Newsline

N ews line

COMMUNITY Legacy Foundation celebrates 75 years of giving back

In 1945, five communityminded bankers, Paul Brainard, William Burns, Sherman Peer, George Rogalsky and Gerald Williams, decided they wanted to do something to give back to the community they loved. They established a non-profit, now called the Legacy Foundation of Tompkins County, that would donate resources to be used to enrich the quality of life for Tompkins County citizens.

According to Jean McPheeters, the current director of development, part of the inspiration for the current name comes from the way they attain their funds.

“We wanted something where people would leave a legacy in their wills and leave something to their community,” she said. This way, the foundation doesn’t have to rely on fundraising every year. Board members speak to people they know and ask them to consider adding the Legacy Foundation into their will.

“You may want to make sure the community continues to be a place you’d enjoy living in,” she said. “The money is invested and 5% is used annually.”

The foundation grants gifts for a variety of things, from providing a large amount of money for a new furnace at the Brooktondale Community Center, or donating $500 to an organization who needs a new computer. There are applications open twice a year for organizations to make their case about what they need and why. Board members come together to read and rate the applications.

“There’s always more requests than there is money,” McPheeters said. “Part of my job is asking why specifically this thing or this time […] It’s always difficult to make these decisions.”

While difficult in normal times, McPheeters said the pandemic complicated things to another level.

“At the beginning of the pandemic we really changed how we did things,” she said. “We were very concerned about the needs in the community. We said we’re getting rid of twice a year applications, tell us what you need and we’ll figure it out.”

She said they worked to get money out as quickly as possible, particularly in the area of food banks, shelters and healthcare. They donated $50,000 to Cayuga Medical Center to help them purchase more machines to do rapid COVID testing.

“We knew how critically important that was, and we were so overwhelmed with the good job they had done,” McPheeters said.

Board president Mary Opperman said it was important that they made sure people who already had an elevated need pre-pandemic didn’t fall further below the watermark.

“Their sources of funds were interrupted, people lost their jobs or businesses were

Food Net and the new Alex Haley historical marker, two projects funded by the Legacy Foundation

continued on page 7

T a k e N o t e

▶ Streets Alive! - The 16th Streets Alive! Ithaca, the perennial open-streets festival, will take place on Sunday, Sept. 19 from 1-5 p.m.; Cayuga Street from Ithaca High School to Court Street will be closed to motorized vehicles. This is one of the first festivals to return to Ithaca since 2020. Every Streets Alive! since the first in 2012 has welcomed thousands of people with the opportunity to play, walk, ride and wander safely on the streets for an afternoon. From the bike rodeo and Circus Culture acrobatics to strolling musicians, with many activities along the route and a food truck or two at Thompson Park, there is something for everyone. Organizers will be implementing all state and local health precautions in effect on the day, and asking all volunteers to mask regardless of vaccination status. Bike Walk Tompkins can’t put this festival together without 40-60 volunteers, so interested people aged 16 and up are invited to sign up for a shift Intersection “Superheroes” at https://www. streetsaliveithaca.com/.

VOL.XLII / NO. 3 / September 8, 2021 Serving 47,125 readers weekly

FEATURES

Lights! Camera! Action!���������������8

Newlywed stars of silent silver screen filmed action-packed movies in Ithaca in 1914 Fall Arts Preview�����������������������11 Puzzling�����������������������������������������15

Finger Lakes Crossword Competition gears up for its ninth year. Newsline ..................................................3-5 Opinion ........................................................6 Letters ........................................................7

ARTS&ENTERTAINMENT

Sports......................................................... 16 Film .............................................................17 Film .............................................................18 Times Table ..............................................20 Classifieds ...............................................22 On the Cover: Marque at the State Theatre of Ithaca (photo: casey

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

WHAT’S ONE POPULAR THING THAT YOU HAVE ZERO PERCENT INTEREST IN?

“Billie Eilish”

-Daniela L. & Mannayah L.

“Popits…One of those bubble fidget toys… people love them for some reason!” -David G.

