Newsline

N ews line

VOL.XLI / NO. 47 / July 14, 2021 Serving 47,125 readers weekly

BOATHOUSE Cascadilla Boathouse gets makeover, restored to original shingle style

More than 120 years after it was built, Cascadilla Boathouse is being restored to its original shingle-style architecture.

Originally built 1894-1896, the boathouse was constructed for the Cascadilla School, a Cornell prep school still in existence on Summit Street in Ithaca.

“If you look at their building now and then look at the boathouse, you’ll see similarities,” Susan Holland, executive director of Historic Ithaca, said.

Since then, it has been used continuously as a boathouse. It was included as part of the sale that led to the opening of Stewart Park in 1921, and was used as a training center for the Cascadilla School’s rowing team.

“Rowing was such a popular sport at that time,” Holland said.

To this day, the boathouse still houses the Cascadilla Boat Club, a non-profit that provides rowing classes and training to crew teams. However, while still functional at the most basic level, the second floor is unusable due to code issues, and overall, the building needs some improvements.

“A lot of repair work had to be done,” Holland said. “There was significant insect damage […] We’re doing all the shingles appropriately, so it will look very different to people because it’ll be super restored. The veranda is getting re-done, the doors, and the toilets are being changed out to make the bathrooms ADA compliant.”

Additionally, there will be repairs to the decking.

“We’re really tightening it up,” she said. “In preservation, that’s the first thing you have to do.”

Luckily, the roof is in good shape, as Friends of Stewart Park Executive Director Rick Manning said the city had replaced it a few years back. And 10-15 years ago they paid to have a new foundation put in.

“It’s sitting on muck down there,” Manning said. “The buildings were not engineered that well because it was the 1890s.”

So he said that while there’s been work done to keep the building alive, it’s “not looking very good.”

The original shingle-style architecture will be restored, a style that will be familiar to anyone who’s spent time along waterfront cities. The shingles are popular near oceans as they weather nicely.

“People will be really pleased with it,” Manning said.

The project started in summer 2018, “when the money was good,” as Holland puts it. In 2019 she was working on getting all the paperwork together, and by the beginning of 2020 they were getting ready to put out a request of qualifications (RFQ) for architects. Their deadline was March 16, 2020. Gov. Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic on March 7, 2020, and ordered the state to go on “Pause” on March 22.

“We were shutting down operations, we didn’t know what was going to happen,” Holland said.

But on the bright side, they had received eight “fantastic” responses to the RFQ.

“We weren’t sure about construction, but the money was there and we knew this could go forward,” she said.

The grant funds of $367,000 from the state were already committed, and the city had long set aside the 25% matching funds too. The project was able to move ahead, and Manning and Holland expect it will be done by late fall.

As for what’s next, they aren’t sure, though they have big ideas.

“The big vision is to have it be the special events center for weddings and receptions,” he said. “The building is on the national registry of historic places, so we have to treat it a special way. So we’re talking $1 million to $2 million, just to make the second story usable.”

The funding source that provided the money for the exterior renovation does not offer grants large enough to cover the interior restorations needed, but Manning said there may be national funds or other state funds to explore. He also said there has been some interest from private donors.

“It’s such a beautiful building,” he said. “I think there will be momentum and we’ll get it done.” -Tanner Harding

Cascadilla Boathouse in Stewart Park (Photo: Casey Martin)

T a k e N o t e

▶ On August 14 at 4 p.m. the Rackers Rivals Big Red will return to Ithaca for an exhibitionstyle hockey game to support programs for children with disabilities in the community. NHL stars, Cornell Hockey alumni, and local celebrities will make up the two competing teams, which will be led by Cornell’s Big Red Hockey coach Mike Schafer and Greg Hartz, President and CEO of Tompkins Trust Company. Although both teams will continue adding to their rosters until the drop of the puck, Racker Rivals Big Red already boasts an impressive roster including Dustin Brown, a two-time Stanley cup winner and current NHL player with the Los Angeles Kings, current Tampa Bay Lightning, Stanley Cup winner and U.S. Hockey Hall of Famer Mike Richter, and three-time Stanley Cup winner and two-time Olympian Joe Nieuwendyk. For more information and to further support Racker, visit www.racker. org/hockey.

