July 1, 2026

Primary Care Providers: Your Long-Term Healthcare Partners

The phrase “for better or worse, in sickness and in health” is typically associated with wedding vows, but this promise of support through all of life’s seasons doesn’t only apply to spouses. Much like your closest loved one, your primary care provider cares for your physical and mental health from your first day to your last.

“I wanted to work in primary care because I like being able to build long-term relationships with my patients, take care of their health, and create a sense of trust,” says Madison Coss, Physician Assistant at Arnot Health, a Member of Centralus Health.

Whether you’re checking annual wellness visits off your list of routine appointments, managing a chronic illness, or looking to refill medications –primary care providers have a well-rounded understanding of your medical history and can create a plan to meet your individual, ever-changing needs.

“It’s important to have a primary care provider so we can take care of preventative screenings, take care of your health concerns, and be there when any issues arise.”

There are very few providers who know you as well as your primary care provider. They gain an understanding of your personality, preferences, and family history. When something is wrong, they’re more likely to catch it early because they’re actively monitoring your health. Providers can’t offer optimal care if you don’t have open, honest conversations about your personal habits.

“I hope that patients feel comfortable when they come into our office and feel like they can talk about all aspects of their health. We can work through any issues they might have.”

In small communities, healthcare providers see entire families—caring for

newborns, grandparents, and every generation in between. The trust established over years of high-quality care allows providers to make a tangible difference in the health and vitality of the community they serve.

Centralus Health cares for a diverse population, offering innovative services and eliminating barriers by expanding access to vital healthcare resources.

“I wanted to work for Centralus Health because of their extensive network of healthcare providers, and so I could offer guidance and resources to this community.”

Primary care is the core of healthcare. As your central health advocate, physicians diagnose and treat illnesses, coordinate care with specialists, and navigate various social factors that directly impact your well-being.

“This job is rewarding because I get to help people reach their short-term and long-term goals.”

Primary care looks at your health from a bird’s-eye view, treating the whole person rather than one condition. Providers, like Madison, are the first point of contact. With a broad array of healthcare knowledge, they can address your concerns, answer lingering questions, and offer referrals when necessary.

Primary care providers specialize in prevention, detection, and treatment of illnesses. Cayuga Health offers primary care services at 40 Catherwood Road, Ithaca; 905 Hanshaw Road, Ithaca; 401 Cayuga Park Lane, Ithaca; 260 Tompkins Street, Cortland; 2138 West Seneca Street, Ovid; 220 Steuben Street, Montour Falls, and 217 N. Aurora Street, Ithaca. Arnot Health offers primary care services at 100 John Roemmelt Drive, Horseheads; 418 S. Hamilton Street, Erwin; 600 Roe Avenue, Elmira; 309 Hoffman Street, Elmira; 15 Community Drive, Addison, and 455 Maple Street, Big Flats. SPONSORED CONTENT

Madison Coss, PA-C treats adult patients of all ages, from teenagers to the elderly.

N ews line

Binghamton Man Charged with Terroristic Threat Against Sen. Lea Webb

By Mikayla Rovenolt

ABinghamton man faces felony charges for an alleged social comment directed at state Sen. Lea Webb, according to a state police report.

On June 23, the New York State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation arrested James A. Crosby, 49, following an investigation into a threatening Facebook comment he made in response to a WBNG news story that mentioned Webb’s attendance at a Juneteenth event.

In the comment, which has since been deleted, Crosby, who is white, wrote “I’d be proud to hang her from a tree.”

Crosby was charged with making a terroristic threat as a hate crime, a class C felony.

He was transported to the Broome County Jail for centralized arraignment.

State police also recovered a rifle, a large capacity ammunition feeding device, and a firearm suppressor from Crosby’s possession, all prohibited under New York state law, according to the report. Due to a prior felony con-

viction, Crosby was prohibited from possessing firearms. Police charged Crosby with four counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree, all class D felonies.

In a statement to the Ithaca Times on June 26, Webb said she was disappointed and hurt when she saw the threats on her life in response to the Juneteenth story.

“That day reminds us about both how far we have come and the work that still needs to be done in order to make our communities more inclusive and equitable,” she said. “Feedback and thoughts on policy are one thing, but to make a public call for lethal violence is absolutely unacceptable and dangerous.”

Webb thanked the community, state Sen. Majority Leader StewartCousins, New York Gov. Hochul, and her colleagues and staff for support. She also thanked public safety officials for swift response and protection.

“It is critical that we work together to eradicate racism and bigotry whether it’s words or actions,” Webb concluded. “We must recognize our shared humanity and reject violence in all forms.”

Take n ote

X Voting Open for Annual Election Sticker Contest

By Kaeleigh Banda

V oting is now open to Tompkins County residents to select the design for the “I Voted” and “Future Voter” stickers for the 2026 November General Election.

The 2026 contest, run by the Tompkins County Board of Elections, received the highest number of submissions to date, with 169 entries from students of all ages. After going through all of the entries, the board selected 14 student finalists. Each finalist had their design displayed at polling locations for the primary elections June 23.

Students were prompted to create a design inspired by the 250th birthday of the United States. A press release from the Tompkins County Administration states that the theme was chosen to encourage students to celebrate the nation's democratic traditions while reflecting what voting and civic participation mean to them.

Voting for the winning designs is available online and closes July 12. The winning design for the “I Voted” sticker will be distributed to voters during the November 2026 General Election, and the winning design for the “Future Voter” sticker will be given to children who accompany voters to the polls. The students who created the winning designs will be recognized by the Tompkins County Legislature.

Democratic Elections Commissioner Stephen Dewitt said the finalists showcase the creativity, enthusiasm and civic spirit of students throughout Tompkins County.

“As our nation marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, it is especially meaningful to see young people expressing what democracy and civic participation mean to them through art,” Dewitt said. “We hope community members will join us in celebrating these students by casting a vote and helping

select this year's winning designs.”

Republican Elections Commissioner Alanna Congdon said she is grateful to all of the students who shared their creativity this year.

“The number of submissions exceeded every previous year, and the talent on display made selecting finalists a challenge,” Congdon said. “I encourage everyone to take a few minutes to view the designs and support these young artists by casting a vote.”

Ithaca High School’s Class of 2026

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A Binghamton man was recently arrested after making a threatening Facebook comment directed at state Sen. Lea Webb. (Photo: Ithaca Times File)

IN UIRING PHOTOGR PHER Q A

By Mark Syvertson

QUESTION OF THE WEEK:

“ALL THESE PICTURES WERE TAKEN ON THE SAME STREET IN DOWNTOWN ITHACA. THE QUESTION: WHICH STREET?”

NOTE: If readers wish to participate in the Ithaca Times’ Inquiring Photographer column, contact Mark Syvertson at marksyvertsonphotography@gmail.com

Please see the July 15 edition for the correct answer, and tag the Ithaca Times on social media with your guess. marksyvertsonphotography@gmail.com

Ithaca College President Will Depart in 2027

By Mikayla Rovenolt

La Jerne Terry Cornish, Ithaca College’s 10th president, will complete her term on June 30, 2027. In a June 23 press release, she said she will ensure a smooth transition to the next president.

Cornish joined Ithaca College in 2018 as provost and was named president in 2022 after serving as the interim president for the 2021-22 academic year. She led the college following the pandemic and worked to bring the community together, according to the press release.

As provost, Cornish faced criticism for her role in the Academic Program Prioritization (APP) and the Non-Academic Program Prioritization processes, which resulted in IC eliminating 116 full-time faculty positions, according to reporting from The Ithacan. The APP was supposed to take place over four years, but the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the need for the eliminations, according to Cornish’s statements to The Ithacan

In a recent State of the College meeting, Cornish said despite the college’s recent financial hardships and declines in enrollment, she is confident that the college will achieve a balanced budget by 2028, according to reporting from The Ithacan

Ithaca College’s Board of Trustees will identify IC’s next leader, with a specific focus on advancing the college's financial sustainability, enrollment growth, innova-

tion, and external engagement, according to the press release.

College leadership said in the release that throughout the hiring process, students, faculty, staff, and alumni will have opportunities to help shape the qualities and priorities that will define the leadership profile for Ithaca College's next president.

The board of trustees is forming a presidential search committee, which will be chaired by the board’s vice chair, Chris Palmieri. The committee will include trustees and representatives from faculty, staff, student, and alumni communities, and a member of IC’s senior administration.

Palmeri will also serve as the spokes-

person for the search committee and will provide regular updates to the campus community throughout the process, according to the release. Questions and comments are welcome at presidentialsearch@ ithaca.edu.

“It has been an honor and a privilege to serve this institution during one of the most challenging periods in the college’s history,” Cornish said in a statement. “‘To everything there is a season.’ My season as the President of Ithaca College will conclude at the end of the 2026-2027 academic year. With an eternally grateful heart, I thank the Ithaca College community for giving me a season to remember and in due time, treasure.”

Tompkins County Sees Above Average Tick-borne Illnesses This Year

By Lorien Tyne

Tompkins County Whole Health (TCWH) released a notice to the community warning about the dangers of contracting Lyme Disease and other illnesses from tick bites. TCWH reported that in 2025, the county saw a large spike in tick-borne illnesses in the summer and so far in spring 2026 there have been above average tick-related illnesses.

TCWH Director of Community Health Services Rachel Buckwalter said in the no-

tice that people are more likely to encounter ticks in warmer weather because they live in lawns, parks and forests.

“Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases are very serious and debilitating illnesses that can be easily prevented by taking proper steps,” Buckwalter said. “The common rule is that if a tick has been attached to you and is engorged (body of tick is larger, filled with blood), you should consult your healthcare provider about their recommended next steps.”

Ticks can transmit over seven types of illnesses and can vary in symptoms, such as fever, fatigue, headaches and rashes, according to the notice. Only the bite of infected blacklegged ticks, called deer ticks, can spread Lyme disease to humans. The notice said that Lyme disease is the most common tick-borne disease in New York

Tompkins County has seen a spike in tick-borne illnesses recently. (Photo: CDC)

Ithaca College President Dr. La Jerne Terry Cornish will depart from her role in 2027. (Photo: Itahac Commege)

New Roots to New Horizons: New Roots Charter School Graduates Class of 2026

By Lorien Tyne

The senior class of New Roots Charter School celebrated their achievements at the 2026 graduation ceremony on June 25.

New Roots congratulated the Class of 2026, the charter school’s 15th graduating class, in a press release highlighting that 100% of seniors graduated. Students received offers of acceptance from 37 colleges and universities, including TC3 and RIT.

The press release said that as of June 26, the school is 92% enrolled, with 94% student retention and 100% faculty and staff retention.

Each graduate received the NYSED Seal of Civic Readiness on their high school diploma certifying that they completed all requirements for a New York State local or Regents diploma and met requirements for civic knowledge and civic participation.

All graduates were also Rotary Interact Club members, as the school’s curriculum integrates Rotary’s mission of service above self.

Many of New Root’s graduating students were recognized for their achievements during the Senior Award and Recognition Ceremony on June 16. Awards included NYSED 2026 Scholarships for Academic Excellence, NYS Attorney General Letitia James’ Office “Triple C” Award, Civic Ambassador Award, Comptroller Student Achievement Awards and the New Roots Academic Achievement Awards.

The entirety of the Class of 2026

graduated with college credit for one or more classes. Graduating senior Ayden Githinji received the College Acceleration Award for earning 35 college credits through TC3’s CollegeNow program. New Roots also recognized Elizabeth Butts who earned 34 college credits and Liam Mckeon who earned 28 college credits.

Githinji will attend Alfred State College for welding technology in the fall and will also be working for the Empire State Service Corps.

“I’ve had a lot of opportunities to share my thoughts and my voice during my time at New Roots, and it’s been a great experience for me,” Githinji said in the press release. “This school is where my interest in civic engagement stemmed from, and all my experiences here have landed me a job as I enter college.”

Githinji also received the Civic Ambassador Award from Attorney General Letitia James’ Office, which is given to one student from each school who has demonstrated knowledge of and passion for civics and government.

Three students were given NYSED 2026 Scholarships for Academic Excellence: Kayah McAllister was awarded $1,500 and Liam McKeon and Claire Springston were each awarded $500.

Beau Irons and Kayah Mcallister received the Triple C Award, which stands for Commitment, Character and Courage, from Attorney General Letitia James’ Office. The Triple C Award is given to two students who succeed in academic pursuits, participate in community service

UPS DOWNS&

Ups

State Senator Lea Webb presented Via’s Cookies with the New York State Empire Award on June 18. The award is the highest award a NYS Senator can bestow upon businesses and organizations in their district. Olivia Carpenter, founder of Via’s Cookies, launched her small business during the pandemic to pay bills as an Ithaca College student. She sold her cookies in local cafes and markets, which caused her business to grow. Over time, she expanded her products, creating gluten-free and vegan cookies as well. Carpenter also uses her business to give back to others by donating a portion of her proceeds to support underrepresented students and communities.