“Have you heard of Olivia Rodrigo? She’s big on TikTok. I don’t get her music at all…” -Mackenzie G.

“Bar Crawls.”

-Liv P.

“Friends….THE SHOW! Not like…my friends.” -Kat M.

CONSERVATION Land Trust, residents protest as NYSEG prepares to auction Bell Station land

Michael Jamison, senior manager of corporate communications for NYSEG, stated Sept. 1 that the company will go through with its planned auction of the Bell Station, even though it has received requests for cancelation from the Finger Lakes Land Trust and thousands of Tompkins County residents.

“In the interest of transparency and fairness, and understanding that there are a lot of stakeholders with a lot of varying opinions on it, the company made the decision that the fairest and most transparent way to deal with the property was to hold an auction for it where everybody had the chance to bid and purchase the property,” Jamison said. “So that’s what we’re ultimately moving forward with.”

One of those stakeholders is the Finger Lakes Land Trust, which for the past eight to 10 years has acted as the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s (NYSDEC) agent in acquiring the 470-acre property that features 3,400 feet of shoreline on the east side of Cayuga Lake. Executive Director Andrew Zepp said he was more surprised with the way the auction is being marketed rather than the auction itself.

“We were under the impression that it was going to be sold for energy production purposes,” Zepp said. “We thought we would have an opportunity to work with whoever acquired it to strike the appropriate balance of conserving the shoreline and providing for solar. This is a very different situation where it’s clearly being marketed for residential development whereby the public access opportunity would be lost as would the renewable energy opportunity.”

The listing on Ten-X states in the description that “the property is a perfect candidate for potential waterfront residential development with agricultural secondary use and recreational forestry/tertiary use.” The prospect of the property being auctioned off and the winning bidder constructing a residential development poses environmental risks.

“The entire shoreline is wooded hillside that if it’s up for development [there] would be clearing on state slopes, which as we see these more intense rain events we’re having, leads to more runoff into the lake,” Zepp said.

Such an outcome would also thwart opportunities for providing public access to the property’s shoreline and planning solar energy development on the eastern portion of it.

“At a time when we see — particularly during the pandemic — more and more people appreciating getting out to our parks and conservation land, that we have a capacity issue,” Zepp said. “Taughannock State Park, for example, lately has been closed because the parking lot is full. So we do not have enough areas to allow the public to get out and enjoy these places.”

“Our position is that the public good will be best served in the long term by NYSEG and its ratepayers being compensated through a fair market value process, but also that the end result is this combination of conservation, renewable energy and public access,” he said. “That’s where we think the auction, as presented, is not in the public interest.” (The Town of Lansing’s Comprehensive Plan designates Bell Station as “future public access conservation land.” In addition, the property is categorized as a “priority” in the NYSDEC’s 2016 Open Space Plan as one of several protection projects along the Finger Lakes shorelines.)

The public has made it clear

CORNELL-19 Cornell maintains status quo despite high case numbers

Alot of things are different this academic year when it comes to COVID-19. With 95% of the oncampus population vaccinated at Cornell University, and a much more infectious variant making the rounds through the campus, city, county and country, decisions are being made using old and new criteria. At this point last year, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo said schools must shut down if they had 200 positive cases in two weeks. This year, Cornell has had 304 positive cases just in the week from Aug. 26 to Sept. 1. The positivity rate is sitting 1.14% and there were 52 positive cases on Sept. 1 alone. The school is operating at alert level yellow: moderate risk. But for now, university administration is going to stay the course, continuing with on-campus, in-person learning.

“We’re in a very different position now than we were in the last year, facing decisions that are in many ways even more complex,” university president Martha Pollack said in a letter to the university community.

Indeed, while the vaccines aren’t necessarily providing great protection against contracting the disease, they are providing steadfast protection against severe illness. Pollack said none of the students who have tested positive so far this semester have been seriously ill and none have been hospitalized. This fact has been echoed repeatedly by the county’s public health director Frank Kruppa, who said the vast majority of the vaccinated people who become infected with the disease are asymptomatic or have very mild symptoms.

