A year of challenge and change: Highlights from across our county in 2025

From longtime leaders stepping down and new businesses taking root to major policy debates, preservation victories and community celebrations, 2025 was a year of transformation across Tompkins County, where residents marked milestones, confronted challenges and welcomed fresh beginnings that shaped the region’s evolving story.

Dryden

Longtime Southworth Library director retires

When Diane Pamel was homeschooling her five sons, she became a frequent visitor to Southworth Library in the village of Dryden.

One day, in 2005, the library staff encouraged Pamel to apply for an open aide position. To Pamel, it made sense because she was already taking advantage of the resources and materials on a regular basis.

Pamel, previously a mechanical engineer for seven years, applied for the job and got it. It was also a good time for Pamel to start working there, with her last two sons entering middle school.

“I’ve always loved the library, so I applied,” Pamel said. “It’s how I ended up making that switch.”

Almost 20 years later, Pamel stepped down as the library’s director at the end of March. 

Pamel became the director in 2007. She secured her master’s degree in library science with a concentration in rural library leadership from Clarion University in 2009.

“I feel like I’ve been able to accomplish a lot in the 20 or so years I’ve been working here,” Pamel said. “We have a great team, and I’ve been able to see us grow so much.”

June’s Cafe & Pizzeria opens in Dryden

Adam and Judy June, son and mother co-owners of June’s Cafe & Pizzeria, opened their business three days after Pizza & Bones closed its Dryden location on Feb. 3.

The business is located at 22 W. Main St. in the village of Dryden.

“I went after it and made the purchase,” Adam said, noting Pizza & Bones also has a location in Ithaca.

“We just bought the Dryden location [from the Pizza & Bones owner],” Judy said. “We didn’t want to continue his name or use his recipe, so we have our own stuff.”

Adam noted that his restaurant makes New York-style pizza, with a thinner crust covered in garlic butter and parmesan sprinkles added on top.

“So far, the pizzas are the bread and butter of the business,” Adam said.

Couple opens Protagonist Books & Coffee in the village

Amber and Sam Gellar-Smith opened a bookstore and coffee shop, Protagonist Books & Coffee, at 8 W. Main St. in the village of Dryden, in September.

The couple stumbled upon vacant space in the area, a space Sam called an “architecturally gorgeous storefront.” After engaging with community members and local business owners, they knew the location was the right one for a bookstore and coffee shop.

“We’ve always had that dream to open our own bookstore,” Sam said. “We jumped feet first into opening it.”

Amber and Sam were determined to open their own business. Now, Protagonist Books & Coffee has become a reality.

“We’ve been simultaneously thinking about opening a bookstore for a long time, but this is very spontaneous,” Amber said. “Everything came to us organically. We decided to go with it, and the more we talked to people, it was something they wanted here too.”

Groton

Honoring Vietnam Veterans

The Groton American Legion Carrington-Fuller Post 800 held a Vietnam War Veterans Day commemoration on March 29, bringing more than 100 people together to honor those who served, including Medal of Honor recipient 2nd Lt. Terrence C. Graves. The ceremony concluded with a surprise moment when retired U.S. Navy Commander Wade Landis presented 2nd Vice-Commander Paul Koekebacker, a Bronze Star recipient, with a new V-device to replace one he had lost.

Restoring the Historic Groton Hotel

The Groton Hotel restoration continues under owner Christine Clare Brennan, who purchased the property in June 2024. General Manager Drew Clare said the restaurant’s anticipated 2025 opening will be delayed as renovations prove more extensive than expected. Plans include an Irish pub–style bar named Eddy Brennan’s Tavern, with the broader focus on restoring the landmark “from the top down” to deliver a final product the community can be proud of.

Celebrating 75 years of the Groton Community Choir

The Groton Community Choir is preparing to celebrate its 75th year, continuing a tradition that began in 1950. The intergenerational group—sometimes featuring up to four generations on stage—will present “Wonderful Grace,” a program of favorite selections from past performances, crafted by director Ginny Casey and assistant Kris Melford. Casey credited early director Jane Jennings for establishing the choir’s enduring vision and expressed gratitude to all who have sustained it over the decades.

Ithaca 

Addressing homelessness 

In 2025, Ithaca faced complex challenges involving homelessness, emergency sheltering and downtown public safety. The county’s new Code Blue facility on Cherry Street marked progress, offering expanded space, showers, and all-day winter operations backed by Volunteers of America, which now provides on-site case management to help unhoused residents move toward stability. 

Yet, community advocates argue that services remain insufficient, criticizing the earlier reliance on hotel placements and the stalled city–county plan for a “navigation hub.” 