Downs

and show leadership skills.

Twelve students were presented with the Comptroller Student Achievement Award for excelling academically and showing leadership potential through community service. The students recognized were Elena Platt-Chilkotowsky, Kayah Mcallister, Liam McKeon, Beau Irons, Claire Springston, Ayden Githinji, Rowan Leidhecker, Dash Capps, Josie Phipps, Amaya Doolittle, Macky Caraballo and Mara Chokkuwa.

Community awards included Amaya Doolittle who received recognition from Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority and Dash Capps who received the 2026 Tompkins

Continued on Page B20

QUESTION OF THE WEEK

The Ithaca Police Department responded to a call about a dispute at 11:18 p.m. June 19 on the 100 block of North Cayuga Street. One of the parties in the dispute had his vehicle stolen. A statement released by Sergeant Lewis Morse said that the police are seeking public assistance to locate the vehicle. The vehicle is a red 2013 Volvo S60 with a registration of LWV8479. The passenger side mirror is missing from the vehicle. Anyone with information on the vehicle should contact the Ithaca Police Department through the tipline phone or email.

HEARD SEEN& Heard

Bet the Farm Winery is hosting a Holiday Empanadas event from 4-7 p.m. July 3. The event is meant to celebrate the 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Instead of a traditional barbecue, attendees can enjoy authentic Cuban cuisine on wheels. There will be Cuban sandwiches, croquettes and empanadas. The winery will also have its usual beer and wine selection with an additional batch of sangria to pair with the Cuban foods. A patriotic playlist, birthday cake, reading of the Declaration and more will set the tone for a Fourth of July celebration.

Seen

Finger Lakes ReUse opened its new community ReUse center, the Cayuga ReUse Center. The center moved from the Village of Lansing at Triphammer Marketplace locations to 2309 North Triphammer Road in the Cayuga Shopping Center. The new location provides a larger space than the two prior locations combined. The new location is also home to a community programming space that will house the Ithaca Fixers Collective and regular volunteer opportunities. The Cayuga ReUse Center is not accepting donations until a later date due to an influx of initial donations, but the Ithaca ReUse Center continues to accept gently used items from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Fridays through Mondays. After a big move, the new location is ready for the public and open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily.

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

New Roots’ Class of 2026 celebrated its graduation ceremony on June 25. (Photo: Provided)

Graduating senior Ayden Githinji received the College Acceleration Award for earning 35 college credits through TC3’s CollegeNow program. (Photo: Provided)

Dear Readers:

As part of our expanded commitment to thoughtful, community-centered journalism, the Personal Health section of the Ithaca Times will transition into Health and Sensibility—a monthly series exploring how personal choices, scientific research, and public policy intersect to shape health and well-being.

The series will feature two distinct formats. Community Voices will provide a forum for engaged citizens and contributors to share personal perspectives, experiences, and opinions on health-related topics. These essays will include the following disclaimer: “Community Voices essays are contributed by outside authors. Views expressed are solely those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect those of the Ithaca Times.”

In addition, Perspectives from the Times will feature interpretive and analytical pieces produced by the Ithaca Times, continuing the longstanding journalistic tradition of informed commentary, reporting, and editorial insight. Together, these features aim to foster informed dialogue, critical thinking, and deeper community engagement around the issues that influence our collective wellbeing. This week, we are featuring Health and Sensibility: Community Voices—offered by Mason M. Sopchak, DO, Christy Bianconi, Tompkins County Legislator, and Rev. Kirianne E. Weaver regarding The New York State Essential Plan.

CommunityVoices

Why Are We Doing This to Each Other?

By Mason M. Sopchak, DO

“Universal healthcare — why are we doing this to ourselves?” That thought struck again at a recent office visit. “Let’s get any tests done before July 1,” said a small business owner whose livelihood depends on a body that works. The urgency wasn’t medical — it was insurance. This patient was on the Essential Plan, built for incomes just above Medicaid’s cutoff, where premiums would otherwise be crushing.

If your head spins trying to figure out who deserves help and who doesn’t, you’re not alone. I see this confusion daily, over which test to order or which medication to prescribe. Cost is almost taboo to raise; patients dance around an obvious treatment plan before admitting money is the real obstacle. It isn’t abstract for me either: my own move from private practice to being an employed physician happened largely because the cost of insuring my staff became unsustainable — a healthcare provider undone by the cost of healthcare.

Is there legislation that could fix this — something New York could pass as a national model for single-payer care? There is: the New York Health Act. I’d hope for peace of mind, so care is simply there after a job change, a diagnosis, a stretch of underemployment; uniformity, so one priorauthorization process and one formulary let me plan treatment with confidence; and a real foothold for preventive care, since even wellness visits run into the same coverage walls as everything else. The Act wouldn’t solve every problem in American healthcare, but it would solve this one, efficiently, and free us to focus on what’s left.

Who’s Going to Pay for This?

We already are, in more ways than most realize — details are at nyhcampaign.org/ healthequalswealth. But I want to talk about something harder to put a number on: shame. Shame drives more of our healthcare behavior than we’d like to admit — hiding, or talking around the real issue: “Doc, I can’t afford this.” Or, if it is covered: “I’m not worth this.” That’s shame talking, insisting you’re not good enough to deserve care. It carries its own price: lost wages, worse outcomes, chronic stress with real physical effects — and dealing with it may matter even more than the dollars, tied as it is to something close to the meaning of life: learning to live comfortably in your own skin. Shame isn’t unique to healthcare, but engaging with it here can be a model for handling it elsewhere — more than policy, a nudge.

The Costs We Can See

Other costs are easier to point to: the boom-bust cycle of “I have coverage now, so let’s do everything,” care driven by gaming the calendar instead of what a patient needs. We’re losing ground as Essential Plan coverage shrinks, as federal cuts pile up, as attention fades. We spend more on healthcare than any

other nation and get less for it. People lose coverage right when a job ends or hours get cut, often when they’re sickest, while those who need care least get it most lavishly, driving its own harms from over treatment. I spend real time each day talking patients out of tests and referrals they don’t need. There’s also the barrier that shows up when care is necessary — a needed medication becomes one of your biggest budget items because you picked the “wrong” plan last fall, and now you’re locked in until open enrollment. That’s not how managing your health is supposed to work. Why are we doing any of this? Not to maximize anyone’s margin — to live our lives.

Why Do We Do What We Do?

I often ask patients this when we’re working through a hard behavior change, and it’s

Mason M. Sopchak, DO. (Photo: Provided)

Sopchak: Continued on next page

When the Safety Net Has a Hole

By Christy Bianconi, LCSW-R Tompkins County Legislator, District 14

On July 1, approximately 450,000 New Yorkers will lose Essential Plan coverage—not because their need for healthcare changed, but because the federal funding behind the program's expansion has been eliminated.

The Essential Plan has been one of New York's most underappreciated policy successes, providing affordable coverage for residents who earn too much for Medicaid but too little to comfortably absorb private insurance costs. Beginning this summer, eligibility caps at 200 percent of the federal poverty level. Those earning 200 to 250 percent—roughly $32,000 to $40,000 annually for an individual—will move to marketplace plans with significantly higher premiums, deductibles, and out-ofpocket costs.

The change stems from H.R. 1, which eliminated the federal funding behind the Essential Plan's expansion. Faced with a budget shortfall, New York chose to preserve coverage for the lowest-income enrollees and return the program to its previous limits. As crisis management, that's understandable. As policy, it leaves hundreds of thousands of working people less secure than they were months ago.

If you're losing coverage, contact NY State of Health to explore your options; federal premium tax credits may help. Locally, the Human Services Coalition of Tompkins County offers free navigation assistance at 607-273-8686, and 2-1-1 can connect you to additional resources.

As a healthcare professional and Tompkins County Legislator, I know losing insurance means delaying care, skipping medications, and waiting until a manageable condition becomes a crisis. But the larger problem is one we’ve built: a system where pharmaceutical manufacturers, hospital

systems, and insurance companies profit from prices unimaginable in most developed countries. It's why I voted for our county to support the NY Health Act, a bill that would establish single payer universal healthcare for all New Yorkers. The Essential Plan shielded people from those costs—it never solved them. This crisis was created through policy, and it can be undone the same way.

Christy Bianconi, LCSW-R, is a licensed clinical social worker with nearly 20 years of experience in behavioral health and human services. She serves as a Tompkins County Legislator representing District 14 and as Vice Chair of the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee. A graduate of Ithaca College and Binghamton University, her work has focused on improving access to healthcare, mental health services, and community-based support in Tompkins County.

CommunityVoices Does Ending the New York Essential Plan Do More Harm Than Good?

By Rev. Kirianne E. Weaver

There is a story told in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, in which Jesus encounters a man in the synagogue whose hand is atrophied. While the law required him to do nothing, he heals the man. “Which is lawful,” Jesus challenges those around: “to do good on the Sabbath, or to do harm? To save life, or to kill?” Remembering that one of the ten commandments is that we shall not kill, the answer he intends the people to give is clear: we are to do good, in God’s name; it is unlawful to ignore what can be healed; what is lawful is to protect and save life.

The idea of the “goodness” of life goes right back to the beginning of the Bible and creation itself. When God creates the heavens and the earth, and all that is within them, God calls it very good. There is that word again, connected to beauty and health and completeness; we were made good, even very good. This is the image of Eden: a beautiful garden, full of the most succulent fruits and vegetables (interestingly, we are not given meat to eat in that best of all possible places)—full of wholeness and viriditas. This is the image of us as creatures: made in God’s image, healthy and well.

From the perspective of Christian faith, at least as this Presbyterian student sees it, this sets the health of our sisters and brothers at the center of what God intends for us all.

worth asking about the healthcare system too. Insurance executives make decisions daily based on their own incentives, probably as complicated as anyone’s. Single-payer care wouldn’t erase that complexity, but it would put healthcare back at the center of how we set priorities as a community. When patients commit to real change, I tell them to expect setbacks — the re-commitment still matters, setbacks and all. Shame pushes

us instead to look away: to find scapegoats, to avoid the issue a thousand small ways. At the system level, the story points outward: “if they weren’t so [insert criticism here], they wouldn’t be so sick.” The best antidote to shame is empathy. I’ve had insurance most of my life, and there were still gaps. When have you struggled to cover a premium, or come away from comparing Medicare supplement plans unsure you picked right, even with good advice? This is a burden we already share, and we can choose

Genesis states God made us good; Jesus states in the gospels that ignoring health is not only unlawful—even on the sabbath— but indeed is evil and commandmentbreaking: as wrong, he hints, as murder.

What must God think, then, of a society in which people are denied the healing they need, simply because their economic condition precludes it?

The Rev. Kirianne E. Weaver is the senior pastor of First Presbyterian Church, which stands just north of Dewitt Park, with a rich tradition of both music and careful theological reflection in worship.

to carry it together — starting by making sure everyone’s actually in the pool.

Mason M. Sopchak DO (Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine) is a family practice physician. Board certified in both Family Medicine and Neuromuscular Medicine, he practices at Cayuga Primary Care Ithaca Mall location. He enjoys family time and walking three corgis around the Ithaca area trails.

EDITOR’S NOTE:

Health & Sensibility–Community Voices essays are contributed by outside authors. Views expressed are solely those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect those of the Ithaca Times.

Christy Bianconi, Tompkins County Legislator. (Photo: Provided)

Rev. Kirianne E. Weaver. (Photo: Provided)

Sopchak: Continued from previous page

GIAC’s Walk and Roll Program Opens Trails to All

By Steve Lawrence

When the collegiate and high school sports seasons wrap up, I go looking for other interesting story ideas, and while perusing the Greater Ithaca Activities Center’s website, I came across a program that I see as a major win/win.

The program is known as “Walk and Roll,” and it pairs seniors who like to hike, and like the added challenge of pushing a wheelchair, giving folks with mobility challenges a way to get involved. I connected with Zack Nelson, GIAC's Adult Program Coordinator to learn more about Walk and Roll, and he said, “It’s a monthly hike we started doing since the pandemic, giving people a chance to get outside and socialize and get some exercise.” Zack added, “We connected with the Cayuga Trails Club and with Lifelong's walking program, and we started thinking about ways to offer less-abled individuals an opportunity to take part.” Zack is aware that there are many benefits to be had on many levels, for people of many different ability levels, one of them being, “ It feels good to do it.” The Walk and Roll program utilizes the East Hill Recreation Trail on Game Farm Road.

Nelson said there is also a Bocce program, and he stated “Bocce is another

TICK-BORNE ILLNESSES

continued from page A4

and there is no vaccine for the disease for human use.