Pollack said students and faculty have “clearly said that they want to return to in-person instruction, and we have been looking forward for many months to a vibrant, fully active fall.” She added that the school will continue its testing program to gather data and monitor active cases and close contacts.

One of the challenges, Pollack said, is the high number of students in quarantine. As of Sept. 3, 34% of quarantine rooms are available, with 122 of 185 rooms occupied. Students in isolation keep up with classes using Zoom rooms and by crowdsourcing notes and recording lectures. Pollack said she envisions three potential outcomes for the semester.

Ideally, Pollack said, the number of infections on campus decreases to the point the school can return to green status, which loosens restrictions on gatherings and other activities. If transmission levels are low enough, testing frequency could also drop. She said the best way to achieve this is through vaccination, masking, keeping activities outdoors and participating in surveillance testing and contact tracing.

The second outcome Pollack envisions is that the semester continues as it’s begun, with higher rates of infection than last year but little to no severe illness, and little to no transmission within the classrooms.

“That will certainly mean significant stress on our community as we manage and support large numbers of students in isolation, but it may be the only way to balance our goal of providing in-person education with keeping the community as healthy as possible,” she said.

The final and worst outcome would be a continued rise in infections to the point that the university no longer has the capacity to support isolation, or to where there is a significant level of transmission in the classroom or other campus settings.

“Should we reach that point, we would need to implement additional restrictions, up to and including having all students quarantine in place and moving all courses online, or even shutting the campus down as we did in March of 2020,” Pollack said.

As of now, the university will stick to the status quo and hope for the best. -Tanner Harding

continued on page 19

COVID While COVID cases skyrocket, severe disease remains low

It seems like every day Tompkins County sets a new record for most positive cases — either for a daily total or for the overall total. On Sept. 2, the county crossed the 400-case threshold for the first time ever. By the next day, the total was 439 active cases. On July 22, there were only 4 active cases in the county, but cases have continued to rise dramatically. Thirty-four county residents have died in total.

However, while there isn’t much that’s “good” about those statistics, it’s important to contextualize them. Despite the current 354 active cases on Sept. 7, only five people are hospitalized. That’s pretty much on par for the spring, and down significantly from January, where there were hospitalizations in the high teens and low 20s. In April of 2020, right at the start of the pandemic, there were seven hospitalizations while there were just 27 active cases.

This is proof that the vaccines are working to prevent severe disease, even if it’s not providing perfect protection against contracting COVID-19.

It’s also important to acknowledge the effect of the higher education communities on Tompkins County’s numbers. At a COVID town hall on Sept. 2, Public Health Director Frank Kruppa said a large number of those positive cases are coming from the surveillance and arrival testing done at Cornell University as students returned to campus the past couple weeks. Cornell reports a total of more than 26,000 students, which combined with the 5,000 at Ithaca College, effectively doubles Ithaca’s permanent population. Thus, Kruppa noted, the county is bound to see an uptick when students return.

“College students live communally, they share spaces, they gather,” he said. “So that’s really some of the driving force. It’s not that they were doing anything wrong […] They’re doing what was asked, so I don’t want folks to think the students were misbehaving.”

Another notable statistic is the fact that the rate of infection is so high for vaccinated people in Tompkins County. Kruppa said the percentage of positive cases that are recorded in vaccinated people has been hovering between 35-55%, not an insignificant number. However, he again noted the large number of college students testing positive would make that number jump because all students at Cornell and Ithaca College are required to be vaccinated.

“It’s still rare in New York to be vaccinated and get COVID, but that isn’t the case in Tompkins County,” Kruppa said.

He said one reason for this is the fact that the county’s vaccination numbers are as high as they are. As of Sept. 6, 68,821 people in Tompkins County have been fully vaccinated — that’s nearly 70% of the county’s total population.

“When you have a very highly vaccinated population, cases are going to be in that population,” Kruppa said. “We’re also learning that with the delta variant in particular, you can become positive and transmit [the virus] to others.”

