It was a big year in the north suburbs, one that included headlines in the fields of politics, education and sports. Read on for the top 10 stories in the towns of Cicero, Clay and Salina in 2015, as well as some of our most notable photos.
Local philanthropist Manville dies
Former Review and Star-News publisher Richard Manville died Jan. 1. He was 88.
Manville started at Brown Newspapers, which at the time published the Baldwinsville Messenger, Liverpool Review and North Syracuse Star-News, on Oct. 25, 1950, later purchasing the company from publisher Don Brown. Manville served as publisher of the three newspapers until 1992, when Brown Newspapers merged with Manlius Publishing to become Eagle Newspapers.
Manville was also an active volunteer in Baldwinsville, serving organizations including the Northwest Family YMCA, St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, McHarrie Towne, Onondaga County Community Development Division, Onondaga Housing Development Fund, Northwest Human Services Council, Vera House North Advisory Committee, Canton Woods Senior Center and Baldwinsville Chamber of Commerce.
“I believe one could use every positive adjective in the dictionary and still not convey how wonderful a man he was as a person, leader in the community, husband, father and boss,” said longtime Eagle employee Lori Newcomb, who used to work for Manville. “Baldwinsville has lost one of its best, but Heaven has gained a great man.”
Upheaval on Cicero board
Cicero Deputy Supervisor Tim Burtis left the town board to take over Jim Corl’s seat as Onondaga County’s Third District Legislator. Corl resigned from the position Jan. 15 to take a position as Onondaga County Family Court Judge Michael Hanuszczak’s principal court attorney.
Burtis was chosen over former Cicero Town Justice Robert Walczyk, current Justice Douglas DeMarche and town board member Michael Becallo. Both Burtis and Corl are Republicans.
Burtis’ seat on the town board was filled by Republican Dick Cushman, a former member of the Cicero Planning Board. However, neither Cushman nor any sitting member of the town board took Burtis’ place as deputy supervisor. Instead, Supervisor Jessica Zambrano selected former Third District Legislator Bill Meyer to fill the spot. Meyer, however, did not serve as a voting member of the board.
New York State Town Law allows the supervisor to appoint anyone meeting the qualifications as supervisor. According to Section 42 of the state’s town code:
“The deputy supervisor shall be appointed by the supervisor to serve at the pleasure of the supervisor, and in case the office of supervisor becomes vacant any deputy supervisor in office at the time such vacancy occurs shall continue to serve until the successor of such deputy supervisor is appointed…. Any person, including a town officer, official or employee, may be appointed deputy supervisor, provided that the person appointed shall possess the same qualifications as an elective town officer.”
The choice drew the ire of town board member Mike Becallo, who refused to participate in an April meeting because he believed Meyer’s appointment was illegitimate. Becallo also accused board member Mark Venesky and town attorney Robert Germain of threatening his life (which both denied), and his father, Paul, filed a petition with the state appeals court asking for Zambrano’s removal from the supervisor’s seat (the petition was later dismissed).
Cicero announces closure of Williams Beach
Cicero Parks and Recreation Director Jody Rogers Cicero announced the town wouldn’t open its only town-run beach this summer. In a release sent in February, Rogers said the beach at Joseph F. William Memorial Park on Lakeshore Road would not be open for swimming in the summer of 2015.
“During the 2015 budget process a number of tough decisions were made regarding the operations of the Youth Bureau, Parks and Recreation Department and specifically William Park,” Rogers wrote. “The decision was made to close the public swim area, which in turn eliminated our Learn to Swim program.”
In addition to budget concerns, Rogers said the decision was made due to issues with the water quality. Williams Beach, along with several other Oneida Lake beaches, have closed several times over the last few years due to E. coli contamination in the water.
“Unfortunately, because of these mandated health department closings, many of our users have voiced their concern about swimming and its impact on the health of their children if they did,” Rogers wrote in the release. She cited “algae blooms, an abundance of geese teamed with the shallowness of the water and lack of water circulation in the cove” for the issues with water quality. She noted that the town board and the parks department have discussed closing the beach repeatedly in the last few years.
Rogers didn’t rule out reopening the beach some time in the future.
“We will continue to monitor and reevaluate annually the reopening of the beach facility until conditions improve on an environmental level,” she wrote.
Sindoni fired as C-NS football coach
The North Syracuse Central School District decided in March not to retain Joe Sindoni, who had coached the Northstars in 2013 and 2014 and brought the program back to the sectional playoffs after a long absence.
Sindoni said that the district fired him because he had interviewed for the head coaching job at Christian Brothers Academy, where he graduated in 1992 and served 13 years as an assistant.