TCWH has a tick-borne infection dashboard on its website that tracks cases of Lyme, Anaplasmosis and Babesiosis in the county. For Lyme, in January there were 21 cases compared to 10 last year, 35 in February compared to 15 last year, 37 in March compared to 11 last year, 56 in April compared to four last year, and 61 in May compared to five last year. In 2025, there were 130 Lyme cases in June and 286 cases in July. If 2026 continues its higher-than-average trend the cases this summer could see an even higher peak than last year’s spike, which

good activity for people with mobility challenges. It's a friendly competition, it’s a lot of fun, and some of the participants give me a real run for my money on the Bocce court, despite some physical challenges.”

For those unfamiliar, GIAC offers a very wide array of recreational and educational programs for people of all ages. For more info on these and other programs offered by GIAC, visit www.cityofithacany. gov, or call 607-272-2622.

I recall the day the new reality of collegiate sports really hit home for me. I had been going to Cornell basketball games and watching AK Okereke evolve from a walk-on bit player into an All-Ivy force. Many Big Red fans were very excited about what AK might bring to the program in his fourth year of eligibility.

During that eye-opening junior year, Okeroke drew a lot of attention in the Ivy Madness tournament. In the semi-final game, Okereke put up 25 points, with 9 rebounds and 4 steals. To put to rest any notion that his performance in the semi was a fluke, he scored 22 points and added 8 rebounds and 5 assists in the championship game. Earlier in the season, he had piled up 30 points in a win against Ivy champ Yale, and his 24 points against Cal contributed to Cornell’s first win over an

was nearly triple the average summer peak.

For all three tick-borne illnesses tracked by the county, the most cases regularly occur in June through August. Each tick-borne illness saw a significant increase in cases during last year’s summer months compared to previous years.

Even if an individual has been previously treated for Lyme disease, since it is a bacterial infection, a person can become re-infected if bitten by another infected tick.

Not all deer ticks are infected with the bacteria that cause Lyme disease. Ticks only become carriers of Lyme if they feed on animals like mice that are infected. Generally, ticks must be attached for 36 to 48 hours or more to spread Lyme disease.

ACC opponent in six decades. Big Red fans were impressed to see such a rapid upward arc in Okereke's game, and thrilled that he had another year of eligibility.

Then... welcome to the new world of college sports. Hello Transfer Portal, goodbye Cornell, hello Vanderbilt. The young man from Clovis, California was also solid in the classroom, and after graduating, he made the decision to transfer to Vandy and use up that final year of eligibility to play as a grad student (an option unavailable to Ivy League athletes). He started 35 games for the Commodores, was a mainstay in the lineup all season, and helped the team make it to the second round of March Madness.

Like any player who plays big against big competition, Okereke drew some higher-level attention, and he has signed a two-way contract with the Los Angeles Lakers. A two-way contract means he is eligible to play in both the NBA and in the G- League (a minor league of sorts), and if you are thinking that turn of events sounds familiar, it is likely because Oker-

Lyme disease cannot be spread from one person to another.

If an individual is infected, early symptoms tend to appear within three to 30 days after the bite of an infected tick, according to TCWH. In 60-80% of cases, a circular bull’s eye rash appears near the tick bite. One or more symptoms may occur such as chills and fever, headache, fatigue, neck stiffness, muscle or joint pain and swollen glands. An infected individual also may not experience symptoms. If Lyme disease is not treated early, more severe symptoms can occur.

TCWH says to take caution and prevent tick bites by following the “ABCD” method: Avoid, Bug spray, Check for ticks and Dress for prevention. First, avoid areas where ticks may be, such as tall grass, thick wooded areas, in leaf piles and along stone walls. If

eke’s former teammate, Chris Manon, also followed that path. A year at Vanderbilt, a two-way contract with the Lakers, earning nine appearances with the big boys in the NBA. It was the first time since Jeff Foote played a handful of games for the New Orleans Hornets in 2012 that a Cornell player made it to the NBA.

Okereke will have another opportunity to keep climbing the ladder, as he will play for the Lakers in the NBA Summer League.

areas cannot be avoided, use tick repellant on clothing and skin, perform regular tick checks when outdoors and wear light colored clothing so ticks are easy to see. TCWH also recommends tucking shirts into pants and pants into socks to make it more difficult for ticks to find a good spot to bite. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has an interactive tool that assists individuals on removing attached ticks and determining if the individual should see a health care professional.

For more information about ticks, proper tick removal and tick identification, individuals can visit the TCWH website. Individuals and organizations can contact the county’s Community Health Services at 607-274-6604 for more education on ticks and preventing tick-borne diseases.

The Walk and Roll group walked and rolled to Taughannock Falls on this outing.

(Photo: Provided)

Sunset View Creamery Continues Family Farming Tradition

By Mikayla Rovenolt

The Hoffman family has farmed on the same 348-acre piece of land since 1905, refining their artisan milk cheese over five generations. Sunset View Creamery has grown from the original 10 Holstein cattle to over 85 cows and youngstock today.

Holsteins are the most prominent breed of dairy cattle and are known for their black and white color patterns.

As the family has grown over the years, so has the variety of cows. Holsteins are still the primary breed of cattle, there are also Ayrshires, Brown Swiss and Red and White Holsteins as well.

The family store sells varieties of milk, cheese, coffee, T-shirts and more. In 2021, the store began offering cow-cuddling sessions.

Calves between the ages of three to six months all go through the cow cuddling pen. Each session is 30 minutes and costs $15. Walk-ins are accepted, though space can sometimes be limited. It’s a very relaxing and low-energy experience, according to Jess Hoffman, owner and operator of the farm.

“It’s helped bring a lot of people in and put our name out there,” Jess said.

Jess’s passion project is Sunset View’s annual Dairy Discovery Camp, a youth day camp for ages eight to 13. Campers work with an animal to showcase in a 4H-style animal show, make homemade dairy products, and go on hayrides, along with other various activities.

Jess said it’s important to show youth life on a farm and educate them on farming as it is a career fewer people are choosing. Hoffman said she studied agriculture science and animal science at Cornell before working for Farm Credit East in Homer.

Through her career in Homer, she met Jeremy Hoffman and became part of the Hoffman family around 2015. Hoffman said she shadowed Jeremy’s mother to learn about the cheese-making process. She eventually stopped working for Farm Credit around 2021 when she had her and Jeremy’s daughter.

Jeremy and Jess purchased the farm in 2023, and during the COVID-19 pandemic they took over management of the farm. “At

the time, they were just making cheese and selling raw milk,” Jess said. “So we came in and managed the herd for a couple years and then once I was home full time I took over the creamery.”

The couple has added a variety of cream-top pasteurized milks to the selection at Sunset View, including white, chocolate, strawberry, and mocha. They have also added a gelato and yogurt option to the creamery.

“We’ve done a lot of increase in production,” Jess said. “I use nearly 80% of the milk we produce here on 40 cows, and the other 20% the co-op picks up.”

For the Hoffmans, the day starts at 4 a.m. to milk the cows. Jess does the milking while Jeremy cleans the barn and feeds the cows. When Jeremy finishes cleaning and feeding, they switch, and Jess heads out to

care of the calves and donkeys while Jeremy finishes the milking.

They then clean the milking parlor and wash what needs cleaning. Jess said that sometimes milk will get transferred to the creamery from the night before, and other times, when the milk truck has come and the tanks are empty, milk will get transferred after the morning milking.

From there, the family has breakfast and gets ready for the day ahead. By then, milk is heating in the vat, and Jess can begin the process for whatever she is making that day, be it pasteurized milk or another dairy product. She said she stays in the creamery most of the day, until around 3:30 p.m.

Jeremy’s day is a little different, as he finds himself running all over the farm attending to whatever is needed at the time.

Repairs, barn chores, field work, or shop work are all part of a day for Jeremy.

Around 3:30 is lunch, and then Jess and Jeremy get ready for the evening milking and chores. While there is some semblance of a schedule, both agreed that no two days are exactly the same on the farm.

For those interested in learning more about the Hoffmans and their farm, selfguided walking tours are available yearround, during store hours, at no charge for individuals and groups who would like to explore the farm at their own pace. The family also offers one-hour guided tours that give visitors an in-depth look at the farm.

For more information on the Hoffmans and Sunset View Creamery, visit https:// www.sunsetviewcreamery.com/.

Cow Cuddling is with young calves, three to six months old, and is a fun, relaxing experience according to the Hoffman family. (Photo: Mikayla Rovenolt)

VETcorner

Pet Tips from a Local Vet All About Feline Viruses

Brian Collins, DVM Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell Riney Canine Health Center

By Mikayla Rovenolt

Q:What are the most common ticks you see on cats and dogs?

There are 3 common ticks in the northeastern US affecting cats and dogs. They are the deer (or blacklegged) tick, the American dog tick, and the lone star tick. A sticky lint roller can be used to remove ticks from pets that are not already attached.

Q:What diseases can ticks carry? How might these affect a pet?

There are numerous diseases that can be spread to dogs by tick bites, but the most common in our area are Lyme disease, Anaplasmosis, Ehrlichiosis, and Rocky Mountain spotted fever — which are all caused by bacteria -- and Babesiosis which is caused by a protozoal organism. These diseases cause a wide range of overlapping clinical signs in dogs which commonly include fever, lethargy, lameness, and loss of appetite. Other signs can include bruising or nosebleeds, vomiting and diarrhea, weakness, and seizures. Lyme disease can cause kidney failure, and affected dogs may exhibit vomiting and increased thirst and urination. Babesia is uncommon in NYS but can be lifethreatening.

Though more common in dogs in the Northeast, cats can be infected with various tickborne diseases. These include Anaplasmosis and Ehrlichiosis which can result in fever, lethargy, decreased appetite, and joint pain. Cats can be infected with the bacteria that cause Lyme disease, but illness is much rarer than in dogs and could include fever, lethargy, and lameness. Feline hemotropic mycoplasmosis is a bacterial disease and is more commonly spread by fleas, but transmission by ticks is also possible. It can cause fever, severe anemia, lethargy, labored breathing, and loss of appetite. Cytauxzoonosis (or Bobcat fever) is a very serious illness that has been found as far north as Pennsylvania but fortunately has not yet been found in New York State. It is caused by a protozoal organism and can result in a rapid progression of signs

including lethargy, fever, anemia, and is often fatal. Cats can also become infected with Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever though it is very rare.

Many cats and dogs will test positive for tickborne diseases but will remain asymptomatic. One notable exception is Bobcat fever which almost always results in severe illness or death in housecats. It is also common for animals to be infected with more than one tickborne organism at the same time.

Q:Is one kind of tick more dangerous than another? If so, why?

I would treat all ticks as potentially dangerous since all types carry multiple diseases and diseases are often carried by more than one type of tick.

Q:What’s the best way to prevent ticks on household pets?

It is very important to use a tick preventive product on both cats and dogs. There are both over the counter and veterinary products available and include both oral and topical products as well as collars. Some products will help repel ticks, while others will kill ticks shortly after they attach. While no product is 100% effective, they are still considered to be very important in helping prevent tickborne illnesses. It is very important that products for dogs are never applied to cats as they can become seriously ill. Ask your veterinarian for their recommendations so you can choose what is best for your pets and your household.

Q:Are there things pet owners can do after being outside to help find ticks?

Though it can be challenging, searching for ticks on your pets after they come inside can help reduce the chance that they will bite your pet, which is how diseases are transmitted. Ticks can be found anywhere but are more often found on the face, neck, and ears, as well as on the belly, between the hindlegs, in the armpits, and between the toes. Cats will often remove ticks through grooming, though they should also be examined. If a tick is found, it can be removed with a commercial tick remover or with a pair of fine-tipped tweezers. While wearing disposable gloves, grab attached ticks close to the skin with tweezers and pull straight away without twisting.

Q:What are some signs that show your pet may be sick from a tick bite?

Because the types of signs from tick-borne diseases are extensive and often similar to non-tickborne diseases, I recommend that pet owners check with their veterinarian whenever their pet is showing signs of illness. It is important to tell your veterinarian if your pet has had any recent history of tick attachment.

Q:Are there things people can do to their lawns to mitigate ticks?

Ticks are often found on vegetation such as tall grass and weeds as well as shrubs and in leaf litter, so it is helpful to keep grass mowed, to prune shrubbery, and to rake leaves. To reduce the spread of ticks, fencing to exclude deer and other animals can be helpful. Discourage rodents from coming into the yard by reducing habitat for them and by keeping bird feeders as far away as possible.

Q:Any other advice for pet owners during tick season?

Be vigilant while still enjoying the great outdoors. Unfortunately, ticks can be active at any time of year – even on warm days in the middle of winter. However, the various tick species are generally most active from April through October. Use year-round tick preventives for your pets. Ask your vet about vaccinating your dog against Lyme disease. Examine cats and dogs closely for ticks after they come inside. Even indoor cats are at risk of ticks as they can be transferred from people and other animals who do go outside. Check with your vet if your pet shows any signs of illness.

