Archive: Around Town

Trumansburg and Taughannock Falls. Siamese twins who depend on each other. Trumansburg feeds the vacationers to the falls, and the falls draws the vacationers. It's fitting that there should be a restaurant in the village named 'The Falls'.

Like most of the other places I've reviewed, I've passed The Falls Restaurant, usually on my way somewhere, but writing these columns has its benefits – giving me a reason to try new places and tastes. There are always cars outside the restaurant, so the regulars must know something.

The Fine Arts Booster Group (FABG), an affiliate of IPEI, has awarded $2,720 in grants to 5 Ithaca City School District (ICSD) projects that will reach 579 students. Funded projects include support for Ithaca High's Visual Arts Memory Project; Beverly J. Martin Elementary's "All in a Day" with dancer Lisa Tsetse; Combined District Jazz bands will learn from jazz artist Nick Weiser; Boynton Middle Schools guest artist master tuba player ICSD alum Cristina Dougherty; and Lehman Alternative School's mural project with artist Mary Beth Ihnken. Booster Grants Chairperson Susan Zehnder states, "It's always exciting to see what the teachers propose, and rewarding that we as the Fine Arts Booster Group can support their efforts."

Grant funds are made possible through Fine Arts Booster Group performance booklet ad sales and donations. The boosters produce performance booklet programs for middle and high school concerts and plays, totaling over thirty events each year.

Seneca Falls - Citing the need to combat the heroin and opioid crisis in our communities, Senator Pam Helming recently hosted a roundtable discussion titled "Addressing the Heroin & Opioid Addiction Crisis" at Generations Bank in Seneca Falls. The event brought together 20 people with a variety of perspectives on the epidemic, including law enforcement, emergency services, medicine, public health, treatment and prevention, public education, and parent advocacy.

With Helming moderating, the group discussed how to stop the addiction crisis and focused on prevention, education, treatment, and giving law enforcement the tools they need. As a member of the New York State Senate Task Force on Heroin and Opioid Addiction, Helming has made putting an end to this epidemic among her main legislative priorities.

The Ithaca Public Education Initiative (IPEI) has awarded more than $20,000 to Ithaca City School District (ICSD) teachers for a range of projects connecting community and curriculum— from STEM and social justice to creative arts and literacy.

A total of $8936.27 was awarded for 22 Red and Gold Grants; $13,212.00 was awarded for 11 Teacher Grants. In addition, three Connecting Classroom applicants were invited to move forward with formal proposals.

County Administrator Joe Mareane today announced the appointment of Dr. Kenneth I. Clarke, Sr. to serve as Special Advisor to the Tompkins County Office of Human Rights. Dr. Clarke will provide executive leadership and oversight to the Office in the absence of a full-time Director.

Dr. Clarke has been engaged in a variety of social justice, community, and professional activities throughout his career.

Lansing Middle School's 'Guys and Dolls Jr. has two performances to go: Tonight at 6:30 and tomorrow (Saturday) at 2pm.

The YMCA of Ithaca & Tompkins County and Foodnet are partnering to bring Foodnet's congregate meal program to the YMCA three days a week. Starting on Monday, November 6, 2017, the YMCA of Ithaca & Tompkins County will host one of Foodnet's social dining sites on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 11:30am-1:30pm.

Teresa Morehouse, associate executive director of the YMCA of Ithaca & Tompkins County says, "Hosting a Foodnet congregate meal site complements the Y's commitment to strengthening community; we know that lasting personal and social change comes about when we all work together."

Tweet

Geneva – Senator Pam Helming today announced that six county fairs in our region will receive state funding to help them improve their facilities and promote New York agriculture. The 2017 Agricultural Fairgrounds Infrastructure Improvement Program that Senator Helming supported was approved as part of this year's state budget. Fifty-two local fairs around the state earned a combined $5 million that will be divided equally among them.

The Trumansburg Fair in Tompkins County, Cayuga County Fair, Monroe County Fair, Ontario County Fair, Seneca County Fair, and the Wayne County Fair will each receive an award of $96,153.

The Sciencenter will donate 50% of all admission proceeds from November 10 to the Association of Children's Museums and the Association of Science-Technology Centers to support science and children's museums affected by the multiple natural disasters of the past months, both in the U.S. and Mexico.

November 10, 2017 is the second annual International Science Center and Science Museum Day (ISCSMD) in conjunction with UNESCO's World Science Day for Peace and Development. On this day, science centers and science museums around the world share current research and present interactive activities about topics such as climate, human health, conservation, and other global issues.

The Ithaca Tompkins Regional Airport now offers all jet service.  County and airport officials hosted a celebration Monday to commemorate the news.  The United Airlines E145 jet landed Monday Morning, then took off again for Newark after taking on more Ithaca passengers. 

"Our airport is critical to our local economy," said Air Services Board Chairman Michael Stamm.  "There isn't a connection to an interstate.  We have rail service, but that's generally used for coal and salt, not passengers.  So our airport is the portal to our international economy that we sell our goods and services to. This new air service is critical to our economy, and we're working hard to do everything we can to make sure that it meets the needs of our customers that are typically people that are traveling internationally to sell their goods and services."

Dear Margaret: My mother passed away a few months ago. I'm executor of her estate. In the midst of my grieving, some of her grandchildren are contacting me on a regular basis to see if they can come onto her property and go through her belongings and see if there is anything they want. Some of the grandkids have made requests for specific items. I've been keeping them at bay so far, and my brothers are bugging me to start cleaning up and letting their kids in. I know I don't want everything in the house, but I'm not able to even think straight at this point to begin distributing her belongings. How can I handle this without looking like I'm being selfish?
Slow to Settle

When Yael Saar was 6, she lost her mother to postpartum depression. Thirty-three years later, after the birth of her first son, Saar nearly lost her own life.

After recovering and having a second son, Saar felt compelled to support other women suffering from postpartum depression. So in 2012, she started Mama's Comfort Camp to offer peer-to-peer emotional and social support to mothers in the region through group meetings and an online Facebook forum. Now with two grants totaling $11,000 from the Community Foundation of Tompkins County, Saar and a team of volunteers have begun to transform the group, which serves more than 2,300 mothers locally, into a professionally run organization.