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residents address 53rd anniversary of Earth Day Town fair housing topic Caz College organizes final creek cleanup
By Kate Hill Staff Writer
By kate Hill Staff Writer Cazenovia will celebrate the 53rd anniversary of Earth Day on Saturday, April 22 with a full schedule of fun, hands-on, and educational programs that will bring together residents, students, business owners, farmers, and energy experts. Twenty-six groups are participating in this year’s celebration, which is focused on providing people with tools and expertise to save energy, lower their carbon footprint, and save money. “Providing people in our community with the tools and resources to have access to [new] technologies seemed like the most useful thing we could provide during Earth Day,” said Earth Day organizer Geoffrey Navias. “Right now, there is an opportunity and it’s a great way for people to help themselves. How we heat our homes, how we light them, how we power our cars, this is all changing. There have been really great advancements. These technologies are much more efficient and use less energy, and we do less damage to the environment. Right now, the new state and federal programs are [starting] to roll out, and there are amazing incentive and rebate programs that can be tapped. Cazenovia is a beautiful area,
Submitted photo
Twenty-six organizations are coming together in Cazenovia on Saturday, April 22 to celebrate the 53rd anniversary of Earth Day. Pictured: the 2022 Chittenango Creek clean-up. and we are in a great position to be a leader that other towns emulate. It is also kind of fun; I have solar on the roof of our house, and along with powering the house, we store the power in our electric car’s battery. It’s a great feeling not to have to pay gas prices.” The day will start off with multiple cleanup projects around town. Project Café’s student members will lead a general village clean-up starting at 11 a.m., and the Cazenovia Garden Club will be cleaning up Gypsy Bay and the south shore of the lake at 10 a.m. The community’s annual Chittenango Creek clean-up will run from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Volunteers should meet at the Buyea’s park-
ing lot dressed for the weather and wearing old clothes and boots. Trash bags will be provided, and gloves will be available to borrow. Volunteers of all ages are welcome, but minors must be accompanied by an adult. This event is sponsored by Cazenovia College’s environmental club, fishing club, Alpha Lambda Delta First Year Honor Society, Alpha Phi Omega National Community Service Fraternity, and alumni association, as well as the Madison County Chapter of Trout Unlimited, Scout Troop 18, the CNY Chapter of the Izaak Walton League of America, and the Cazenovia Preservation Foundation (CPF). According to Dr. Thad Yorks, professor Earth Day l Page 3
Cazenovia Welcomes Refugees to host fundraising dinner By kate Hill Staff Writer
On Saturday, May 6, Cazenovia Welcomes Refugees (CWR) will hold its fourth “Extending the Table” fundraising dinner in celebration of global friendship and local hospitality. This is the organization’s first communitybuilding dinner since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ngoc Huynh, the owner of Mamma Hai Vietnamese restaurant at Salt City Market in Syracuse, will be preparing lemongrass chicken curry, glass noodle salad, and spring rolls. A vegetarian option will also be available. The event will be held at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church at 10 Mill St. in Cazenovia. Dinner will be served in two seatings, the first at 5 p.m. and the second at 6:45 p.m. “The pandemic shut everything down, so [it’s exciting] to just be able to go back there and do this kind of community dinner where people from all walks of life come together and sit down for some beautiful food,” said CWR Steering Committee member Carla Zimmerman, who is chairing the event. The fundraiser is aimed at furthering CWR’s mission to work with people who were refugees as they integrate into American life and to engage with the residents of Cazenovia to create a welcoming place for everyone to live, work, go to school, and enjoy recreation together. According to Zimmerman, the organization is hoping to sell out all 150 tickets — 75 available per seating — and draw attendees from beyond the Cazenovia area, such as Colgate University and
towns closer to Syracuse.