Animal Kingdom Trivia

1. What is a group of cats called?

A. A gaggle

B. A clowder

C. A mischief

D. A pack

2. Which mammal has the thickest fur?

A. Panther

B. Bats

C. Sea otter

D. Husky

3. The age of a lion can be determined by what body part ?

A. Nose

B. Paw pads

C. Mane

D. Tail

4. True or false: Bats are the only mammal capable of true flight.

5. What fruit is a newborn Kangaroo the size of ?

A. Kiwi

B. Orange

C. Grape

D. Cantaloupe

6. True or false: The Bumblebee Bat is the smallest mammal in the world?

7. What animal has the highest blood pressure?

A. Cobra

B. Giraffe

C. Iguana

D. Tiger

8. True or false: A wolf can smell its prey up to five miles away

9. What land animal has the most powerful bite?

A. Lion

B. Tiger

C. Rhinosaurus

D. Hippopotamus

10. Where is the only place on their body dogs have sweat glands?

A. Behind their ears

B. Their nose

C. Paw pads

D. All over their body

Brian Collins with his dogs Dottie, Speck and Iris. (Photo: Provided)

Meet Xello, Ithaca Police Department’s K-9

By Mikayla Rovenolt

Originally from Hungary, Xello the German shepherd was trained from a young age to be a police K-9. His handler, Officer Gina DelSontro, says he is a great dog who loves to work.

DelSontro said that while the dogs do not learn exact commands before coming to the United States, they do have some practice with work. Xello spent the first year of his life in Hungary learning basics such as what a bite sleeve looks like and how to track toys.

DelSontro traveled to Sharpsville, Pennsylvania, to pick up Xello at Shallow Creek Kennels, which, according to their website, is known for their police dogs. She said she spent around two months acclimating Xello to herself and her home before they began official training.

In order to obtain a police K-9, DelSontro said she had to undergo a physical exam, show that she was not afraid of dogs and complete a series of interviews to determine if she was ready for a working companion. She said being a K-9 handler was something she always wanted to do since becoming an officer.

“I just think that dogs are so undervalued sometimes because, yes, they are house pets, and yes, they are amazing, but especially breeds like Xello — German shepherds — they need jobs to be fully happy,” DelSontro said. “It’s something I’ve always admired.”

DelSontro said she and Xello then underwent detector certification for nine weeks and patrol school for 13 weeks, focusing on obedience and tracking. Xello is a dual-certified police dog, meaning he is detector and tracking certified. Some police dogs are only detector certified.

Xello was patrol-certified in December and now goes through training three times a month to keep his skills up to date. DelSontro added that obedience training is really important because Xello needs to be able to start and end actions on command.

DelSontro said a lot of their bonding happens during work and training because both officer and dog are learning together.

“Once you have that kind of home bond, then you go to the schools,” DelSontro said. “Honestly, school is what builds the bond between you and the dog, because you’re both learning it, because I’ve never done this before either. We’re both learning, and it’s just something that he learns to love, so he’s like, ‘Oh, we’re going to work with mom, this is so fun.’ That really builds the bond, is playing with

them, that’s what working is for them.”

Not every day is as easy as getting to work and play together. DelSontro shared that it is important to remember that Xello is a living being with a mind of his own, and sometimes he has bad days. However, DelSontro said that it is important for her to keep her cool because dogs can feel our human emotions.

“There are days where he just has bad days where he can’t find odors, or he’s not in the mood, or he’s cranky,” DelSontro said. “I would think that is probably the hardest part, because you’re trying so hard to teach him things, and then sometimes he’s just like, not today. If I get frustrated, my instructor always says it goes down the leash, so he feels the frustration. Even if he’s having a bad day, I can’t have one.”

The emotional aspect of the job is harder than DelSontro thought it would be, but she said she still loves the work and Xello all the same. She said she does not have a favorite part of the training because DelSontro finds it all important and enjoyable. She said the most important thing is that Xello is happy.

“As far as the canines go, I feel like there are a lot of assumptions,” DelSontro said. “People think that they aren’t happy, or treated the same just because they’re working dogs, and I would just like to say that that’s completely untrue. At the end of the day, he comes home with me, he lives with me full time. Basically he spends 24/7 with me; he’s here at work and he’s here at home, and at home he’s a dog. We play, we hang out, and he gets fed all the good food like every other dog.”

DelSontro added that Xello is a wellrespected dog, both on and off the clock, and that he is part of her family.

ADOPTIONspotlight

Aries

Are you interested in having a sprightly bundle of smiles and borks as a walking companion?

Aries (50 lbs) is, in a word, simply perfect. This one-yearold lass is so friendly and spunky that she doesn’t have to wait to get to know you, she’ll make sure that you know her first! She’s super smart and came to us pre-equipped with some handy tricks like “sit,” “down,” and “paw,” but we just know that she’s going to love learning more skills with you! You can meet her at the Tompkins County SPCA.

Molly

Molly is a very good girl whose favorite game is chasing the red dot of a laser toy, and loves nothing more than being brushed. Sadly, she came to us when her person passed away, and she couldn’t stay with anyone else. While your lap might not be her go-to, if you’ve got some tasty treats and a gentle brush, she’s more than happy to wile away the time with you, but when she’s done being adored, she’ll give you a heads up miaow, and walk away. Molly’s shared a home with other cats and dogs, so she’d likely be happy with similarly laid back friends, though we’re not sure about how she feels about smaller children. Why not drop by our adoption center Wednesday–Sunday: 12:00–4:30 PM (Thursday: 12:00–6:30 PM) to meet her?

Volunteer Of the Month

Meet Jess Proctor, Stay Wild Rescue’s Deputy Director, Director of Marketing and Communications, and creator of The Pawtner Program. Jess and her husband also foster and provide permanent homes for many special needs creatures. Thank you, Jess!

July 2026 Pet Holidays

National Pet Hydration Awareness

Month Lost Pet Prevention Month

July 10: National Kitten Day

July 15: I Love Horses Day

July 16: World Snake Day

July 21: National Craft for Your Local Shelters Day (encourages animal lovers to create and donate handmade goods for shelter pets)

July 31: National Mutt Day

TRIVIA ANSWERS 1. B. A clowder 2. C. Sea otter 3. A. Nose

C. Grape

B.Giraffe

8. False, they can only smell about two miles away.

9. D. Hippopotamus

10. C. Paw pads

(Photo: Stay Wild Rescue)

Jess Proctor, Volunteer Stay Wild Rescue

Officer Gina DelSontro with Xello. (Photo: Provided)

Ithaca High School Class of 2026 Turns Tassels at Moresco Stadium

Speakers emphasize kindness, connection, and redefining success at the

151st ceremony.

By Maddy Vogel

On Wednesday, June 24, at Moresco Stadium, Ithaca High School’s Class of 2026 gathered to turn their tassels and celebrate the end of one chapter and the beginning of the next.

The high school’s 151st graduation ceremony brought families, graduates, and

community members together in a single ceremony for the first time since 2019. Although the COVID-19 pandemic began six years ago, the district had continued holding graduation in two separate ceremonies each year until now.

Caren Arnold, Ithaca High School’s principal, opened the ceremony, welcoming students, families, and expressing

gratitude for the district's staff and faculty that made the ceremony possible.

This year marked Arnold’s first year as principal, previously serving as principal of Caroline Elementary School. Arnold said the year also brought new challenges for students, including implementation of the statewide bell-to-bell cell phone ban. She reflected on her first year in the role and said she

has seen stronger student connections and growth throughout the school community.

“The sounds of actual conversations returned to our hallways and lunch spaces,” Arnold said. “The class of 2026 helped lead the way through that change, and our school is a better place because of it.”

She said she hopes students bring the lessons they learned this year into their

(Photo: Mark Syvertson/Ithaca Times)

next journey, wherever that may be. Looking ahead, she encouraged them not to lose the importance of personal interaction and creating welcoming communities beyond their screens.

“You brought energy, enthusiasm, and most importantly, you brought your kindness,” Arnold told graduates. “What I found was that you, the Ithaca High School Class 2026, you are friendly, you’re caring, you're inclusive, accepting and you genuinely support each other… I saw you making room for one another. I saw you cheering each other and helping create a school culture where people felt that they belonged.”

Arnold then introduced student speaker Leo Holloway, who encouraged graduates to choose love and kindness in a world that can often feel defined by negativity.

Holloway began by encouraging graduates to look around and recognize the people who helped them reach the milestone of graduation.

“Think about how your community has brought you to this point,” Holloway said. “Not any of this has been done alone. Not one of us has done any of this alone.”

Holloway drew inspiration from a quote by Irish poet Oscar Wilde: “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.”

He encouraged graduates to enjoy as much of the world as possible, and to enjoy beautiful places and things. Holloway emphasized finding joy in the simplicity of life and recognizing how fortunate we are simply to exist.

“We spend so much time looking for the next greatest eight for us to climb that we forget how important and extraordinary it is to simply stand on the ground we stand on now,” he said. “What a wonderful thing it is to be alive.”

Choosing kindness echoed throughout his speech. He said that although malice dilutes kindness, love can never be washed out.

“What is the point of any of this if you are not having any fun at all?” Holloway asked. “We spend so much time worrying about what's next we have no joy in what is… To be alive is to be given the gift to choose. So if it's your choice, choose to be kind.”

He also pushed back on the idea that graduates are entering the hardest world that has ever existed. He encouraged graduates to seek out places that strive to make the world a better place and full of love.

“If you have ever been told that the world you enter now is worse off than it has ever been before, every single graduating class has been told that,” Halloway said.

He ended by telling the audience the message he most hopes they take away: that they are responsible for choosing kindness and joy in a world that can often be cruel and difficult.

Staff speaker and class advisor Peter Kelly redefined the meaning of excellence. He said that excellence is often narrowly defined by high GPAs, admission to prestigious colleges and other traditional markers of achievement. But, he added, excellence can be much broader, and students should define it by what they find meaningful in their own lives.

“Yes you can pursue a high status job and it'll be excellent,” Kelly said. “But you can also start a rec volleyball team, help kids find their voices, join a gospel choir, care for grandparents, wash dishes at the community kitchen, listen to your friend and validate them, and that’ll be excellent too.”

He told graduates to imagine what their younger and older selves would say to them in this moment.

“I must admit, though, it can sometimes be hard to see who to cheer for, but you always can, and in fact must, show up for 8-year-old you, who looks up to you so much, and 28-year-old you, who stands in your corner cheering you on, and right now you, who holds it all together. A little excellence for them goes a long way too.”

After receiving their diplomas one by one, Ithaca High School’s Class of 2026 turned their tassels and tossed their caps, celebrating the start of a new beginning.

(Photo: Mark Syvertson/Ithaca Times)

(Photo: Mark Syvertson/Ithaca Times)

(Photo: Mark Syvertson/Ithaca Times)

The Talk at

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

By Ithaca Times Readers

Coverage Needed for Ira

McKinley Arrest

“Hoping there will be coverage of the dog attack at Wegmans last Saturday. I heard Ira McKinley was the only person to pull the dog away from the woman and yet was handcuffed by police. I heard there are a lot of people wanting to speak out on his behalf. What’s happening?” — Christianne White, Ithaca NY

New York Health Act Can Ease Health Care Crisis

“There is concern that private insurers would go out of business and jobs would be lost if the New York Health Act (NYHA) was enacted. However, private insurers are a large part of the health care crisis in America.

Private insurers have been shown to deny medical care in 1 out of every 5 covered patients (The Common Wealth Fund Survey June 4, 2026). Private insur-

ers have monopolized health care costs (Time July 15, 2025). This causes costs to rise and because one insurer covers the majority of the market, denials are difficult to fight. In New York State, insurance premiums are different depending on where you live. All of this leads to more costly and less effective health coverage. Jobs would be created by New York Health. Medical centers and hospitals will need more employees because there are more patients who can access care. Why do we have such a complex health insurance business that requires so many employees to work on prior authorizations, denials, billing and finance? A single payor plan (NYHA) will decrease administrative costs. More money will go into healthcare and less into the profitdriven business of care.” — Debra Jones, Apalachin NY

Tompkins County Needs a New District Attorney

“Tompkins County DA Matthew Van Houten is failing at racial justice. In 2025, his office accepted a plea deal for Bob Whittaker, who spent years terrorizing his Black neighbor, Amanda David. The DA's office did not inform David of the plea deal before accepting it without her consent. They did not inform David that she had the right to make a victim impact statement, either. Whittaker was

sentenced to only 20 additional days in jail, which did not protect David and her family while they moved and sold their house.

Also in 2025, Van Houten refused to prosecute IPD officers who brutally attacked Andre Haynes and two of his family members during an arrest. Haynes is now suing the City of Ithaca and IPD for this egregious violation of his civil rights. This month, Van Houten brought charges against Ira McKinley, a Black man whose reward for saving a woman from a vicious dog attack was to be racially profiled, arrested, banned from Wegmans, and have all his possessions thrown in the trash.

