Briefs: Visions ribbon cutting, airport celebrates United’s return

Visions opens Ithaca branch location with ribbon cutting

Visions Federal Credit Union held a ribbon cutting ceremony at its new Ithaca branch location, 410 Elmira Rd., on June 7. Visions, which has over 50 branches spread across New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, recently expanded into Tompkins County earlier this year. As covered by Tompkins Weekly back in January of 2020, Visions’ new location started construction last year and includes a traditional banking building as well as an adjacent amphitheater. Visions CEO Ty Muse spoke at the ribbon cutting and shared what finally opening the branch meant to the credit union. “I won’t say it’s a relief; it’s actually just happiness,” he said. “For me, [I’m] just excited to get to the point of being. … For us, it’s just finally … being able to help people. There’s a lot of great banking institutions here and credit unions here, and we just wanted to add to that.” Eric Gergel, who has been with Visions for eight years and manages three different branches, is now the branch manager at Visions’ Ithaca location. At the ribbon cutting, Gergel spoke highly of Visions’ business culture and shared his overall approach to leadership. “It’s mostly servitude leadership,” he said. “I take education very serious[ly]. Every situation in life is an opportunity for education, so I really educate, and then I just provide support. You have to be there for your people and take care of them because without them, you can’t be here.” Gergel said that he wants to see Visions become a county community partner for education in the coming years, something Muse is confident he’ll be able to accomplish. “I think he’s the right person,” Muse said of Gergel. “He luckily had been here before in his previous life. … He gets Ithaca, and that’s what we wanted to make sure, that you have people here who got Ithaca. Banking’s not very creative. Ithaca is very creative, so we needed somebody to bridge that gap so we could hopefully accommodate what Ithaca needs.” For more information about Visions, visit visionsfcu.org. In this photo (from left to right), Jenna Rosenberg, Visions chief governance and strategy officer; Jennifer Tavares, president of the Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce; Ithaca Mayor Svante Myric; Gergel; and Muse at the ribbon cutting.

 

Ithaca Tompkins airport celebrates return of United Airlines

On June 3 from noon to 1:30 p.m., local leaders gathered at the Ithaca Tompkins International Airport to celebrate the resumption of United Airlines’ service to Washington D.C. from Ithaca. Airport Director Mike Hall (pictured above) and others spoke at the event, after which the United Airlines flight arrived at 12:17 p.m. United Airlines service to Washington Dulles (IAD) resumed June 3, with two daily flights Monday through Friday and one daily flight on Saturdays and Sundays. Resumption comes after United Airlines paused the service following the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. For more information, please visit https://flyithaca.com.