FEATURES

Cover8 Sports......................................................... 10 Q&A: Lisa Duggans 15

Author Lisa Duggan reflects on Ayn Rand’s work in her latest book. Newsline ..................................................3-5 Opinion ........................................................ 6 Letters ........................................................ 7

ARTS&ENTERTAINMENT

Art ...............................................................16 Film ............................................................. 17 Books.......................................................... 18 Times Table ..............................................20 Classifieds ...............................................22

ON THE WEB

Visit our website at www.ithaca.com for more news, arts, sports and photos. Call us at 607-277-7000

Tanner H arding , M anaging E ditor , x1224 E ditor @ i thacatim E s . com J aime Cone , E ditor , x1232 s outh r E port E r @ flcn . org C asey m ar T in , Staff P hotogra P h E r p hotograph E r @ i thacatim E s . com C H ris i ber T, C al E ndar E ditor , x1217 a rts @ i thacatim E s . com a ndrew s ullivan , S P ort S E ditor , x1227 s ports @ flcn . org sT eve l awren C e , S P ort S Colu M ni S t st E v E s ports d ud E @ gmail . com m ars H all H opkins , P rodu C tion d ir EC tor /d ES ign E r , x1216 p roduction @ i thacatim E s . com Fai TH Fis H er , i nt E rn , x1217 ff ish E r @ i thacatim E s . com

s H aron d avis , d i S tribution front

J im b ilinski , P ubli S h E r , x1210 jbilinski @ i thacatim E s . com l arry H o CH berger , a SS o C iat E P ubli S h E r , x1214 larry@ i thacatim E s . com F reelancers : Barbara Adams, Rick Blaisell, Steve Burke, Deirdre Cunningham, Jane Dieckmann, Amber Donofrio, Karen Gadiel, Charley Githler, Linda B. Glaser, Warren Greenwood, Ross Haarstad, Peggy Haine, Gay Huddle, Austin Lamb, Steve Lawrence, Marjorie Olds, Lori Sonken, Henry Stark, Dave Sit, Bryan VanCampen, and Arthur Whitman THE ENTIRE CONTENTS OF THE ITHACA TIMES ARE COPYRIGHT © 2021, BY NEWSKI INC. All rights reserved. Events are listed free of charge in TimesTable. All copy must be received by Friday at noon. The Ithaca Times is available free of charge from various locations around Ithaca. Additional copies may be purchased from the Ithaca Times offices for $1. SUBSCRIPTIONS: $89 one year. Include check or money order and mail to the Ithaca Times, PO Box 27, Ithaca, NY 14851. ADVERTISING: Deadlines are Monday 5 p.m. for display, Tuesday at noon for classified. Advertisers should check their ad on publication. The Ithaca Times will not be liable for failure to publish an ad, for typographical error, or errors in publication except to the extent of the cost of the space in which the actual error appeared in the first insertion. The publisher reserves the right to refuse advertising for any reason and to alter advertising copy or graphics deemed unacceptable for publication. The Ithaca Times is published weekly Wednesday mornings. Offices are located at 109 N. Cayuga Street, Ithaca, NY 14850 607-277-7000, FAX 607-277-1012, MAILING ADDRESS is PO Box 27, Ithaca, NY 14851. The Ithaca Times was preceded by the Ithaca New Times (1972-1978) and The Good Times Gazette (1973-1978), combined in 1978. F ounder G ood Times G aze TT e : Tom Newton

INQUIRING PHOTOGRAPHER

By Casey Martin

IF YOU HAD TO ENTER AN EATING COMPETITION, WHAT WOULD YOUR FOOD CHOICE BE?

“French Fries. I could probably eat 25 large orders of McDonald’s Fries…”

-Ngurngeti N.

“Chicken Enchiladas.”

-Nadia W.

“Baklava. I could eat all day.”

-Garret T.

“Crepes!”

-Mareike W.

“Pizza. Sausage and Pepperoni.”

Library Public Library opens fully, hopes to retain some aspects of pandemic programming

Teresa Vadakin, Jennifer Schlossberg and Suzanne Smith of the Tompkins County Public Library. (Photo: Provided)

The Tompkins County Public Library served as a lifeline to its patrons during the pandemic. After facing the worst of the pandemic, this heart of the community beats even stronger today as it has reopened itself to the public.

Amid the dire circumstances of the pandemic, the Tompkins County Public Library (TCPL) team of directors and staff worked to meet the needs of its patrons through digitized resources, virtual programs, and innovative services. Now re-opened for the public, TCPL transformed the challenges they faced and lessons they learned during the pandemic into an opportunity to better serve the community.

Even though pandemic forced TCPL to shutter its doors to the public in March 2020, it continued and augmented its online services, issuing online library cards for patrons to access eBooks and maintaining their “Ask a Librarian” email reference service. In the period from June 15, 2020 to May 31, 2021, the library registered over 1,500 new patrons for library cards.

Internet service is a crucial resource that TCPL offers to its patrons, and during the pandemic, the demand for internet didn’t wane. Although they could only offer internet service for 30 minute increments — as opposed to the usual 90 — the community was grateful to still have access to WiFi.

“One of the most important things that public libraries do is provide access to the internet and it’s a place for many people to come to get access to healthcare, tax forms, all kinds of things,” Interim Director Susan Currie said. “Even when the building was closed, we left [the WiFi] on, and people would camp outside with their computer to use the WiFi, especially when people were filing unemployment claims.”