These are only three examples representing a systemic failure to achieve justice for BIPOC people in Tompkins County. Others have occurred during Van Houten's current term and previous terms. As DA, Van Houten is responsible for all of these decisions. Van Houten will be up for reelection in 2028. Tompkins County needs and deserves a new DA who will truly deliver justice for all.” — Adrienne Masler, Ithaca NY

RE: Ithaca City School District Approves Climate Action Plan

“Evidently the fossil fuel industry hasn’t realized how ridiculous and merciless their chatbots sound when they talk about a low temperature in a particular place on a particular day when people are dying from heat exposure in so many parts of the globe. They haven’t realized that they can’t control the narrative, and they are only reaching a tiny fraction of people caught in a microbub-

ble of disinformation. Maybe some day even those people will take a minute to face reality and begin to see there might be a better future.” — Brian Harrington, ithaca.com

Mutual Aid in Ira McKinley Case

“I am writing to express my hope that Ithaca takes a mutual aid approach in resolution of the case against Ira McKinley, whose heroic action saved an already seriously injured woman from a continuing life-threatening dog attack on June 13 in the outdoor eating area at Wegman’s. Mr. McKinley, unfortunately followed his courageous action by loudly cursing out the police and Wegman’s security in a rage for their perceived lack of attention to the victim, Margaret Wakeley, and was arrested in this incident that neither the law nor the police are equipped to handle.

A full and sympathetic-to-Mr. McKinley audience attended his arraignment on Wednesday, June 24, for charges by both Wegman’s and the City of trespassing and creating a public disturbance. Even the police chief, Mr. Kelly, who claimed to this writer that he had an ongoing good relationship with Mr. McKinley, acknowledged publicly that Mr. McKinley had saved a woman’s life.

But by its very design as a system that assumes the level playing field that is absent, the law is not capable of recognizing how the destabilizing effects on people’s lives of insane levels of wealth and resource inequality play out for

Starting a Business

By Stephen Burke

Ithaca is a city of entrepreneurs, for rewarding as well as challenging reasons.

The challenging, or bad, news first: some Ithaca residents look to entrepreneurship to build incomes because Ithaca is an expensive place to live, with high housing costs, particularly.

Combine that with a fairly low wage structure. There aren’t a lot of real highpaying jobs.

New York City is also an expensive place to live, but it has Wall Street and a lot of well-paying jobs in finance, and many major corporations with remunerative business work, if you like that kind of thing.

The good, or rewarding, news is that Ithaca is welcoming to entrepreneurs in many ways. Money comes here steadily from outside because of the colleges. Those institutions and their populations have needs that create business opportunities. (Of course, the full-time local population does, too.)

Additionally, Ithaca is a progressive place that supports creativity and strivers. Last time, this column discussed Ithaca Hours, a local paper currency that eventually went out of favor along with paper currency in general; but for a quartercentury, from about 1990 through 2015, helped small businesses as a local money that Ithaca residents could earn to supplement their incomes, and that circulated only in Ithaca, thus stayed here.

A small local business such as a coffee shop, for example, could accept the local money (Gimme Coffee and Ithaca Bakery/ Collegetown Bagels did) for a competitive edge over outside or corporate competitors such as Starbucks that didn’t. It was a long time before Ithaca had a Starbucks, and we don’t now, but we have long had multiple branches of these local businesses.

Last October, this column featured the Civil Advocacy Project, a local organization that provides free or low-cost legal assistance for small businesses and budding entrepreneurs. Veronica Johnson, the executive director, spoke of a progressive civic philosophy in Ithaca that her organization supports, seeking to “shift control from distant corporations” with independent businesses and individual empowerment. Johnson is a board member of Alternatives Federal Credit Union in Ithaca,

which she credits as a major resource for small businesses, with favorable loans and other economic partnerships and a robust series of training programs.

What drives an entrepreneur? For perspective we spoke with three business owners: one brand-new, one 16-year veteran, and one in the middle, at about nine years.

What they seem to have in common is that each is pursuing a personal interest that they thought would make a good business because no one else was doing it the same way, as well, or at all.

Homemade Hotdogs is a new hot dog vendor on the Commons. Owner James Race operates an outdoor cart near Cayuga Street in a passel of daytime hours.

When I went on an unplanned visit to see James he was done for the day, having sold out of inventory on a bright Saturday afternoon, so I thought he must be doing something right.

The next time I found out what. James makes the hot dogs himself, from locallysourced meats. He said his idea was to offer an upgrade of an item that many people love even when the product is not premium, and that some people shun, but might like if they knew it was artisanal, and devoid of filler, additives or cheap cuts.

James said he decided on this business after years of professional cooking, as a means of doing something simple but exceptional.

The quality extends to the preparation. These are not the proverbial dirty water hot dogs. They are cooked on a propanepowered grill, individually and to order.

James’s advice to prospective entrepreneurs is straightforward: if you have another source of income, hold onto it as long as you can while you build your start-up business. Even if you don’t drastically need it, it will provide security as you try to make your new work full-time. James has only recently given up other part-time work, at a juncture where he anticipates success.

Jyl’s Photo Booth is run by Jyl Dowd and Jill Brink Dollaway. They first worked together on a project years ago, a fundraising pictorial yearbook for a youth dancing group.

Ithaca in Motion — America Rising

By Roy Allen

In Ithaca, civic life does not announce itself in grand gestures. It reveals itself in repetition—in school board meetings that extend into questions of belonging, in housing conversations where affordability and identity intersect, in sidewalks and shared spaces where people from different backgrounds encounter one another not occasionally, but continuously.

Ithaca is a place where civic life is not distant or abstract. It is immediate, visible, and lived. It is also a place defined by constant movement—not always dramatic, but persistent and structurally defining.

It is within this environment that the work of Pathways to Equity, the parent of the Ithaca Times — in collaboration with likeminded civic partners — has taken shape.

This body of work—including We the People: A Celebration of Participatory Democracy, Artist and Advocate, Innovations in Science, Impact the Law, Critter Times, Health and Sensibility, Unsung Changemakers, Who’s Your Neighbor, EatLocal, Ithaca Style and two upcoming series’, Traveling Troubadours and Beyond the Campus: Stories of Leaving Home and Finding New Places to Belong—is aninquiry into how civic life is formed, sustained, and transformed through human experience.

A Civic Foundation: We the People

We the People is a phrase that describes not only the origin of democratic governance, but its ongoing requirement: that civic life depends on participation. Not symbolic participation, but real engagement in the shared systems that shape collective existence.

In Ithaca, this becomes visible in everyday governance. In school districts balancing competing needs. In housing debates where preservation, development, and affordability intersect. In public forums where disagreement is not unusual, but expected.

What emerges from this work is a central recognition: Democracy is not defined by agreement. It is defined by the ability of people to remain in a shared civic space even when they do not agree on what that space should become.

We the People documents this reality as a lived experience. It traces how com-

munities hold together under pressure because they continue to participate in the same civic structures.

But as the series developed, another pattern became increasingly visible: People move.

A Second Lens: Beyond the Campus

Beyond the Campus emerges from that recognition.

Ithaca is shaped by continuous movement. People arrive from across the United States and around the world—students entering institutions of learning, professionals pursuing opportunity, families seeking stability or reinvention, researchers and artists contributing to evolving communities. And just as consistently, people leave.

People like Ithaca College graduate Himadri Seth, who came to America from India and spent five formative years in Ithaca before returning home. Because of her experience here, she reached out to the Ithaca Times to share her story, leading to the creation of Beyond the Campus, an open-micstyle series designed to celebrate her journey and those of many future students.

Others, like Jake Sexton, traveled nearly 3,000 miles from California because someone he loves chose to study here. As a “trailing partner”, his experience inevitably will impact his and her memories of the community. Consequently, Ithaca leaves its mark not only on students who come here and leave after graduation, but also on friends and family members who make the journey alongside them.

Individuals follow opportunity, responsibility, or personal change. Others return to places they once left, carrying Ithaca with them in altered form. This circulation is not peripheral to Ithaca’s identity. It is structural.

Beyond the Campus will follow this movement—not as disruption, but as civic condition. It examines how identity, belonging, and understanding evolve when people leave one environment and enter another. It will ask:

• How is civic experience carried across distance?

• How are individuals changed by new environments?

The Enduring Voice of Dwight D. Eisenhower — 1961

By Roy Allen — Director of Strategic Partnerships — Ithaca Times, Finger Lakes Community Newspapers, Ithaca.com

Many voices have helped to shape the nation we call America. This week we feature Dwight David Eisenhower (Ike) who oversaw the Normandy invasion to liberate France which led to the end of World War II, became the first Supreme Commander of Nato and was elected to become the 34th President of the United States. Towards the end of his term, he cautioned listeners against the dangers of the “military–industrial complex” — which he defined as massive and endless investments in security with no concern for deficit spending or the power given to defense contractors of domestic concerns. Ike served for two terms and became one of the 20th Century most admired people. The following speech is known as his Farewell Address.

Eisenhower’s Farewell Speech — Delivered to the American people, via national television broadcast — January 17, 1961

My fellow Americans:

Three days from now, after half a century in the service of our country, I shall lay down the responsibilities of office as, in traditional and solemn ceremony, the authority of the Presidency is vested in my successor.

This evening I come to you with a message of leave-taking and farewell, and to share a few final thoughts with you, my countrymen.

Like every other citizen, I wish the new President, and all who will labor with him, Godspeed. I pray that the coming years will be blessed with peace and prosperity for all.

Our people expect their President and the Congress to find essential agreement on issues of great moment, the wise resolution of which will better shape the future of the Nation.

My own relations with the Congress, which began on a remote and tenuous basis when, long ago, a member of the Senate appointed me to West Point, have since ranged to the intimate during the war and immediate post-war period, and, finally, to the mutually interdependent during these past eight years.

In this final relationship, the Congress and the Administration have, on most vital issues, cooperated well, to serve the national good rather than mere partisanship, and so have assured that the business of the Nation should go forward. So, my official relationship with the Congress ends in a feeling, on my part, of gratitude that we have been able to do so much together.

We now stand ten years past the midpoint of a century that has witnessed four major wars among great nations. Three of these involved our own country. Despite these holocausts America is today the strongest, the most influential and most productive nation in the world. Understandably proud of this pre-eminence, we yet realize that America's leadership and prestige depend, not merely upon our unmatched material progress, riches and military strength, but on how we use our power in the interests of world peace and human betterment.

Throughout America's adventure in free government, our basic purposes have been to keep the peace; to foster progress in human achievement, and to enhance liberty, dignity and integrity among people and among nations. To strive for less would be unworthy of a free and religious people. Any failure traceable to arrogance, or our lack of comprehension or readiness to sacrifice would inflict upon us grievous hurt both at home and abroad.

Progress toward these noble goals is persistently threatened by the conflict now engulfing the world. It commands our whole attention, absorbs our very beings. We face a hostile ideology-global in scope, atheistic in character, ruthless in purpose,

and insidious in method. Unhappily the danger it poses promises to be of indefinite duration. To meet it successfully, there is called for, not so much the emotional and transitory sacrifices of crisis, but rather those which enable us to carry forward steadily, surely, and without complaint the burdens of a prolonged and complex struggle-with liberty at stake. Only thus shall we remain, despite every provocation, on our charted course toward permanent peace and human betterment.

Crises there will continue to be. In meeting them, whether foreign or domestic, great or small, there is a recurring temptation to feel that some spectacular and costly action could become the miraculous solution to all current difficulties. A huge increase in newer elements of our defense; development of unrealistic programs to cure every ill in agriculture; a dramatic expansion in basic and applied research-these and many other possibilities, each possibly promising in itself, may be suggested as the only way to the road we wish to travel.

But each proposal must be weighed in the light of a broader consideration: the need to maintain balance in and among national programs-balance between the private and the public economy, balance between cost and hoped for advantagebalance between the clearly necessary and the comfortably desirable; balance between our essential requirements as a nation and the duties imposed by the nation upon the individual; balance between action of the moment and the national welfare of the future. Good judgment seeks balance and progress; lack of it eventually finds imbalance and frustration.

The record of many decades stands as proof that our people and their government have, in the main, understood these truths and have responded to them well, in the face of stress and threat. But threats, new in kind or degree, constantly arise. I mention two only.

A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction.

Our military organization today bears little relation to that known by any of my predecessors in peace time, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea.

Until the latest of our world conflicts,

the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United State corporations.

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence-economic, political, even spiritual-is felt in every city, every state house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together. Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.

In this revolution, research has become central; it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.

Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been over shadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has

(Photo Source: US Presidential History)

Arts&Entertainment

IC Alum Kate Zasowski Releases Debut Comedy Album

By Mikayla Rovenolt

Ithaca College grad Kate Zasowski released her debut comedy album “Garbage Plate” on June 26 with Aspecialthing Records.

Zasowski recorded “Garbage Plate” live in November 2025 at the Lyric Hyperion Theater in Los Angeles, where she now works as a comedy writer and comedian. On the album, she tells jokes about Ithaca College and its fountains, growing up in Rochester, what she's learned fostering dogs, showbizthemed banking, and how her hometown’s signature dish, the garbage plate, is a metaphor for the LGBTQ community.

In an interview with the Ithaca Times, Zasowski said she started telling jokes at a young age. She said she would tag along to the hair salon for her mother’s appointments and tell jokes to the hair dressers.

“I think I just felt this urge to entertain people,” she said. “I loved joke books. I would study joke books, and then when I switched from Catholic to public school in middle school, I would tell jokes on the bus in order to try and make friends. I don’t know how effective that really was, but it made me fall in love with the genre of comedy.”

In middle school, Zasowski joined the improv team, she said. Later, she tried out for her high school improv team but did not make it into the group. thaca College, which she graduated from in 2017, Zasowski studied television and radio. She regularly attended the IC Comedy Club, in which the first hour was improv, and the second hour was stand-up. Zasowski said she’d do improv and then watch the stand-ups, wondering if she could also do that type of comedy.

“I would watch these other students do stand-up and think, ‘Oh, that seems really fun, I don’t know if I could do it,’” Zasowski said. “It took me about a year to get my courage up and to try it, and I totally bombed. It fueled me to get better

and to keep working at it. Eventually, I became co-president of IC Stand Up Club.”

Zasowski now does stand-up around the country and has performed at the New York City Comedy Festival, Netflix is a Joke Fest, SF Sketchfest, and numerous others. She said that as a comedy writer, much of her work centers on the LGBTQ community, flawed but lovable female characters, and mental illness.

“I’ve just always really gravitated towards comedy as a way for people to connect,” Zasowski said. “I think there’s something really amazing about how you could have basically nothing in common with a person, but you can find the same joke funny. I think there's something very special about that.”

Before releasing her album, Zasowski said she spent months planning and finalizing what content it would consist of. Zasowski said she started by taking a class on how to prepare “your hour” for stand-up shows.

Then, Zasowski said she and a friend, Matt Duckett, who is also a stand-up comedian, decided to do a West Coast tour as preparation for her album.

“The next step was we reached out to a bunch of record labels and said, ‘Would you be interested in producing an album for us?’” Zasowski said. “We heard back from this company called Aspecialthing Records. They’re awesome. They only produce comedy albums, so they really are passionate about comedy.”

Zasowski and Duckett toured five cities with 25 to 30 minute sets each in preparation for Zasowski’s recorded show.

“I think so much of the album is a love letter to where I started and where I am now,” she said. “A kind of evolution of where my life has gone, and how it was shaped from the way I grew up.”

As a writer, Zasowski worked on “The Las Culturistas Culture Awards” hosted by Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, written a script for “Big Shot,” and worked in the writer’s room for NBC Olympics ICYMI, “I Love That For You,” “Spitting Image,”

“Atypical,” “Busy Tonight,” “The Fix,” “Laff Mobb’s Laff Tracks,” CollegeHumor, Reductress, McSweeney’s and others. She also assisted writer/director Kelly Oxford on her feature film debut “Pink Skies Ahead.”

When not on tour, you can find Zasowski onstage with her improv team Pretty Ugly at the Pack Theater in Los Angeles. For more information or to learn more about Zasowski’s comedy shows, visit http://katezasowski.com/.

Kate Zasowski released her debut comedy album “Garbage Plate” on June 26. (Photo: Provided)

Works on Paper Debuts at The Gallery at South Hill

By Grant Terwilliger

Works on Paper, the new exhibit at the Gallery at South Hill, opened on June 27 to approximately 65 visitors. The exhibit focuses on paper, whether it's using paper as a sculptural medium, paintings on paper or drawings on paper.

The Works on Paper Group Exhibit features the creations of Abby McCullough, Gavin Leonard, Carol LaBorie, Mia Zufall, J. Cheng, Quinn Audsley, Brian Arnold and Maryam Adib.

The Gallery at South Hill Curator Michael Sampson said that exhibits can be challenging because you can’t have too few pieces of art or the show will be empty, but you also can’t have too many pieces because the gallery will be too crowded.

“As I put together a show, I sort of try to work around what everyone does, and then sort of keep an eye out for what everyone has and whether I like their work or not,” Sampson said. “It's tricky putting this kind of puzzle together.”

The Gallery at South Hill was created in 2019 on The South Hill Business Campus in Artist Alley. Sampson has been the gallery curator for five years and curates group and solo exhibits by local

and regional artists, 50 private art studios surround the gallery with a curious artist in each studio.

Artist Carol LaBorie works in textiles, fiber and paper using nature as her inspiration. She said in the last year or so she got into making vessels. A vessel can range from a boat to a container such as a bowl.

For this exhibit, LaBorie made three boats.

In her artist's statement, Laborie said that she wanted to explore the universal search for belonging by using her own maternal grandparents’ story of immigrating from Germany the day after their wedding.

“Now what would make someone leave Germany on the day after their wedding? Well back then the border between Germany and Poland was in dispute and was changing all the time,” LaBorie said. “And they wanted to come here so that they could have freedom of religion and not have some sort of state religion forced on them.”

In her statement LaBorie asks the question; What would you carry if you had to leave everything behind? And included little fabric bundles in each boat to represent the belongings and dreams that immigrants bring with them.

LaBorie started off as a teenager doing sewing, embroidery and collage. Over the years she became interested in Knitting and hand spinning after her sister taught her how to hand spin. LaBorie’s grandfather was a self taught photographer and painter who photographed the Great San Francisco Earthquake from a hot air balloon.

“I never knew him, but I feel like he is with me,” LaBorie said in her bio for The ARTS Council. “Especially when I am working to enhance photographs by hand with encaustics and mixed media.”

LaBorie has combined several different mediums and five years ago during the pandemic got into making three dimensional work after doing some online classes. LaBorie

finds that the creative process for her most recent work is more natural.

“I like working with the materials and finding out what they want to do,” LaBorie said. “What they want to be, because you don’t have that much control.”

Artist Abby McCullough created Rowdy Rose Studio in early 2024, and has had art in many galleries and shops across Ithaca. McCullough first started exploring cut paper elements while in college, combining cutpaper, watercolor and sewing as an alternative to glue to create a collage.

The name Rowdy Rose comes from McCullough’s middle name, Rose, and the idea of choosing art and being creative instead of choosing a typical job.

“Its kind of rowdy, it’s kind of out there, and it's a choice to follow that and not just maybe do what your supposed to or fall into a nine to five job or whatever else,” McCullough said. “And so I think the Rowdy Rose kind of grew out of that as like my name as Rose, but then kind of doing this process and this career.”

McCullough created two pieces for this exhibit, one of the pieces is a paper lantern depicting a marsh with a crane and plants titled Mourning Marsh that was created using black paper, thread and sewing.

Another piece that McCullough made for the exhibit was a hanging paper that

was created using stitching and paper that functions as a picture by itself, but also a silhouette on the wall behind it. McCullough based the art piece on a birds eye reference photo that she took of a friend in some water, and added additional elements such as fish to add some nature to the piece.

“One of my goals for that piece was for the lighting to come through the negative space on the actual piece of work, and create a shadow on the wall that was representative of the work as well,” McCullough said.

McCullough grew up in Colorado surrounded by nature and went to college in Indiana where she studied art and mostly water color, and met her partner who is from Ithaca. McCullough decided to move to Ithaca for the arts scene and small town feel. McCullough finds inspiration through nature, and photography is one of the first steps in her creative process.

“I use a lot of photos I take as reference photos and I use a lot of photography to figure out lighting for paintings and for cut paper,” McCullough said. “The cut paper recently has been really fun and also is part of the two pieces I put in this show”

The Works on Paper Exhibit is open to the public Thursdays from noon to 4 p.m., Fridays from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturdays noon to 4 p.m. until September 1.

Works on Paper, the new exhibit at the Gallery at South Hill, opened on June 27. (Photo: Grant Terwilliger/Ithaca Times)

Abby McCullough, creator of Rowdy Rose Studio.

(Photo: Grant Terwilliger/Ithaca Times)

On Womanhood, Humanity, & Chance: “Lucky To Have You” Launched At Buffalo Street Books

By Kira Walter

Reflecting back, admitting luckiness isn’t always an easy ritual of appreciation. The miracles and misfortunes of navigating love, whether encountering connection, maintaining or forsaking it, are often tarnished in memory.

But local author Dr. Sarah Jefferis explores the value of celebrating lost pain and gained experience through her newest poetry collection, “Lucky To Have You.” With vibrant snackboards and fans, she launched the anthology from home base last Thursday evening at Buffalo Street Books. She read several key pieces from the featured publication, surprising the crowd with unreleased projects.

In and out of town since 1997, Jefferis received her MFA in poetry from Cornell, earning a permanent place in Ithaca’s creative writing community. She completed her PhD an hour south at Binghamton and graduated Hollins University, Virginia with a Masters in Arts, the state where much of her writing is set. Here, she appreciates the winter compulsion to write and abundance of water in all forms.

“I feel like Ithaca’s a boomerang place for me,” she explained. “It’s a possible place for imagination. And a complicated one that still needs to do a lot of work.”

Whether making waves in California, Virginia, or South Carolina, Jefferis has returned repeatedly to pursue projects upstate,

now releasing her third book of poetry following “What Enters the Mouth and Forgetting The Salt.” Now, she’s a visiting lecturer both at Cornell’s business school and in the English department, while dabbling in yoga on the side. Through her education up the hill and strong Ithaca presence, she’s made close friends with Jennifer Savran Kelly, Eleanor Henderson, Christa Nunez and other neighboring creatives.

“It feels like every piece is a masterclass in empowerment,” Nunez commented during the post-reading Q&A. A renowned storyteller, educator, and social justice practitioner, she touched on impeccable emotional gravity and relevance of poems shared. Whereas so many modern poems are suggestive or speculative, Jefferis’s writing speaks directly to motherhood, marriage, divorce and a visceral past. Whether drawing on her life, surroundings, children or other passing figures, there is a unique parallel between investment and letting as each poem is a goodbye letter, a piece in the puzzle of intangible closure.

“I think emotions are our greatest teachers,” Jefferis explained. “But we can’t make every decision with them. I make a lot of decisions, and then I write poetry, so poetry is the house for emotion.” When asked how to build such emotional density, the poet conveyed a peace-promoting mentality around the page: it hosts extremes, serves as an outlet and a safe place for confrontation.

Getting to the page is also a therapeutic process for Jefferis as she draws on many senses to arrive at the poetic instant.

“I’m very busy here. The idea takes me. I trust that the energy, the line, the image will attest. I light a candle and practice deep gratitude, but I trust it. The poem will always come,” she said. On her journey to written word, movement can stimulate verses, repeated listening to phone recorded pieces mitigate emotional reactions to reading before presentation.

The poet remains acutely sensitive to her history, what arrives for her, while writing with the force of motherhood. Both children Ilah and Frida manifest or appear directly throughout “Lucky To Have You,” offering perspective into her past as they grow and discover the world for themselves. While adopting the responsibility of being a mother, Jefferis was never deterred from writing, only inspired by a new chapter and former teacher Lucille Clifton, whose work she shared to kick off the event.

“Don’t ever think you can’t write when you have kids,” Clifton told her. “Just put them on your lap and write.” Jefferis turned to Ilah at once to playfully attest to a lifetime of writing with him present. Clifton, who infamously had six children of her own, encountered Jefferis in California, and left a remarkable impression on her professional writing.

Other authors with profound impacts on the poet’s style include Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath, women who became the

subject of her PhD in creative writing at Binghamton. Jefferis also returns to classic creators like Virginia Woolf and Emily Dickinson, who she spent a few months daily transcribing for inspiration.

Repetition, ritual, and practice remain pivotal steps in Jefferis’s drafting while the collection strictly follows the whims of her thinking.

“There’s scientific language about tomatoes and stupid stuff men have said to me. Poems can be polyvocal, with multiple voices inside,” she said. The randomization excites as narrative relevance and some semblance of chronology keep poems connected. Although the speaker transforms between lines, vast leaps are taken between subjects, the compilation is organized into three distinct subsections.

Lucky To Find You, Lucky To Keep You, and Lucky To Lose You partition the book in three, causing the illusion that the reader is moving through an abstract relationship. At each stage, readers are in the position to exercise gratitude for devastation, its aftermath and stories still echoing in the wake of the past.

