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Syracuse mayor names Tifft lead project coordinator
SYRACUSE — Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh recently announced the appointment of Joseph Tifft as lead project coordinator in the city’s Department of Neighborhood and Business Development (NBD). Tifft will be responsible for the implementation and management of the city’s Lead Grant Program. In this role, he will assist residents and property owners in accessing available […]
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SYRACUSE — Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh recently announced the appointment of Joseph Tifft as lead project coordinator in the city’s Department of Neighborhood and Business Development (NBD).
Tifft will be responsible for the implementation and management of the city’s Lead Grant Program. In this role, he will assist residents and property owners in accessing available program funds and will represent Syracuse with potential funding partners to reduce lead hazards in city homes with young children.
Before this new role, Tifft worked in environmental-compliance monitoring using his knowledge and legal background to interpret and apply complex regulations for hazardous materials. His prior work positions include working as a building inspector for Asbestos and Environmental Consulting Company (AECC) Group, an air sampling technician for Churchill Environmental, and a legal intern for the Oswego County District Attorney’s Office and Hiscock Legal Aid Society. Tifft has also worked in the public-relations field.
Tifft has various state and federal certifications in the field, including as a lead risk assessor and lead paint inspector from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and a project monitor and asbestos building inspector from New York State. He also has completed hazardous waste and construction safety trainings from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
Tifft earned his law degree from the Syracuse University College of Law and received his bachelor’s degree from Ithaca College.
NYSERDA, Ithaca College sign agreement to study potential solar projects on campus
ITHACA — Ithaca College and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) have recently signed a memorandum of understanding that will allow the state to explore the feasibility of hosting build-ready renewable-energy projects on underutilized sites. Under the agreement, NYSERDA will consider several parking lots at Ithaca College as hosts for solar
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ITHACA — Ithaca College and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) have recently signed a memorandum of understanding that will allow the state to explore the feasibility of hosting build-ready renewable-energy projects on underutilized sites.
Under the agreement, NYSERDA will consider several parking lots at Ithaca College as hosts for solar canopies that will provide shade for vehicles while generating clean energy and supporting clean transportation with the potential integration of electric-vehicle chargers and battery-energy storage systems, according to an April 24 NYSERDA news release. NYSERDA also announced memorandums of understanding with the City of Niagara Falls in Western New York and the Town of East Hampton on Long Island.
The Ithaca College project would benefit students while supporting the college’s goal to improve the campus environmental, social, and financial sustainability and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
“Ithaca College (IC) is continually seeking creative solutions to advance both its environmental and financial sustainability goals,” Scott D. Doyle, director of energy management and sustainability at Ithaca College, said in the release. “NYSERDA’s Build-Ready Program presents us with an ideal public partner to help us spark impactful campus energy and sustainability action. IC is grateful for the opportunity to work with NYSERDA to explore the potential for solar canopy development on campus and to help us share with the college community how this technology can help IC in its path toward carbon neutrality.”
The agreement allows NYSERDA’s Build-Ready Program to conduct further due diligence and community engagement to evaluate the prospects of multiple large-scale renewable-energy projects. If there is local acceptance, strong project feasibility, and agreement to move forward, NYSERDA will initiate development activities including detailed engineering, interconnection, and permitting.
The Build-Ready Program is currently advancing a pipeline of sites across the state, having screened more than 17,000 locations, and is progressing dozens of sites through more advanced assessment and development. Local community members, elected officials, private companies, environmental justice communities, and other interested parties can nominate potential sites, which are considered on a rolling basis.
More information about the program is available at www.nyserda.ny.gov/All-Programs/Build-Ready-Program.
NYSERDA is a public benefit corporation that offers information, analysis, programs, technical expertise, and funding to increase energy efficiency.
New York milk prices rise slightly in latest month
Milk prices in New York state rose in the latest month for which data is available, according to the monthly milk-production report that the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) issued on May 20. New York dairy farms were paid an average of $22.40 per hundredweight of milk in March, up 1.8 percent from $22
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Milk prices in New York state rose in the latest month for which data is available, according to the monthly milk-production report that the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) issued on May 20.
New York dairy farms were paid an average of $22.40 per hundredweight of milk in March, up 1.8 percent from $22 in February, and nearly 1.4 percent higher than $22.10 in March 2023.
Dairy farms in New York state produced 1.342 billion pounds of milk in April, the same amount they produced in the year-prior month, according to the NASS report.
Milk production per cow in the state averaged 2,130 pounds in the fourth month of 2024, also unchanged from April 2023. The number of milk cows on farms in the Empire State totaled 630,000 head in April, the same as in April of last year, NASS reported.
OPINION: What’s on the Line for Law Enforcement
Each May, we celebrate and offer our thanks to the incredibly brave men and women of our law-enforcement community. During National Police Week, which was established in 1962 by President John F. Kennedy, we also reflect on the enormous sacrifice made by those who gave their lives for their community. Too often, the brave professionals
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Each May, we celebrate and offer our thanks to the incredibly brave men and women of our law-enforcement community. During National Police Week, which was established in 1962 by President John F. Kennedy, we also reflect on the enormous sacrifice made by those who gave their lives for their community.
Too often, the brave professionals who put their lives on the line are taken for granted. They are the first and best line of protection between us and those who mean to harm us. For that, we owe them and their supportive families a debt of gratitude that simply cannot be repaid. The Assembly Minority Conference continues to advocate for the law-enforcement community, and our members have fought hard for common-sense measures to protect those who protect us. Some of our proposals include:
• Making life imprisonment without parole mandatory for defendants convicted of murder in the first or second degree if the victim is a police officer, specified peace officer, first responder or correctional officer (A.7472, Angelino/S.408, Gallivan).
