By now you know that 41-year-old Hollywood film director Jeremy Garelick hopes to turn the old Liverpool High School, also known as the Zogg building at 800 Fourth St., into the Liverpool School of Cinema.
The director of “The Wedding Ringer,” the 2015 comedy starring Kevin Hart and Josh Gad, Garelick convened a March 7 meeting at the Zogg auditorium at which he outlined his plans to offer film students hands-on training. He envisions shooting three to five movies at the facility annually, each budgeted between $6 million and $15 million.
Liverpool Mayor Gary White and several other village officials attended the March 7 meeting, which drew an audience of about 400 people, many of whom were seeking jobs in the film industry.
“A lot of the people there were not village residents,” White noted. “So we’d like Jeremy to come back and meet with neighbors.”
Garelick’s Syracuse attorney, Bob Germain, appeared at the April 13 village board meeting and told White that the director would meet with village residents at the Village Hall on Sycamore Street sometime before May 15.
Is ‘trade school’ OK?
At its March 27 meeting the village planning board approved a motion to recommend changing the village code’s definition of “school” to include “trade school,” in order to facilitate the establishment of Liverpool School of Cinema.
Responding to that recommendation at their April 13 meeting, village trustees introduced Local Law B-2017 to amend Chapter 380 of the village code to delete the current definition of “school” and replace it with a new definition including “trade school,” upon the issuance of a special-use permit.
A public hearing on the proposed change is scheduled for 7 p.m. May 15, at the Village Hall.
When we find out exactly when Garelick plans to meet with residents here, we’ll let you know, or you can call the village clerk at (315) 457-3441.
Money-maker
By the way, Garelick’s movie, “The Wedding Ringer,” earned $79.8 million against a budget of $23 million. No wonder Variety Magazine named him one of the top 10 directors to watch in 2015.
Last year, the Zogg property’s selling price was $1,295,000. Garelick has submitted a purchase offer, but the sale is contingent on village approval for the project. If he gets the green light and buys the 97,287-square-foot building, Garelick hopes to begin making movies here in March 2018.
‘Truth-teller’ dead at 70
Dubbed “the truth-teller of Onondaga Lake,” environmental research scientist Steve Effler died April 14, at age 70.
The founder of the Upstate Freshwater Institute, Effler’s findings laid the foundation for the New York state lawsuit that turned Onondaga Lake into a Superfund site and led to Honeywell’s $451 million cleanup.
A world-renowned limnologist, Effler began studying the lake during graduate school at Syracuse University in the 1970s. His doctoral dissertation cataloged the pollution found in the sediment at the lake bottom.
His friend, Tim Mulvey, a former aide to U.S. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, said Effler remained an optimist even when faced with the most polluted lake in the nation.
Effler believed “that a rigorous, objective examination of the facts could be persuasive in making policy and in persuading people to do the right thing,” Mulvey said.
A celebration of his life will include calling hours from 3 to 6 p.m. Friday, April 21, and a Funeral Mass at 1 p.m. Saturday, April 22, both at All Saints Church, 1340 Lancaster Ave., Syracuse. Festivities will continue Saturday at Drumlins Country Club from 5 to 9 p.m.
Part-timer top performer
The Onondaga County Traffic Safety Advisory Board cited Liverpool Police Officer Marcus Lukins as the top overall performer from a village police department last year. Lukins issued a total of 444 Vehicle and Traffic tickets during 2016, while working part-time. He was honored at the board’s its 29th annual Recognition Ceremony in January.
Meanwhile new full-time LPD Officer Kevin Greenwood, who lives in Liverpool, is now working the midnight shift, and Sgt. Jerry Unger is attending supervisor’s school.
Yard waste process
Village Yard Waste Pickup began on April 3, and will continue on the first and third Monday of each month. The DPW instructs residents not to use plastic bags, although paper bags are acceptable. Refer to the DPW section of the village website for details; villageofliverpool.org.
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