Looking to the inciting incident behind the title, Jefferis now laughs at the peculiarity of how the idea dawned on her. A man she dated made the oddly possessive remark “I’m lucky to keep you,” and raised a red flag to full mast. Now in hindsight, it inspired the spine of her latest read on the market.

Buffalo Street Books held a book launch event with local author Dr. Sarah Jefferis on her poetry collection “Lucky to Have You” on June 24. (Photo: Mark Syvertson/Ithaca Times)

Jefferis explores the value of celebrating lost pain and gained experience through her newest poetry collection. (Photo: Mark Syvertson/Ithaca Times)

SCHOOL GRADUATES

continued from page A 5

Community Action Joe Cassaniti Community Service Award.

Elena Platt-Chilkotowsky graduated with the highest grade point average of 97.3/4.33. Kayah McAllister-Lydick gradu-

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

continued from page A 14

different individuals. Mr. McKinley is both a creatively talented and courageous Black member of one or more local communities here, and a person who has suffered from poverty, racism, and the instabilities exacerbated by periodic homelessness.

Our courts are not a place where

STARTING A BUSINESS

continued from page A 15

Jill is a skilled photographer. Jyl worked in development fundraising, and organized many events that hired photo booths, an attraction for attendees that Jyl came to think could be done both cheaper and better.

An impetus was to be of service to the many charitable, social and commu-

A NATION SPEAKS

continued from page A16

experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.

The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded.

Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientifictechnological elite.

It is the task of statesmanship to mold, to balance, and to integrate these and other forces, new and old, within the principles of our democratic system-ever aiming toward the supreme goals of our free society.

Another factor in maintaining balance involves the element of time. As we peer into society's future, we-you and I, and

ated with the second highest grade point average of 96.18 = 4.0 and Liam Mckeon graduated with the third highest grade point average of 95.49 = 4.0.

Kayah McAllister-Lydick received the Perfect Attendance Award.

The New Roots Joy of Learning Awards went to Cloie-Nicole Cotto for

these social contradictions can be fairly processed, and until the global struggle against racism and wealth inequality begins to move in a humane direction, the effort to use the courts in cases such as this is a waste of activist citizen energy, taxpayer money, and legal resources.

With the delay of his hearing until July 9 announced at Mr. McKinley’s arraignment on Wednesday, the circumstances of any wait related to the face-saving machinations of Wegman’s corporate office, the

nity organizations for whom Jyl worked professionally or as a volunteer. With Jill’s experience and expertise, Jyl’s Photo Booth featured better equipment (a camera rather than the more common tablet) and policies (a camera person rather than a self-serve machine; a link to get all pictures downloaded free from the Photo Booth’s website, not just an email of one’s own picture), along with better pricing. The work provides personal satisfac-

our government-must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.

Down the long lane of the history yet to be written America knows that this world of ours, ever growing smaller, must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect.

Such a confederation must be one of equals. The weakest must come to the conference table with the same confidence as do we, protected as we are by our moral, economic, and military strength. That table, though scarred by many past frustrations, cannot be abandoned for the certain agony of the battlefield.

Disarmament, with mutual honor and confidence, is a continuing imperative. Together we must learn how to compose difference, not with arms, but with intel-

history, Elizabeth Butts for math, Izzie Jones for English and Claire Springston for science.

The Exemplary School Leadership Award was given to Beau Irons for displaying strong character, leading initiatives and positively influencing the school community.

local police department, and the D.A. of the City of Ithaca will further punish a Black citizen who acted heroically to save a woman’s life.

Let’s end this wasteful and punitive process now. Drop the charges against Mr. McKinley before the planned July 9 hearing. Have Wegman’s corporate office take responsibility for ignoring the serious danger to customers and community of an illegally unmuzzled dog on their property, and offer the appropriate grati-

tion. Jyl spoke of the joy of making events special and clients happy, with Jill and herself on hand - not an automated booth — “making it fun” as “part of the party.” The business meets expenses while not providing a living, though Jyl and Jill are optimistic for the future because of plentiful repeat business, good references, and “opportunities, having retired, to drum up business” for their enterprise.

George Johann has operated Angry

lect and decent purpose. Because this need is so sharp and apparent I confess that I lay down my official responsibilities in this field with a definite sense of disappointment. As one who has witnessed the horror and the lingering sadness of waras one who knows that another war could utterly destroy this civilization which has been so slowly and painfully built over thousands of years-I wish I could say tonight that a lasting peace is in sight.

Happily, I can say that war has been avoided. Steady progress toward our ultimate goal has been made. But, so much remains to be done. As a private citizen, I shall never cease to do what little I can to help the world advance along that road.

So-in this my last good night to you as your President-I thank you for the many opportunities you have given me for public service in war and peace. I trust that in that service you find somethings worthy; as for the rest of it, I know you will find ways to improve performance in the future.

You and I-my fellow citizens-need to be strong in our faith that all nations, under God, will reach the goal of peace with justice. May we be ever unswerving

The New Roots Vision Awards were given to five students: Mara Chokkuwa received the Artistic Vision Award, Dash Capps and Macky Caraballo received the Green Warriors Award, Cloie-Nicole Cotto received the Rocky Bellinger Award and Amaya Doolittle received the Bella Mazza Award.

tude to Mr. McKinley for his life-saving heroism. Wegman’s lawyers should negotiate directly with the police chief, Mr. Kelly, who appears to care about Mr. McKinley personally, around the cost and processes of offering some healing stability to Mr. McKinley’s life through provision of secure housing, food, and effective counseling. When all institutions are overloaded with social pain, let grace prevail.” — Barbara Regenspan, Ithaca NY

Mom Records since 2009. Certainly he is beyond fledgling status as an entrepreneur, but he advises that at any point a successful business requires a lot of the owner’s time: “double the amount you might think,” he said.

George laughed when asked if he takes vacations. He said he has left town a few times to see family. Luckily he is here doing something he dreamed about, now real.

in devotion to principle, confident but humble with power, diligent in pursuit of the Nation's great goals.

To all the peoples of the world, I once more give expression to America's prayerful and continuing inspiration:

We pray that peoples of all faiths, all races, all nations, may have their great human needs satisfied; that those now denied opportunity shall come to enjoy it to the full; that all who yearn for freedom may experience its spiritual blessings; that those who have freedom will understand, also, its heavy responsibilities; that all who are insensitive to the needs of others will learn charity; that the scourges of poverty, disease and ignorance will be made to disappear from the earth, and that, in the goodness of time, all peoples will come to live together in a peace guaranteed by the binding force of mutual respect and love.

Next week, we will transition from A Nation Speaks into A Nation Listens, a new series preparing us — you, me and all Ithacans — to transition from voice to movement, from movement to understanding, from understanding to a shared future.

• And how, in turn, do they change the places they enter?

The series will not treat Ithaca as an endpoint. It treats it as a point of passage.

Pathways to Equity: Civic Storytelling in Practice

Within this broader framework, Pathways to Equity functions as a civic storytelling practice—one that treats narrative itself as infrastructure shaping how communities understand themselves and one another.

Its work is grounded in a central belief: that equity is not only a matter of policy or access, but also of visibility—of whose stories are told, how they are told, and how they move through public understanding.

In this sense, We the People nor Beyond the Campus are standalone editorial projects. They are expressions of a broader civic methodology: using narrative to illuminate how people live, move, and build meaning within shared spaces.

Ithaca as a Civic Microcosm

Ithaca occupies a distinctive position within this work.

It is small enough that encounters between people are frequent and unavoidable, yet diverse enough that those encounters span a wide range of experiences, identities, and perspectives.

Residents, students, and visitors move through the same physical spaces repeatedly—classrooms, cafés, sidewalks, workplaces, and public meetings. This creates a civic environment defined not by distance, but by proximity.

In such a space, difference cannot remain abstract. It is encountered directly, repeatedly, and often in close range.

The result is a civic landscape where the dynamics of broader American life become more visible because they are compressed into daily experience:

• How communities negotiate disagreement

• How institutions respond to changing populations

“LUCKY TO HAVE YOU”

continued from page B 19

“My freedom is always important to me, regardless of who I’m in a relationship with. So the idea that I could be kept is what made me laugh,” she said. “There are people where I thought ‘I’m actually lucky that you left’ so the book is really about how luck arrives in moments of loss. And

• How belonging is formed through repeated encounter rather than permanence

• How movement reshapes civic identity over time

Ithaca does not resolve these tensions. It reveals them.

From Place to Motion

Taken together, We the People and Beyond the Campus form a single continuum of inquiry.

• One examines how civic life is sustained in shared space.

The other follows how civic life travels through movement.

• One focuses on participation in place.

The other focuses on participation in transition.

Together, they describe civic life not as a fixed condition, but as an ongoing process of formation and re-formation.

This is where the framing becomes clear: Ithaca in Motion: America Rising.

Not as declaration, but as inference drawn from lived experience.

Ithaca reveals what civic life looks like when movement is constant and proximity is unavoidable. Through that lens, broader patterns of American life become visible—not as abstraction, but as everyday experience.

An Introduction to the Work

For new readers encountering this body of work, the invitation is not to arrive at conclusions, but to enter a way of seeing.

• To notice how civic life is shaped not only by institutions, but by interaction.

• To see how belonging is formed not only through stability, but through movement.

• To recognize how democracy is sustained not in separation, but in repeated engagement across difference.

The work of Pathways to Equity, the Ithaca Times, and its curation of civic storytelling initiatives is not to define communities from a distance, but to observe how they define themselves in real time.

Not as finished systems.

But as living ones—continually in motion, continually becoming.

how loss gets disguised as luck. So sometimes we think something is lost when its actually better.”

With any genuine attachment, any book closed and ended chapter, there is the bitterness of absence and the relief of an intended ending. “Lucky To Have You” teaches readers to choose relief when lost in the grips of grieving, to trust in their decisions, and derive power from them.

Don’t Let Ithaca Lose Its Storytellers

Imagine the sharpest, most passionate young journalists you’ve ever met (the ones who stay late chasing a story because they believe in this town) slowly packing their bags. Not because they want to leave… but because local rents force them out.

That’s the quiet heartbreak happening right now. Our best new writers, the ones who grew up here or fell in love with Ithaca in college, are being pushed toward cheaper cities just to survive.

The Rising Star Fund rewrites their story into a happy ending by sponsoring a simple monthly housing stipend (a hand up, never a handout) so they can keep living here, keep writing here, keep falling deeper in love with Ithaca… and keep telling the stories that make this city our home.

When a young journalist can afford to stay in Ithaca, you get:

● Fresh, fearless voices loyal to your local paper

● Someone at every city council meeting who believes local news matters

● The next great Ithaca story written by someone who actually lives here

● Your $25, $50, or $100 a month doesn’t just pay their rent.

● It keeps storytellers in our community and stops local brain drain.

● When our younger generation thrives, Ithaca’s future stays bright.

Keep local talent in Ithaca by donating today to the Rising Star Fund (an initiative of Pathways to Equity, Inc a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization)

For more info: roy@ithacatimes.com

Clay Studio 2 | 10 a.m., 7/7 Tuesday | Lifelong, 119 W. Court St. | At Lifelong, $5 drop in fee. Membership required, with membership $40/month unlimited Creative Arts activities eligibility.

FilmBars/Bands/Clubs

7/2 Thursday

Loveday & The Soiree @ Danby Food and Drink | 6 p.m. | Danby Food and Drink, 1483 Danby Rd. | Free

7/3 Friday

Seafood Boil at Treleaven fea -

turing live music by DarkWine

| 4 p.m. | Farm in the Willows at Treleaven, 658 Lake Road | Free Who Are You? Who Are We? | 5 p.m. | Library Place, 105 W. Court St | Free

7/4 Saturday

7/2 Thursday

Beginnings Summer Concert Series | 5 p.m. | Bernie Milton Pavilion, Center Commons | Free

Three Bears Nate Marshall Concert | 6 p.m. | Three Bears Ovid, 7175 Main Street | Free

7/3 Friday

An Evening with The Church | 8 p.m. | Center for the Arts of Homer, 72 S Main St

7/4 Saturday

4th of July Bash featuring Destination live | 4 p.m. | Treleaven Wines, 658 Lake Road

Saturday Concert — CC-13 | 5 p.m. | Eldridge Park, Eldridge Park Road

7/7 Tuesday

Lonnie Griffiths Music | 6 p.m. | Glendale Park, 400 Glendale Drive

Stage

Summer Theatre Camp | 6 p.m., 7/1 Wednesday | Clemens Center, 207 Clemens Center Parkway | Clemens Center presents Monday – Friday, June 29 – July 25, 2026

4th of July Bash featuring Destination live | 4 p.m. | Treleaven Wines, 658 Lake Road 7/5 Sunday Summer Sundays Music Series — ft. Brian Hughes | 1 p.m. | Wagner Vineyards, 9322 State Route 414 Concerts/Recitals

6:00pm – 9:00pm Accepting Applications Now through June 19!