In addition to sustaining these core services, the library quickly oriented itself to the Zoom online video conferencing platform to organize virtual programs for its patrons. From April 2020 to December 2020, Youth Services offered 168 virtual programs to it’s youth library patrons. In the same year, Adult Services reached its older audience with 160 virtual program sessions ranging from bookclubs to author talks to poetry events.

Some other initiatives started by the directors during the pandemic included “book bundles”— termed “book binges” for adults. Patrons could fill out an online form and request a theme and reading level, and the librarians would collect between five and 10 books for them to pick up and take home. As a testament to the popularity of this service, from June 2020 to December 2020, TCPL librarians curated 1,302 book bundles for families.

The start of curbside delivery services coincided with the creation of book bundles, and according to Currie, this initiative helped to revive a sense of community that the pandemic had dampened through quarantine and social distancing requirements.

“All the cars were lined up with families and people were so happy to see the person delivering the books to the cars,’’ she said. “They know the

HIGHER ED Ithaca College, TC3 presidents resign

Changes are coming to local colleges as the presidents of both Ithaca College and Tompkins County Community College have recently announced their resignations.

Ithaca College President Shirley M. Collado is leaving the college Jan. 10, 2022 to assume the position of president and chief executive officer of the comprehensive college completion program, College Track, which works in collaboration with Emerson Collective.

The board of trustees announced that Provost and Executive Vice President La Jerne Terry Cornish has been appointed interim president of Ithaca College, effective Aug. 30, and will serve in the position for the entirety of the 2021-22 academic year.

For the remainder of her time at Ithaca College, Collado will assume the role of senior advisor to the interim president and the board of trustees through Dec. 31 to ensure a smooth transition, as well as to continue working on projects currently in progress.

Collado has been at Ithaca College for four years, and most notably worked on “The Shape of the College” report with the Academic Program Prioritization Implementation Committee, which was adopted earlier this year. It announced the cutting of 116 positions, as well as the discontinuation of three departments and 17 undergraduate programs in an effort to maintain the student:faculty ratio as enrollment rates have fallen over the past decade.

“From the beginning, President Collado has been a change agent. She brought to Ithaca College a deep understanding of the importance of making higher education accessible and affordable, and why that has such a positive impact not only on students and their families, but also on the entire IC ‘family,’” said David Lissey and Jim Nolan, Chair and Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees. “She has demonstrated a consistent commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion in all areas of the college, including in her recruitment of a talented leadership team. Like her, they are student-centered and focused on delivering a learning and living experience in which all have the opportunity to thrive and to develop their full potential.”

They also lauded her efforts on The Shape of the College plan.

“In accepting the Shape of the College plan and beginning the implementation of its recommendations, she has set the college on a path to a sustainable future that is both bold and realistic,” they said.

In her own statement, Collado said the decision to leave was not an easy one.

“This transition will be incredibly bittersweet, and this decision is among the most difficult I have ever made, one that I walked through with integrity and introspection, always holding close my very real love for Ithaca College and for this community,” she said.

Tompkins Cortland Com-

continued on page 19

COUNTY LEG County Legislature tackles economic recovery plan, hears public health update

Amood of optimism filled the legislative chambers on July 6 as the Tompkins County Legislature gathered for its first official inperson meeting since the pandemic. The legislators used the occasion to discuss the county’s economic recovery strategy and consider the current state of the pandemic in the county.

At the outset of the meeting, Legislator Deborah Dawson took the opportunity to celebrate the return to in-person meetings and extended gratitude to all the individuals who helped virtually broadcast the meetings during the pandemic through YouTube livestreams and Zoom. Considering the benefits offered by online access, Dawson shared that there has been serious discussion about keeping committee and legislature meetings available online, however a final decision on the matter is still in the making.

“This has been a massive puzzle at times to try and figure out how to livestream and make sure that all of our meetings are available to the public,” she said. “But what we have learned is that for many of our meetings, we can accommodate our staff better by sometimes allowing them to Zoom in.”

Heather McDaniel, President of the Ithaca Area Economic Development, who joined virtually, gave a presentation about the Tompkins County Economic Recovery Strategy, outlining the economic impacts of the pandemic and a projected county response.

She stressed that the formulation of the recovery strategy is the result of countless conversations with many individuals across the county, and that a main objective of the strategy is to use the experience of the pandemic as a source of innovation and opportunity.

“A number of us stakeholders spent a significant amount of time last year talking to other stakeholders from sector leaders to businesses to policy advocates, really trying to understand the new challenges and the new opportunities as a result of the pandemic,” McDaniel said.