About CWR
CWR is a collaborative community-based initiative that began in 2016 and includes representation from educational institutions, local government, faith communities, non-profit groups, refugee resettlement organizations, civic organizations, businesses, and private citizens. The group helps New American families to identify housing options and facilitates relationships with employers, schools, health care providers, etc. Its members also organize educational events to increase awareness of the global refugee crisis, the challenges refugees face as they integrate into American communities, and the many benefits they bring to places like Cazenovia. The organization is supported by and works in partnership with InterFaith Works of Central New York and its Center for New Americans, which has provided resettlement and post-resettlement services to refugee families in the Syracuse area for over 40
Kate Hill
Cazenovia Welcomes Refugees (CWR) will hold its fourth “Extending the Table” fundraising dinner on Saturday, May 6. Ngoc Huynh, owner of Mamma Hai, a Vietnamese restaurant at Salt City Market in Syracuse, will prepare the meal. Pictured left to right: CWR Steering Committee members Carolyn Holmes, Carla Zimmerman, Chris Wnorowski, and The Reverend Rebecca Roberts. years. According to CWR Steering Committee member Chris Wnorowski, Cazenovia’s connection to InterFaith Works goes “way back” to when CazCares food pantry and clothing closet and The Key consignment shop started working
with the agency to collect and distribute food and winter clothing to refugee families in the Syracuse area. CWR celebrated the arrival of its first resettled refugee family — a Kurdish family from northern Refugees l Page 12
OnApril10,theCazenoviaTownBoardheld a public hearing on the topic of fair housing in the Town of Cazenovia. According to the meeting agenda, April is Fair Housing Month in the Town of Cazenovia. Local real estate agent Nicki Donlin started off the conversation by asking the board to explain why a public hearing on fair housing was included on the agenda. Town Supervisor Bill Zupan responded that the town has held a public forum on the topic every year since he came on as supervisor. “It’s just procedure,” he said. According to Town Attorney John Langey, holding the annual public hearing is part of a requirement for the town to be eligible for certain grants, and it is not connected to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposed New York Housing Compact. According to governor.ny.gov, the Housing Compact is a multifaceted approach to address New York’s housing shortage and build 800,000 new homes over the next decade. It will encourage growth by removing barriers to housing production, incentivizing new construction, and setting local housing targets across every New York community. Town resident Stanley Maziuk commented that the agenda’s mention of fair housing also drew him to the meeting. “Ididn’tknowwhatspecificallymightbegoing on and whatnot, but I certainly know about Gov. Hochul’s plan to, in my words, tell us how we should do our zoning, and I’m certainly not for that,” he said. “I’m sure we all read the paper last week, which explained about the Burton Street Housing Visions project and how it kind of transformed from senior housing to senior housing plus something else. . . So, I do hope that [down the road] before we start a project [we] err on the side of caution.” Resident Arthur Bigsby also brought up Housing Visions Unlimited, Inc.’s incoming affordable senior and family housing complex, The Landing at Burke Meadows. Located on 14.96 acres of land east of Burton Street in the Village of Cazenovia, the 49-unit project includes a two-story, 33-unit building and four townhomes, each containing four units. Twenty-seven of the units in the large building are reserved for seniors ages 60 and older. The development’s remaining 22 units are not age-restricted, and a senior could live in them as well. Ten of the total units — six in the large building and four spread out in the townhomes — are set aside for individuals and families who are at risk of homelessness and in need of supportive services provided by Community Action Partnership for Madison County. Those units will specifically serve individuals with mental illness, survivors of domestic violence, and young adults ages 18-24. Board l Page 14
Republican, Hill honored by NYPA
The Cazenovia Republican and reporter Kate Hill were recently honored by the New York Press Association with a third place award for Coverage of the Arts. Each year, hundreds of daily and weekly newspapers from across the state enter NYPA’s Better Newspaper Contest, which culminates with an awards ceremony which this year took place March 31 at NYPA’s annual conference in Albany. “Each story carries an invitation for public engagement: attend, view, contribute, examine, discuss. The more impressive give detailed accounts of the art for display or presentation/ performance. And for some, the story line focuses on inviting the public rather than detailing the art itself, whether static visual art (paintings, photography) or performance (concert, theater),” the judges wrote in their comments on Hill’s reporting. “Good writing, reporting; good photos; good history for context.” Pictured is the slide used in NYPA’s awards presentation.
Volume 214, Number 15 The Cazenovia Republican is published weekly by Eagle News. Office of Publication: 35 Albany St., Second Floor, Cazenovia, NY 13035. Periodical Postage Paid at Cazenovia, NY 13035, USPS 095-260. POSTMASTER: Send change of address to Cazenovia Republican, 2501 James St., Suite 100, Syracuse, NY 13206.
sports news: Former teammates shine at Geneseo.
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History: Read about what happened years ago.
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