5” — The Musical | 7:30 p.m., 7/1

Wednesday | Cortland Repertory Theatre, 6799 Little York Lake Rd | Tickets - Call 800-427-6160 Or visit

CRT Downtown, 24 Port Watson St., Cortland NY

Participatory Contra, Square, and Circle Dancing | 7 p.m., 7/6

Monday | Ithaca Commons, 102 East State Street |

The Van Gogh Shogh | 7:30 p.m., 7/8 Wednesday | Kitchen Theatre Company, 417 W. State / W. MLK, Jr. Street | One part deranged “Sip ‘n Paint”, one part karaoke night and one part Sotheby’s, with 6 audience members given the chance to paint Starry Night under the tutelage of the master, Van Gogh, himself. | $20.00 - $30.00

Art

Fire WORKS: Color and Motion:

New Members at State of the Art Gallery | 12 p.m., 7/2 Thursday | State of the Art Gallery, 120 West State Street | July 2 – August 2, 2026 with Opening Reception Friday, July 3, 2026, from 5 to 8 p m | Free

Works on Paper group exhibit at The Gallery at South Hill | 12 p.m., 7/2 Thursday | The Works on Paper exhibit at The Gallery at South Hill features the works of Maryam Adib, Brian Arnold, Quinn Audsley, J. Cheng, Carol LaBorie, Gavin Leonard, Abby McCullough, and Mia Zufall. | Free Patriotic Painting Pop Up | 4 p.m., 7/2 Thursday | Liquid State Brewing Company, 620 W Green St | Celebrate America’s 250th birthday, decorating your own plantar and growing the seedlings for a brighter future, enjoying live music to inspire your creative spirit. | $40.00

Who Are You? Who Are We? |

5 p.m., 7/3 Friday | Library Place, 105 W. Court St | Join us for this invigorating collaboration between Broome and Tompkins county artists! | Free

Art House Night | 5 p.m., 7/3 Friday | Ink Shop Printmaking Ctr |

Unearth Art with Molly | 10 a.m., 7/6 Monday | Cortland Free Library, 32 Church St | Interactive Art Fun!  Join local artist, Molly Reagan with Good Neighbor Art for a hands on painting experience.  Each participant with receive a FREE BOOK! Ages 6-12 yrs.  Registration Required!

Cinemapolis

120 E Green St, Ithaca

New movies opening the week of July 01. Contact Cinemapolis for showtimes and continuing films.

Ask E Jean | The thrilling story of E. Jean Carroll’s life, from her early days as Miss Cheerleader USA to her rise as a trailblazing journalist, author, and beloved advice columnist. Carroll broke barriers as the first female editor at Esquire, Playboy, and Outside, helping to redefine women’s roles in media with her sharp wit and fearless voice. In recent years, she reignited public discourse by standing up to power, becoming the only woman to beat Donald Trump twice in court, and sparking a national conversation about truth, accountability, and resilience. This film is a portrait of an indomitable woman who proved it’s never too late to reclaim your voice, rewrite your story, and change the world. | NA 91 mins

My Own Private Idaho| 40th Anniversary Celebration: Films from the 90s July 7 at 5:45 PM & 8:00 PM!River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves star in this haunting tale from Gus Van Sant about two young street hustlers: Mike Waters, a sensitive

narcoleptic who dreams of the mother who abandoned him, and Scott Favor, the wayward son of the mayor of Portland and the object of Mike’s desire. Navigating a volatile world of junkies, thieves, and johns, Mike takes Scott on a quest along the grungy streets and open highways of the Pacific Northwest, in search of an elusive place called home. Visually dazzling and thematically groundbreaking, My Own Private Idaho is a deeply moving look at unrequited love and life on society’s margins. | NA 102 mins

Special Events

Comic Book Club of Ithaca | 6:30 p.m., 7/7 Tuesday | Tompkins County Public Library, 101 East Green Street | The Comic Book Club of Ithaca — the oldest continuously running comic book club in the country -- is a registered non-profit organization.

Books

Book Club | 5 p.m., 7/1 Wednesday, The Hummel’s BME | Join us to discuss Strangers in Time by David Baldacci.  New members are always welcome! Please contact the library for more information.  Ask for a copy of the book at either circulation desk.

Open Mic Night! | 7 p.m., 7/7 Tuesday | Center for the Arts of Homer, 72 S Main St | Want to play music to a live audience? Have you crafted a poem or short story you’d like to share or want to tell some

Kids

Read to Dogs | 3 p.m., 7/1 Wednesday | Newfield Public Library, 198

Main Street | Children are invited to the Newfield Library to practice their reading skills by reading to one of Cornell Companion’s volunteer therapy dogs! | Free

LEGO Club | 4 p.m., 7/1 Wednesday | Cortland Free Library, 32 Church St | Come join our Lego club & have some building fun! Each session we’ll have a challenge & a game.

LEGO Club meets on the first & third Wednesday of each month at 4 p.m.

Yoga in the Parks | 5:15 p.m., 7/1 Wednesday | DeWitt Park, 102

E Court St | Free, easy, accessible, family-friendly yoga at DeWitt Park.

| Free

Story + Craft | 4 p.m., 7/2

Thursday | Tompkins County Public Library, 101 East Green Street |

Story + Craft is our weekly reading + creating event for children! Join us for a read-aloud, followed by art-making or a guided craft.

Seltzer Rockets | 2 p.m., 7/5 Sunday | Sciencenter, 601 1st St | Launch a homemade rocket using a chemical reaction!

Storytime at Suggett | 12 p.m., 7/6 Monday | Suggett Park, 108 Homer Ave | Join Miss Tammy, rain

or shine, at Suggett Park (25 Homer Ave., Cortland) for story time while you eat lunch. Come early to get your free lunch and find a spot!

Sit! Stay! Read! | 3 p.m., 7/6

Monday | Tompkins County Public Library, 101 E Green St | Children are invited to practice their reading skills by sharing a story with a truly non-judgmental listener a dog! Reading sessions will be held Mondays from 3-4 p.m.

First Mondays with WSKG Kids | 4:30 p.m., 7/6 Monday | Tompkins County Public Library, 101 East Green Street | Kick off each month with curiosity and creativity! Join WSKG Education Outreach for First Mondays, a fun, hands-on STEAM series for children and families.

Journey of Water — Free Summer Science Programming for Kids and Families | 10 a.m., 7/7

Tuesday | Various, various | Explore the ways that water moves through our lives with the Community Science Institute. Free summer programming for kids and families. Go to communityscience.org/ journeyofwater/ for schedule and to register. Kids get a passport to stamp at each program and can get a free t-shirt. | Free Free Family Bingo Every Tuesday Night | 7/7 Tuesday | Ice Cream Bar, 207 E. Main St. (Rt 96 ) | Join us every Tuesday evening for Free

Family Bingo at Ice Cream Bar; 4PM

– 7PM Tuesday 6.2-Tuesday 9.1. No purchase necessary just come right up to the

Animal Sleepover Storytime | 6 p.m., 7/8 Wednesday | Tompkins County Public Library, 101 East Green Street | Join us for a pajama storytime and send your stuffed animal on an after-hours library adventure!!! After storytime ends, your stuffed animal will spend the night exploring the library!

Notices

The Midweek Session | 4 p.m., 7/1 Wednesday | NRE Space, 402 W. State St | The Finger Lakes CannaMarket is adding Wednesdays. Starting April 29, join us from 4–9 PM for a free midweek 420 market where growers, enthusiasts, and the community connect. | Free LGBTQ+ Youth Group | 4:30 p.m., 7/1 Wednesday | Tompkins County Public Library, 101 E Green St | Join us at LGBTQ+ Youth Group to do crafts, play games, and socialize. Whether you’re lesbian, gay, bi, trans, questioning, or just trying to figure things out - we’re here for you!

Haudenosaunee Influence on American Democracy | 6:30 p.m., 7/1 Wednesday | CCHS at Grace Street, 9 Grace St | This informative talk will show how the founding documents and principles of the United States government were

influenced by ideas found among the Haudenosaunee. | Free Ages 8 to 108 Board Game Club: Summer Session! | 4 p.m., 7/2 Thursday | Tompkins County Public Library, 101 East Green Street | Are you between the ages of 8 and 108 and love playing board games? Then come join our board game club at TCPL!

Golden Hour Yoga & U-Pick (with Lara Green) | 6:30 p.m., 7/2 Thursday | Jenny Creek Flowers, 7048 Durling Road | Breathe, stretch, and unwind with a peaceful yoga session on the flower farm, then linger in the fields or add an optional U-pick to gather your own bouquet to take home. | $20.00 - $35.00

Karaoke with Elephant Sound | 8 p.m., 7/2 Thursday | 23 North Restaurant and Bar, 23 Cinema Dr | Show off your singing chops every Thursday night during “Karaoke Night” at 23 North in Ithaca! Great food, great drinks, great FUN! | Free Paper Wishes (DIY Greeting Card) | 9:30 a.m., 7/3 Friday | Cortland Free Library, 32 Church St | A bag with supplies and directions provided to make a greeting card at home will be available to pick up on a first come first serve basis beginning on the first Friday of the month.  Open to ages “Queeraoke” | 8 p.m., 7/3 Friday | The Rhine House, 632 W Seneca St | Ithaca’s original “Queeraoke” night is back! Come hang, sing and make new friends...cheers, queers!

Saturday Market | 9 a.m., 7/4

Saturday | Steamboat Landing, 545

3rd St. | Our Saturday Markets are now outside at the pavilion. Find us each week at Steamboat Landing.

Sunday Market | 10 a.m., 7/5

Sunday | Steamboat Landing, 545

3rd St. | Join us down at the pavilion for a visit with all your favorite vendors. Meet artisans, farmers and chefs who make, grow and cook their products from within 30 miles of the pavilion.

Senator Lea Webb’s Satellite Office Hours | 10 a.m., 7/6 Monday | YWCA Cortland , 14 Clayton Ave | Please join the Office of New York State Senator Lea Webb for “Satellite Office Hours” on January 5th, 2026 from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM at the Cortland YWCA located at 14 Clayton Ave, Cortland, NY, | Free Senator Lea Webb Satellite Office Hours | 10 a.m., 7/6 Monday | Cortland YWCA, 14 Clayton Ave | Please join the Office of New York State Senator Lea Webb for “Satellite Office Hours” on July 6th, 2026,  from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM at the Cortland YWCA located at 14

Clayton Ave, Cortland, NY, | Free

Special Committee on Coordinated Unhoused Services

Planning Meeting | 2 p.m., 7/6

Monday | Council Chambers, 3rd

Floor City Hall |

Gizmo’s PAWESOME Guide to Mental Health | 4 p.m., 7/7

Tuesday | Cortland Free Library, 32 Church St | Come join us at the

library for a reading of Gizmo’s PAWESOME Guide to Mental Health and receive a free book, make your own mental health plan and visit with comfort canine, Preston Pickles!  Open

Growing Well Together | 5:30 p.m., 7/7 Tuesday | Ithaca Community Gardens, Cayuga Park Lane | Meet at the Ithaca Community Gardens pavilion to enjoy a free yoga class, learn how to grow your own vegetables, or join a walking group! | Free

Community Line Dance | 7 p.m., 7/7 Tuesday | Foundation of Light, 391 Turkey Hill Rd | Community Line Dance lessons

IAWWTF Special Joint Committee Meeting | 1 p.m., 7/8 Wednesday | Ithaca Area Waste Water Treatment Plant, 525 Third St | Pet Clinic | 6 p.m., 7/8 Wednesday | Southside Community Center Gym, 305 S Plain St | Pet Clinic

What Can I Do About Climate Change? | 6 p.m., 7/8 Wednesday | Tompkins County Public Library, 101 East Green Street | Many of us hear about climate change in the news and want to do something about it, but we don’t know where to start or how to prioritize the many different actions we could take.

Common Council Committee of the Whole — Session A | 6 p.m., 7/8 Wednesday | Common Council Chambers, 3rd Floor City Hall 108 E Green St |

HYPNOTHERAPY & SHAMANIC HEALING IN ITHACA

End old habits. Heal the mind and spirit. Create positive change in your life! Devin Ryback is a healer and certified clinical hypnotherapist with 14+ years experience. Book your free consultation today. Call or Text: (845) 238-8673. Book Online: devinryback.com

End stage capitalism got you down?

Learn how Ithaca’s radical experiments in community and economics are making a real difference today! IthacaLocalEconomyLab.com on iTunes and Spotify!”

The EAT LOCAL program at Ithaca Times aims to publicize and celebrate the successes of Tompkins County’s food and drink industry.

This user-friendly searchable website includes bakeries, bars, cafes, farms, grocery stores, restaurants, vineyards, and more!

This directory is a free and easy way to increase your exposure to visitors, students, and local residents.