• Designating offenses against law enforcement, emergency medical services personnel and/or firefighters as hate crimes, thereby increasing the penalty for the offense (A.3417, DeStefano/S.6091, Murray).
• Allowing judges to consider the safety of any person or the community when selecting a securing order on a criminal suspect and requiring the court to make individualized determinations as to whether a suspect poses a risk to any person or the community (A.9708, Reilly).
• Reinstating the death penalty in New York state and making it an available sentence for those convicted for the intentional killing of police officers, specified peace officers and first responders, among others (A.3906, Barclay/S.1271, Ortt).
Additionally, I would like to take a moment to acknowledge the 214th graduating class of the New York State Police Academy. This year, 228 new troopers completed the requirements to join the proud ranks of the long gray line. Your hard work, training, and dedication to protecting New Yorkers does not go unnoticed. I wish you my sincerest congratulations and safety on this journey.
The law-enforcement community does incredible work. Whether they are engaging with their communities, patrolling dangerous neighborhoods, or training the next generation of first responders, we need them supported, well-funded, and feeling appreciated. I will always stand up for the men and women of law enforcement, and I encourage everyone to recognize those who protect and serve us.
William (Will) A. Barclay, 55, Republican, is the New York Assembly minority leader and represents the 120th New York Assembly District, which encompasses all of Oswego County, as well as parts of Jefferson and Cayuga counties.
OPINION: Whatever happened to the optimism of youth?
One of the things I enjoyed most, throughout my political career, was the opportunity to meet with young people. Almost without exception, they were curious, thoughtful, and eager to face the world’s problems. I especially liked their optimism, their hope for the future. Unfortunately, that quality seems to have faded. When I talk to young
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One of the things I enjoyed most, throughout my political career, was the opportunity to meet with young people. Almost without exception, they were curious, thoughtful, and eager to face the world’s problems. I especially liked their optimism, their hope for the future.
Unfortunately, that quality seems to have faded. When I talk to young people today, they seem less positive about the country, especially about our political leadership. If you ask them to name a political leader whom they admire, they can’t come up with anyone.
Strikingly, they often don’t expect to be as successful as their parents. They think it will be harder to achieve the American Dream. They don’t think the economy is likely to get better; they fear it will soon get worse. They lack the optimism that I’ve long associated with youth. This may seem like a subtle shift, but it comes across in conversations, and it’s borne out by research.
It’s true that young people have reasons to feel pessimistic. The news seems unrelentingly bad: wars in Europe and the Middle East, famine in Gaza and Sudan, etc. And today’s young people are the first generation to get their news largely from social media, which amplifies the worst.
Members of so-called Generation Z, born since the mid-1990s, have lived their entire lives under the cloud of climate change, yet their elders seem unable or unwilling to do anything about it. They have never known a time when mass shootings were not a regular feature of American life, an era that began 25 years ago with the Columbine High School shooting. Theirs is the generation of active-shooter drills, locked classrooms, and metal detectors at the schoolhouse door.
When it comes to politics, they are turned off by election campaigns that resemble mud-wrestling contests. Congress’s big recent achievement was to pass a ban on TikTok, a platform that two-thirds of teenagers use regularly. One presidential candidate will be 81 this November, and the other will be 78. Young people don’t see themselves or their concerns reflected in politics.
The economy should be a bright spot: unemployment is low and wages are rising. But young people know that inflation eats away at their entry-level wages and that gains have gone disproportionately to those at the top. High housing costs and interest rates make it hard to envision buying a home. Instead of having careers with reliable pay and benefits, many struggle in the gig economy of temporary work.
This generational pessimism isn’t just an American phenomenon. News accounts describe a similar trend in Canada, Europe, Japan, and China. A recent UNICEF survey found that, across high-income countries, six in 10 young people think they will be worse off than their parents.
Finally, it’s impossible to overstate the impact the COVID-19 pandemic had on young people. Many lost older relatives to the virus. They watched as government struggled to respond. Their education was disrupted by school closings and shifts to online learning. Friendships and peer networks were severed. The pandemic led to what the U.S. surgeon general called a mental health crisis, an epidemic of sadness and hopelessness.
It’s tempting to point out that previous generations also had their struggles. Young men were drafted to fight in the two world wars, Korea, and Vietnam. The Great Depression made today’s financial hardship look like child’s play. We’ve made great advances in education, health care, technology and civil rights.
But it’s upsetting to see young people feeling discouraged. Youth should be a time of optimism. Faith in progress, the idea that future generations will enjoy a life that we can only imagine, is the American creed. We depend on young people to embody that faith and carry it forward.
Lee Hamilton, 93, is a senior advisor for the Indiana University (IU) Center on Representative Government, distinguished scholar at the IU Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies, and professor of practice at the IU O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Hamilton, a Democrat, was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for 34 years (1965-1999), representing a district in south-central Indiana.
Grossman St. Amour CPAs has added JAMES F. SIKORA, II, CPA to the accounting firm as a manager in the tax services group. He brings
Pinckney Hugo Group, a marketing-communications firm, has hired THERESA SCALISI, of North Syracuse, as office coordinator. Before joining Pinckney Hugo Group, Scalisi was an administrative
SWBR announced it has added project designer SUMAIYA MEHJABEEN to its Syracuse office. She is responsible for design, production drawings, client-meeting preparations, daylight modeling, and
NICOLE BARRIGER has also been promoted to 2nd-shift production supervisor at Bates Troy Healthcare Linen. She started with Bates Troy in 2018 and worked in
KAYLA MORLEY has been promoted to 2nd-shift soil-sort supervisor at Bates Troy Healthcare Linen. She started with Bates Troy in 2021 as a soil sorter
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