He added that because there’s no way to avoid vaccinated people getting the disease, his focus is on the severity of the disease. As noted before, the rate of hospitalizations remains low, despite the high number of cases. Kruppa said there have been some vaccinated people hospitalized, but it has largely been people who have underlying diseases, such as COPD or other lung-based issues. Even then, he noted, vaccinated people generally are admitted to the hospital for a short stay of added support, and then recover at home. No vaccinated people have died in Tompkins County.

“All the people who have needed [intensive care] and who have died have been unvaccinated,” Kruppa said. “So the message here is please get vaccinated. [Vaccines] are keeping people out of the hospital.”

In the town hall he also touched upon the recent approval of the Pfizer vaccine for people ages 16+ by the FDA.

“Full approval means now the FDA believes they have enough information from studies and the larger population to say yes, the vaccine is safe and effective,” he said. “I know a lot of people who didn’t want to take it until it was approved, so hopefully more folks are seeking the Pfizer vaccine.”

Pfizer was previously allowed to be administered under emergency use authorization, which Kruppa said still had more stringent regulations than prescription medications.

He also said he believes that the vaccine should be mandatory for schools now that it’s approved, but said it’s not his decision to make. As a father himself, Kruppa said he understands parents’ anxiety about their children returning to in-person learning this year, but said he thinks it’s the right decision.

“Last year we know kids were safer in school than they were outside of school in terms of COVID exposure,” he said. “We had minimal transmission within our schools.”

However, he noted that the delta variant is different because it’s much more transmissible than previous iterations of the virus.

“But that’s why we’re not just going back to school like we did in 2019,” he said.

The state has mandated masking in all schools, and Kruppa said state officials are currently working on initiating a vaccine mandate for adults in the buildings.

“We’re still waiting for details on that, but I’ve been working with local districts on testing programs […], been working with school nurses and staff on isolation and quarantine protocols. Our goal is to keep kids in person and in school.”

There have been many calls for mask mandates within the county as well, but Kruppa said he’s leaving that choice up to the individuals. Though he communicates regularly with business owners and has told them he highly recommends a mask requirement, he isn’t going to go as far as enforcement.

“I’m not saying there’s no risk of public exposure, there’s always some level of risk, but generally speaking, what we’re seeing is [cases coming from] more prolonged contact with inconsistent masking,” he said. “That’s where we’re seeing transmission.”

Kruppa also clarified the protocol for vaccinated and unvaccinated if they test positive for or are exposed to COVID-19. If someone tests positive they’re in isolation for 10 days. If you’re a close contact and you’re unvaccinated or you’re vaccinated and symptomatic, you must quarantine for 10 days. If you’re a close contact and are fully vaccinated with no symptoms, you do not have to quarantine at all. However, those people should still wear their masks and maintain social distance.

He also acknowledged that COVID-19 is shifting from a pandemic to endemic, meaning it’s just going to be part of our disease pool from now on.

“It’s where we are, COVID is here,” he said. “Our goal is to keep people as healthy as we can, focus on keeping them out of the hospital, and it’s extremely important we get back to business and do the other things that help us be healthy.”

He said that he’s been grappling with that change in mindset himself, but that if most folks are only getting mild symptoms and staying out of the hospital — “that’s a win.”

-Tanner Harding

Ups The city has launched a pretty impressive and interactive website to collect suggestions and feedback from the public regarding the Reimagining Public Safety initiative. You can find it at www.publicsafetyreimagined.org. Ups Apple Harvest Fest is back, Oct. 1-3! Who’s excited for cider donuts?! Visit https://www. downtownithaca.com/apple-harvest-festival/ for more info.

HEARD&SEEN

Heard Dinosaur Jr., originally scheduled for Oct. 2, has postponed their show at the State Theatre due to COVID concerns. Keep an eye on the State Theatre’s website for updates.

Seen Teachers and students are preparing to head back to school, fully in-person, for the first time since March 2020. The first day is Sept. 9 — have fun and good luck!

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

QUESTION OF THE WEEK

What was your favorite part of college?

65.0% The Knowledge 20.0% The Experience 15.0% The Debt

Next Week’s QuestioN: Name your favorite Fall activity.

Visit ithaca.com to submit your response.