At the same time, concerns about housing and support services have intensified at Asteri Ithaca, where 40 units house people exiting homelessness. Severe security, staffing and sanitation issues have prompted a lawsuit from the Downtown Ithaca LDC, which says the conditions have disrupted operations at the conference center below and harmed its economic mission. Police report inconsistent security at Asteri but note individual success stories among formerly unhoused tenants. 

Center of Government project progresses

Tompkins County’s long-discussed Center of Government project has entered a more concrete phase, with HOLT Architects unveiling preferred design details and county officials continuing public outreach as the plan advances toward construction on North Tioga Street. The proposed 48,000-square-foot, all-electric building—featuring a flat-roofed, warm-toned exterior and interiors inspired by local natural landscapes—aims to consolidate most county departments, improve wayfinding and accessibility, and offer one-stop public services.

Preliminary modeling shows a 44% energy-use reduction through geothermal systems and low-carbon materials, while survey respondents favored a design blending historic proportions with contemporary elements. The project has drawn mixed public reactions; supporters argue that outdated, overcrowded offices and the state-directed relocation from the courthouse make new space essential, while critics cite its $50–64 million price tag amid an uncertain fiscal outlook and competing needs such as public safety and health services.

County leaders say the final design is roughly halfway complete, with one more round of public feedback planned before moving toward an anticipated 2027 construction start and occupancy by 2028–2029.

CNN ranks Ithaca #1 destination

One of the standout moments of 2025 for Tompkins County came when CNN named Ithaca the “#1 town to visit in the United States,” a surprise accolade that elevated the region’s national visibility and energized local tourism officials. 

The recognition capped a strong fall season marked by robust visitation, the Apple Harvest Festival, and statewide honors for Visit Ithaca’s Visitor Experience team, which won a New York State Tourism Excellence Award for its extensive work welcoming travelers from across the country and more than 80 nations. The year also underscored tourism’s substantial economic contribution, with earlier data showing hundreds of millions in visitor spending and thousands of local jobs supported by the sector. 

Yet even amid the celebrations, officials remained cautious heading into 2026, noting dips in room-tax revenue and forecasting potential declines tied to reduced international and academic travel, shifting discretionary income and broader economic uncertainty.

Lansing

Cargill Salt Mine wins DEC approval, environmentalists push back

The DEC granted Cargill, the multinational corporation in charge of the Cayuga Salt Mine on Cayuga Lake, a permit modification that would add water storage capacity, within the six-level region.

The move provides further storage of brine water for a minimum of 15 years at current inflow rates, according to environmentalists from Cayuga Lake Environmental Action Now (CLEAN). The DEC also approved a permit renewal that allows the mine to remain in operation for at least another five years.

Environmentalists said that the DEC’s decision signifies a difficult loss in their movement to preserve Cayuga Lake, the health and well-being of wildlife and the safety of the area’s drinking water.

“It’s just very frustrating for us, because now we’re left with very few options,” said Stephanie Redmond, program manager for CLEAN.

Lansing Town Board race heats up

In September, what had seemed like a breezy re-election campaign for Lansing Town Board members Judy Drake and Joseph Wetmore became a contested race between the two incumbents and residents John Duthie and Joe Lovejoy. 

Both newcomers to the race mounted a write-in campaign spurred by the town board’s proposal, announced in September, to halt some construction projects in the town as Lansing officials prepare to overhaul the town’s zoning code — an endeavor that had been in the works for about seven years.

Duthie and Lovejoy quickly mobilized and centered their campaign around two tenets: one, the town is increasingly becoming too expensive to live in, and that is the town board’s fault; two, the moratorium exposed town board members’ lack of transparency.

Their campaign gained quick momentum online, garnering slightly more than 700 likes on Facebook and riding the wave of some residents’ discontent with the moratorium. 

Their campaign also amassed almost $10,000, which included thousands of the candidates’ own money and that of their businesses, a $1,000 donation from a former Lansing politician and thousands more from a commercial property landlord and business owners who serve on some of the town’s volunteer boards, according to state campaign finance data.

Town of Lansing drops proposed moratorium on large-scale development

The Lansing Town Board voted at its Nov. 19 meeting to withdraw a resolution that could have halted large-scale construction projects with potentially adverse environmental effects. 

The board’s decision was presented without further discussion prior to the unanimous vote, but it followed months of deliberation on the year-long moratorium. The board considered halting the proposal at the Nov. 5 meeting, but instead amended several tenets of the local law without a meeting date for when the board would discuss it again.

The deadline for residents and interested parties to submit comments on the moratorium also came on Nov. 12. The town received hundreds of comments on the website, via email and at public meetings since initially discussing the moratorium back in September.

Newfield

School district hires new superintendent amid ongoing capital project

In May, the Newfield Central School District Board of Education selected Jesse Harper as its next superintendent. 

