Today's Ithaca Journal, taking note of Earth Day, takes a look at green building practices in Tompkins County, including the Tompkins County SPCA expansion building under construction on Hanshaw Road.
There's also a lot of coverage of the Ithaca City School District, with coverage of a press conference Superintendent Pastel held on continuing incidents of racial bias. They also cover its passing a budget with a 5.2% spending increase (for a likely tax levy increase of around 6%), though the Journal's editorial points out that all tax levies are tentative until the ever-delayed state budget is in place.
Finally, there's a guest column from J. David Ferris of Lansing on the county executive proposal that Republicans made back in December. This column has a very different tone from prior pieces on the subject, notably the guest column from John Marcham to which it responds.
With broad swipes like "our county legislative chair who was elected by the sum total of 524 votes in his district and does not have to worry about standing in front of the entire county electorate with his extreme political views", "I also think that the current board chair represents the most extreme left of the Democratic Party in this county," and "a similar campaign that I can only call 'Politics of Mass Distraction'", this column seems like a straightforward partisan charge for changing the the county's government, with relatively little interest in its supposed concern about the form of government.
This guest column reinforces my belief that the people pushing for this change see it as their last chance to put a Republican at the top of the county government rather than a Democrat. Given demographic trends in the county, I'm not sure they'd be happy with the results even if they got this change.
(I made a list of earlier Journal articles on the county executive proposal.)
Posted by simonstl at April 22, 2004 08:10 AM