Casey Brown, a teacher in the North Syracuse job and a current CBA assistant, was announced on March 13 as the successor at CBA to Joe Casamento, who left after 16 seasons to take an administrative post at a school in Washington, D.C.
Sindoni came to C-NS after a three-year stint at Skaneateles, where he led the Lakers to the 2012 sectional Class C championship. He inherited a program that had fallen to the bottom of the Class AA ranks and had seen a fair amount of turmoil between players, parents and administration.
With a staff that included C-NS veterans plus CBA colleagues like Tim Brown and Tim Lee as coordinators, Sindoni helped to increase participation at all levels, including 60 players on last fall’s varsity roster, double the number of 2012, and helped to organize a new booster club for the program.
Sindoni was ultimately replaced by former Henninger coach Dave Kline. This season, C-NS went 5-4.
Salina explores, rejects move to former CDM building
The town of Salina investigated the possibility of moving its operations to the former CDM Smith building.
The town board held a work session Monday, June 8, to hear from a representative of Pyramid Brokerage Companies, which manages the property located in the Salina Industrial Power Park (the former General Motors facility) off Military Circle. The town would have been responsible for any construction to adapt the building to its needs as well as its operational costs, but otherwise, the firm offered the town use of the 38,900-square-foot building as a town hall rent-free for 10 years.
“The site is owned by the Racer Trust, which was created by the government when General Motors went into bankruptcy,” said Paul Mackey of Pyramid Companies, the property manager for the CDM building. He noted that there are 82 similar facilities across the country. “The underlying premise [laid out in the trust for the sale of those sites] is to [do] what’s best on behalf of the community.”
Salina’s existing town hall on School Road has been in need of repair for some time. Town officials created a fund late last year to start socking away money, but the fund has less than $100,000 in it. As of 2011, the full cost of completing all necessary renovations to the building was estimated at $1.68 million. That year taxpayers in the town narrowly defeated a referendum that would have allowed the town to purchase the former Burdick Chevrolet property on Old Liverpool Road and consolidate the town hall and highway facilities at the location. Voters rejected the measure by a vote of 2,698 to 2,532. The property was later converted into a fitness center.
Ultimately, Supervisor Mark Nicotra said the building wasn’t the right fit for the town. The town board continues to explore options for a new building for the town hall and highway department.
SU basketball great hired to coach Liverpool hoops
Former Syracuse University basketball standout Ryan Blackwell was hired as Liverpool High School’s head boys basketball coach in July. Blackwell, who played for SU from 1997 to 2000, returned to Syracuse a year ago after coaching four years in Japan. He’d planned to coach an American Basketball Association team called the Syracuse ShockWave, but the team never materialized.
Instead of leaving town, Blackwell paired up with a former SU teammate, Preston Shumpert, to help out Cicero-North Syracuse alum Ben Belucci at his Belucci Basketball Academy, while also doing some television commentary of SU games for Time Warner Cable Sports.
Meanwhile, Liverpool, in its third full season under former coach Matt Jacob (he replaced Jerry Wilcox early in the 2011-12 campaign) lost to Baldwinsville in the opening round of the Section III Class AA playoffs and finished 8-12. Overall, Jacob’s teams went 34-41.
The hiring of Blackwell gives him a chance to add to an Upstate New York basketball legacy that includes a state Class B Player of the Year honor at Pittsford Sutherland High School, near Rochester, in 2005.
After a year at Illinois, Blackwell notched 1,175 career points in his three years at SU, leading to a professional career that ended up in Japan following stints in France, England, Portugal and Uruguay.
Blackwell’s inaugural season started Dec. 1; at press time, the team was 6-1.
CFD begins construction on new station
Thanks to grants from FEMA and Assemblyman Al Stirpe, the Cicero Fire Department began construction on a new Station No. 1 on Brewerton Road. The department broke ground on the project in August and hopes to move in to the new station in late February or early March.
The new station will be right next door to the existing Station No. 1, which stands at 8377 Brewerton Road. Barrett said the building committee looked at several locations along the Route 11 corridor, from areas near Walmart to the old Plainville restaurant, but believed it was best to stay close to the current station.
The build was approved by taxpayers in the Cicero Fire District back in November by a vote of 80-32. The referendum allowed the district to sell the 4.5-acre lot at 8387 to 8391 Brewerton Road to the department to make way for the building, allowing the department to tear down the existing station and construct a $4 million building to replace it. The fire district will then lease the building back from the department.
Voters rejected a $5.6 million building proposal last February, which would have increased fire district taxes about $75 per year for a home assessed at $100,000. In August, a proposal to sell the 4.5-acre lot was defeated as well.