McDaniel and her team organized the recovery strategy into three phases: response, stabilization and redevelopment and revitalization. She recounted the ensuing success of the first two phases— from mobilizing almost $710,000 to support 122 businesses at the beginning of the pandemic to offering customized support to over 200 businesses and implementing consumer confidence messaging campaigns.

The focus of her presentation then turned to the third phase: redevelopment and revitalization. This third phase consists of actions which attend specifically to targeted business sectors, the workforce, and infrastructure.

“We want to ensure that our economy recovers, and not only recovers, but comes back stronger and better than it ever was before,” McDaniel said. “This is really meant to be a companion piece to the county wide economic development strategy, but really focusing on the new actions and new opportunities as a result of the pandemic.”

To cap off the presentation, McDaniel provided a sample of potential short term and long term initiatives in which the county could invest to achieve economic recovery. Many of the proposed projects are concentrated in the city of Ithaca rather than the surrounding cities, and this disproportionate focus on the city concerned many of the legislators.

“I think you folks need to do everything you can to explain how these various projects that you’ve talked about are going to help benefit people in the rural areas,” Legislator Mike Lane said. “And not just because we’re building up the downtown area, and therefore that’s our county’s seat...but because the other rural areas are entitled to grow as well.”

Legislator Martha Robertson harbored similar concerns, but McDaniel ensured the legislators that these proposed initiatives were generated after intense deliberation with stakeholders across the county, and each project would have cross-cutting benefits.

“Investing in infrastructure in the city of Ithaca definitely benefits both the people that drive into the city of Ithaca to work every day, not only from Groton, but also from outside of the county,” she said. “... The message here is that any actions that support economic recovery are good for our community and for our county.”

Legislator Leslie Schill supported McDaniel’s assessment that investment in the city generates benefits for the entire county, spurring broader economic recovery.

“An agglomeration in the economy — where we bring together new industry, we bring together infrastructure improvements, we bring together new housing opportunities — these things start to cluster,” she said. “They build upon themselves to create a better place, it attracts more business, more visits, more people who want to live in a community that has an outing and your economic and local needs, as well as jobs.”

The chamber conversation shifted from economic recovery to the current status of public health in the county. Frank Kruppa, Tompkins County Health Department Public Health Director, virtually joined the meeting to give the legislators a COVID-19 update.

According to Kruppa, the county currently faces three active cases, and more than 66,000 residents have been fully vaccinated. Even amid slowing vaccination rates all across the country, the number of vaccinated individuals in the county continues to rise, an achievement Kruppa attributed in part to the Public Health Ambassadors program launched during the pandemic.

Although the Health Department had formulated the idea for the program before the pandemic as a way to reduce health inequities in the county, they jump-started the program to help increase the vaccination rate around the county. For the past two months, with vaccination rates slowing, four individuals have engaged in hundreds of hours of outreach work — talking with community leaders and at-risk communities about vaccine availability, supporting vaccine messaging campaigns, and promoting vaccination clinics.

Kruppa expressed the TCHD’s desire to extend this program beyond the pandemic, shifting from vaccine promotion to community focused projects and addressing county health disparities.

“We’re looking... to really reach into our community, our communities of color, our immigrant, our migrant worker communities, our mobile home parks where many of our low socioeconomic status individuals live, and to find out what their needs are,” Kruppa said. “...We want to better understand what those needs are and then to get information from them on how we can build programming to support those needs.”

In a period of just 16 months — spanning from before the pandemic to June 2021 — the views of the TCHD homepage spiked from 17,000 to 2.7 million. Kruppa hopes that the Health Department can leverage this increased visibility within the community to continue to meet the needs of the community.

“We really want to use this higher profile to get the word out about available services and issues surrounding those individuals struggling with...a lot of issues that need attention,” he said.

The legislators will convene again on July 20 at 5:30 p.m. in the legislative chambers. -Faith Fisher

Ups After reopening to the public following storm damage, Stewart Park hosted many community members to celebrate its 100th birthday this weekend. Downs The rain. The daily storms. Please. Make it stop.

HEARD&SEEN

Heard South Hill Cider is hosting live music on the property every Monday and Thursday. Visit the tasting room and sip on some cider while you listen.

Seen The Gallery at South Hill is holding an exhibition of Michael Sampson’s abstract paintings. The exhibition will be open to the public from 3 p.m - 7 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays in July.

IF YOU CARE TO RESPOND to something in this column, or suggest your own praise or blame, write news@ithacatimes. com, with a subject head “U&D.”

QUESTION OF THE WEEK What’s the theme going to be for your first postpandemic party?

13.6% Personal Space Invasion 18.2% Mask-arade 4.5% AstraZeneca Luau 63.6% Thanksgiving

Next Week’s QuestioN: What is the best rainy day activity?

Visit ithaca.com to submit your response.