes care of its people without excesses in governance or taxes. Karen and I are grateful for the positive response the newspaper has had here, and this is a symbolic way we can give back."