Fire department officials said the new structure is necessary because of significant structural issues in the existing building, as well as asbestos on the second floor and numerous safety concerns for the volunteer firefighters in the department.
The new building also comes without a tax increase for fire district residents. At just over 17,000 square feet, instead of the 20,000 the original plans called for, Barrett said it includes the department’s “actual needs vs. the Christmas list we could operate without.” It will have a community hall, which members of the Cicero community called for during informational forums, as well as a kitchen, offices, training room, exercise room, gear room and five apparatus bays.
Also helping to keep costs down was a grant from Assemblyman Al Stirpe’s office in the amount of $125,000. That money, in addition to a grant of between $200,000 and $300,000 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) — the department will be advised of the exact amount during the next round of awards in August — helped to offset the costs the board of commissioners had budgeted for.
Macker moves to C-NS
After five years at Drivers Village, the annual Cicero Gus Macker 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament moved to to Cicero-North Syracuse High School this summer.
The move was forced by the opening of a new dealership at the complex off East Circle Drive in Cicero, though tournament organizers say owner Roger Burdick is still one of the event’s biggest benefactors.
“He has been and continues to be very supportive,” said Toni Brauchle, executive director of the CanTeen teen center, which Macker raises money to fund. “The location just didn’t work for their layout any longer.”
The space at Drivers Village was proving less than ideal in the last couple of years anyway, according to tournament organizer Julie LaFave.
“We had to move because with new businesses opening all the time, we were worried about outgrowing the location,” LaFave said. “Our tournament has continued to grow, and the green space in the area has declined. We wanted to continue to offer a great event venue for all the thousands of people that travel to Cicero for the weekend.”
The tournament has proven to be the biggest fundraiser for the CanTeen, which offers a safe place for C-NS students to go after school. The center offers food, activities and more to kids who might not have another place to go. The move to the high school offers a number of advantages to the tournament, including close proximity to the CanTeen’s home, which is located right next to the high school.
“Having the beneficiary of our tournament directly within view will really serve as a motivation to host the best tournament in our six years,” LaFave said. “Plus, the visibility along Route 31 should be much greater than it was on Hogan Drive.”
This year’s tourney raised about $7,500 in profit for the CanTeen. The event has raised more than $100,000 in its six years in existence for the center.
LCSD implements new redistricting plan
The Liverpool Central School District implemented a scaled-back version of its redistricting plan at the beginning of this school year. While the original Scenario 12 affected close to 500 students, the new Scenario 12B impacts about 200.
“Scenario 12B is an adjustment of the boundary lines originally laid out in Scenario 12,” Assistant Superintendent for Elementary Education Steve Garraffo said. He said the adjustments were made after viewing enrollment data for the 2014-15 school year. “As the numbers came into a clearer focus, the irony is that things got fuzzier. So when we were talking about redistricting, we needed a lens through which to look at every situation, at every school, at every family, and what evolved were our guiding principles.”
Garraffo said the team scrutinized the district’s existing population patterns to determine how best to redistribute students.
“We looked street by street, grade by grade, student by student,” he said. “We really tried to focus on our students’ needs and keeping families together.”
Great Law of Peace Center opens
Skä·noñh – Great Law of Peace Center, which celebrates the culture of the Haudenosaunee, the Six Nations, comprising the Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga, Seneca and Tuscarora Native American nations, opened to the public just before Thanksgiving. The site, formerly the French Fort, later reinvented at Ste.
Marie among the Iroquois, includes exhibits that explore the subjects of Skä·noñh, the Thanksgiving Address, the Creation Story, the Great Law of Peace and Native American/European contact. The centerpiece of each exhibit section will be an educational film featuring Haudenosaunee people explaining their heritage and values as they have been passed down from generation to generation.
Skä·noñh is a joint effort by the Onondaga Historical Association, Onondaga County, the Onondaga Nation and local colleges.
OHA Executive Director Gregg Tripoli, a Liverpool native, said that the Haudenosaunee pioneered democracy in the west and “created a society that put women in leadership positions which helped inspire the women who started the Women’s Rights movements in Central New York. It launched the colloquialism ‘bury the hatchet’ and brought us the real legend of Hiawatha. The story of the Great Law includes imagery and symbolism that are repeated in our national seal and represented on every dollar bill.”
The facility’s new mission actually clarifies an important piece of Liverpool history by making it clear that the 1933 “French Fort” was designed not after the actual Jesuit mission that had existed briefly here in 1657 but after the 19th century “forts” of the Western United States popularized by cowboy movies of the 1920s and ’30s. With the opening of the Great Law of Peace Center, that misinterpretation is being rectified.
