TWO TREATS in OnE WEEk

Typically, when our offspring asks us what happened in the previous week, as they often do, we find it hard to list anything beyond a grocery shopping event, maybe two wash-and-dries in the cellar, vacuuming, etc., and, for my spouse, a game of pickle ball. They look at us as some kind of slackers when it comes to having interesting lives. I guess the explanation should include some kind of footnote indicating that, when we were their age, we did do more interesting things. Now an interesting thing is a nap.

But, this week, we had something beyond our so-mundane existence to share. Two things, actually.

The first is difficult to categorize and so I will share it in story form.

It was early evening, I had retired to the family room to watch the news on PBS. While I was intent on absorbing the information being shared by Goeff Bennett, I felt a light push on the end of my right foot. And … how do I put this and capture my delight … there was an opossum sniffing my shoe. This has never happened to me. To be more specific, I have never actually seen an opossum except on TV let alone had one in my house. It took its time to gather whatever olfactory information in needed, looked up and walked away toward to the other side of the room. I was happily surprised and charmed by this fellow or gal’s appearance. I worked on finding the right level of voice to call my husband, who was in the kitchen, so not to startle my visiting marsupial. By the time he got the message, the little visitor was happily eating cat food, sharing a dish with one of the cats. No fuss at all. As the spouse approached

Future of Cazenovia College

To the editor: Open letter to whoever owns/ runs Caz College at this point or in the near future…

I - and I’m sure many other Caz College employees, alumni, and students - read with genuine interest in this paper and at least one other news outlet that there is now movement afoot by a group of Caz locals to explore the potential taking on of the bond, etc. and future of the campus. My interpretation of what I read is that the goal would be to identify and pursue an educational purpose consistent with the zoning of the main/ core campus block (and beyond?). Coupled with other brain-storming sessions among officials from the college, village, town, CACDA, etc., this is potentially excellent news for everyone who lives in or near Caz.

One of the main challenges, of course, will be to somehow create a use that even remotely comes close to mimicking the $55M/year economic impact of the college: hundreds of undergraduates spending money and working in local businesses, their families and alumni packing every available room on numerous weekends every year, employment of over 200, and more. Well…

Here’s the pitch. If an alternative use cannot be identified that meets the criterion above, then I would boldly suggest that we work together to re-envision, the two, the opossum, looked up, and made the decision to walk …not run, but walk, quickly past him into the kitchen and down the stairs into the basement, where there are a zillion hiding places.

We went downstairs and made a cursory search, knowing that it was basically futile, given the accumulation of nooks and crannies, boxes and such. You could hide an elephant down there. Really.

How did the little opossum get in? And, given the fact that it knew to go into the kitchen and down the stairs to the basement, how long had it been in the house? The opossum most probably got in through the cat door, but when was a question we couldn’t answer.

Opossums are docile, quiet animals. They will fight if threatened. I will fight if threatened, too, but since I wasn’t threatened, I had no intention of threatening the creature. I was basically feeling elated that it had chosen to spend some time with us, but knew that it could not stay in the house.

Many people have domesticated opossums, training them like cats to use a litter box. I had no intention of doing this since I struggle each day to deal with the idiosyncrasies of six cats, half of which live under the love seat in the living room and only come out to eat and use the litter box, except late at night when they hold rodeos on the first floor of the house.

The opossum appeared at around 5:30 p.m. the next day to eat and drink water. He took his version of a passeggiata around the family room and the kitchen before heading back down into the basement, where my spouse watched him head into the laundry room. So, in that room, we set a “have a heart” trap reinvigorate, reinvent the college. Perhaps…“Cazenovia College 200+” if you will.

I have a list of ideas on how to help make that happen, and I ask you to reach out to me with an open mind, putting aside what you’ve read and heard in the past about the college. None of the ideas are actually “mine” but rather simply reflect the results of listening to others and substantial research into what a number of other small, independent, nonprofit, educational institutions have done in the past – in CNY and elsewhere - to get themselves on a solid financial footing, even in the face and aftermath of COVID.

ThAD YORkS Cazenovia On

I-81 decision

To the editor: and closed the door for the night. In the morning, the little guy or gal was safely enclosed in the trap and my heroic spouse then brought the trap and opossum outside, releasing it to the area where we knew that he was most probably living.

As a municipal participant in the Renew 81 for lawsuit, we are pleased with the judge’s decision requiring the New York State Department of Transportation Department complete further environmental reviews before tearing down the I-81 viaduct through Syracuse; I have personally advocated that action for 10 years.

The judge astutely recognized that by limiting the study area for the past decade to the 1.5-mile stretch of elevated highway within the city, NYS DOT failed to identify the many impacts to DeWitt residents and businesses in converting Route 481 into Route 81 and rerouting traffic through our community.

Investigation told me that opossums find winter very difficult. They are not blessed with thick fur coats and their little hand-like paws have no fur at all. They are wonderful in the garden, eating small rodents and insects, especially ticks. They are harmless and helpful. And, so, our next effort will be to build a shelter out of some Styrofoam boxes and straw that Roy and Barb Thompson gave us for that purpose.

Was that interesting enough?

And what was the second thing of note last week? I learned how to make a chocolate martini. I tell you this last lest you think that consuming this so-delicious intoxicant rendered me delusionary.

Here’s the recipe for a chocolate martini (serves 2):

Ingredients

1/4 cup Godiva chocolate liqueur

1/4 cup Bailey’s Irish Cream

1 cup vodka.

Shake over ice and serve.

Expensive, strong, fattening and entirely and without guilt, luscious.

If you make this cocktail and see an opossum, please know that there is no cause and effect relationship between the two. The two are separate occurrences, both delightful.

The cat door is closed. This week, it is back to laundry, shopping, putting a cat tree together and taking naps.

Ann Ferro is a mother, a grandmother and a retired social studies teacher. While still figuring out what she wants to be when she grows up, she lives in Marcellus with lots of books, a spouse and a large orange cat.

NYSDOT never performed a regional transportation study, invariably the case with a project of this size and cost.

As such, the current environmental impact statement (EIS) does not properly address the impacts of an increase in traffic of up to 60,000 – potentially hundreds of thousands – of vehicles traveling through DeWitt on a daily basis, should Route I-81 be eliminated.

As a result, the highway, secondary roads, neighborhoods and commercial corridors in DeWitt will experience increased road maintenance costs, increased commuting times, delays – decreased productivity – greater gasoline and diesel fuel costs and consumption, noise pollution, carbon dioxide generation, and toxic gas emissions.

Specifying these impacts in a supplemental EIS is a critical first step towards developing strategies that will minimize the overall effects to the citizens of DeWitt.

As an environmental professional for the past 40 years, I can attest to the fact that the existing NYSDOT plans for Route 481 are woefully inadequate.

In addition, many of our neighboring communities will also be negatively impacted –economically and socially – by the community grid only plan. Moreover, the discourse has become exceedingly negative and divisive.

As Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon summarized

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By donna nEwMan phoTo proviDeD by CnySpCA

Valentine’s day is over, but

Jemma’s still waiting for love!

Jemma is a Pitsky – a pit/husky mix. Pitskies are known for their friendly personalities and physical prowess. She has the eyes of a husky and the body of a pit. at seven years old and forty-seven pounds, callie came to the shelter when her original family was un-