Harper, who served nine years as superintendent at the Arkport Central School District, began his new role on July 1. His predecessor, Eric Hartz, retired at the end of the 2024-25 school year. 

Harper, who was born and raised in Syracuse, taught high school chemistry and physics for seven years before pursuing administrative educational work. 

“My passion is being a small school superintendent,” Harper told Tompkins Weekly in July. “There’s a level of accountability for a superintendent in a small district that you don’t get in bigger districts.”

The school district is also in the middle of a $21 million capital project, which officially got underway in April. The work includes upgrades to the district’s middle school building, such as creating a secure vestibule with a check-in window and adding a new school counseling office suite, as well as updating the building’s public address and notification system, among other districtwide updates. 

Town of Newfield passes $4.2 million budget

The Newfield Town Board adopted its $4.2 million budget for next year, which will slightly lower the tax rate and fall below the state tax cap. 

The fiscal plan, which the town board unanimously adopted in October, will increase overall spending from this year by about $137,000, or 3.4%. The budget will lower the town’s property tax rate from about $6.33 to about $6.25 per $1,000 of assessed property value. 

Last year, the town board adopted the 2025 budget that included a 9% jump in spending and a 3% tax levy increase, which exceeded the state tax cap for Newfield. Town Supervisor Mike Allinger said that the increase was driven by inflation and rising costs to provide state-mandated employee benefits.

Allinger said that the 2026 budget will continue funding essential services and dip into the town’s reserve funds to give taxpayers some relief. 

“It’s always a relief when you get the budget done every year,” Allinger told Tompkins Weekly in October. “There’s not a whole lot of change in next year’s budget. We’re in the business of maintaining services.”

New bakery and coffee shop opens

Newfield’s newest cafe, Morning Moon Coffee and Bakery, opened in November. 

The cafe is located at 7 Bridge St., between the Newfield covered bridge and Covered Bridge Market & Pizzeria. 

Amy Heffron, who previously ran Covered Bridge Market with her husband for decades, said that she wanted to create a space where Newfielders could enjoy morning treats without driving into Ithaca. Heffron bakes homemade treats every week, with some recent creative offerings including maple walnut cookies and apple fritter bread with caramel. 

Several residents said that they hope the new cafe will improve the town’s sense of community, with one patron joking that the business’ opening was the “news of the century.” 

Ulysses

Local governments launch coalition for park at former Camp Barton

On July 1, a coalition of three local governments — the village of Trumansburg and the towns of Ulysses and Covert — hosted the first meeting to inform the public about the new state park being built on the shores of Cayuga Lake at the site of the former Boy Scout Camp Barton property.

The coalition, dubbed the Three Falls Local Development Corporation (LDC), is in charge of managing the new 90-acre state park located in Trumansburg at 9640 Frontenac Rd., on Frontenac Point on the western shore of Cayuga Lake. 

The new park has not yet been named, but LDC officials said at the July 1 meeting that a decision will likely be made by the governor or other state leaders. 

The State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation acquired the property from the Baden-Powell Council of the Boy Scouts of America, which had operated the facility as Camp Barton, in 2023. 

Cold Springs Road parcel donated for Ulysses Park

The Ulysses Town Board voted unanimously at an Aug. 27 town board special meeting to accept a land donation of a 16-acre parcel on Cold Springs Road that could be used for recreational purposes by town residents.  

The parcel, donated by longtime town residents Marvin and Allison Pritts, could become the first public park in the history of Ulysses. 

The move was widely supported and celebrated by residents, who submitted public comments to the town of Ulysses. At one point in the spring, Town Supervisor Katelin Olson said that the town had received 76 letters in favor of the acquisition of the parcel at 5320 Cold Springs Rd. and eight against it.

Paleontological Research Institution donates Smith Woods to Ulysses

The town of Ulysses is now the steward of the Henry A. Smith Woods.

The Paleontological Research Institution (PRI) donated the 32-acre parcel in late October, following conversations dating back to at least June about having the town take over care of the natural area.  

The 32-acre old-growth forest, located in the village of Trumansburg, has been protected, owned and cared for by PRI and Cayuga Nature Center (CNC) since 2013, when the merger of the organizations came to fruition. CNC itself has been in charge of Smith Woods since 2007.

The PRI board voted on Sept. 30 to transfer ownership of Smith Woods. PRI board members have said in the past that the move would allow PRI to refocus its efforts toward the sustainable support of a “world class” museum and an exceptional collection of invertebrate fossils.

PRI owns and operates the Museum of the Earth at 1259 Trumansburg Rd. in Ithaca.

The town accepted the donation on Oct. 28.