News and Events

2025 Spring Brush and Leaf Pickup.

The Town of Ithaca Public Works Department will pick up yard waste (brush, leaves, pine needles, dead flowers, garden waste, and grass clippings) starting Monday, April 21, 2025 and will continue throughout the Town that week until finished. All yard waste must be at the roadside by 7 a.m. on the first day of collection.

Please note that crews do not use leaf vacuum machines for spring leaf pickup; no loose leaf piles or plastic bags will be picked up.

THERE WILL BE NO SECOND COLLECTION AND NO CALL BACKS.

The intention of the Town’s roadside collection service is for Town residents, excluding the Village of Cayuga Heights and the City of Ithaca, to put a reasonable amount of yard waste (as generated during a normal year) out at the roadside for pick up by the Town’s crews. Clearing of building lots and hedgerows is beyond a normal amount of material. Roadside collection crews reserve the right not to pick up excessively large volumes of brush and improperly piled materials.

WHAT TO DO

  • Bag leaves, garden, and other yard waste in biodegradable paper bags. Fill bags and place on road shoulder. Fold over openings of bags to close. Do not staple or tape. 30-gallon bags are available at Agway, Home Depot, Lowes, Wal-Mart, and Wegman’s, and other stores in the area.
  • Brush should be placed in neat piles going with the flow of traffic so that the chipping trucks can feed the cut ends first. See diagram at https://lfweb.tompkins-co.org/WebLink/DocView.aspx?id=316976&dbid=9&repo=TownOfIthaca
  • Brush piles should be no larger than a pickup truck load (approximately 2’ H x 4’ W x 8’ L in size). It is not necessary to cut limbs into small pieces.
  • Put out limbs no larger than 8 inches in diameter.
  • Place brush and filled bags of yard waste along road shoulder or at the end of the driveway if no shoulder exists.

WHAT NOT TO DO

Do not tie bundles of brush. Do not place any materials in a ditch. Do not put out metal, rocks, glass, roots, stumps, or lumber scraps. Do not put brush and leaf bags out until the week before collection.

For more information, please call 273-1656 between 6:30 a.m. and 3:00 p.m., Monday through Friday.

You may also drop your yard waste off at the Public Works Facility at 114 Seven Mile Drive, Monday through Friday from 7:00 a.m. through 2:30 p.m. year-round. Please sign in at the office.

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Safe Street Tompkins Virtual Public Meeting

You may remember that Tompkins County has a project called Safe Streets Tompkins [https://safestreetstompkins.com] administered by consultants, Cambridge Systematics. During 2024, the project collected input from individuals about locations at which they had or observed accidents or felt unsafe. FHIA encouraged individuals to describe their own experiences.

Safe Streets Tompkins will hold a virtual public meeting to discuss and get input on the countywide priority locations with potential for safety improvement, particularly vulnerable road user high risk areas, on Wednesday, April 30th from 6:30 to 7:30 PM.

Cambridge Systematics will present recommendations for proven safety countermeasures at priority intersections and segments; these will be included in the forthcoming Tompkins County Joint Safety Action Plan.

Join the virtual meeting at https://microsoft.com/Microsoft-teams/join-a-meeting

Meeting ID: 287 262 862 096

Passcode: Bj2bK7n9

Join by phone: 1 857-410-1629

Phone Conference ID: 904 679 980#

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Postscript: While on the topic of safe streets, it is worth noting that FHIA working groups, formed in response to last Fall’s planning effort, are working with the Town and Cornell on next steps to plan and implement additional traffic-calming measures in Forest Home. FHIA is currently working with the Town on how best to carry out its planned repaving of Forest Home Drive and Judd Falls Road in a way that supports our traffic-calming goals.

If you have questions about these FHIA traffic-related efforts, send email to foresthomenews@gmail.com with “traffic calming” in the subject line.

Stimulated by requests from FHIA Board members for easier access to some particular content on the website and the need to update pages due to changes by the Town of Ithaca, City of Ithaca, and Tompkins County, the team maintaining this website has re-organized the top level menus.

If you have comments or difficulty finding something because it has moved, feel free to send a message to foresthomenews@gmail.com.

1. The FHIA Holiday party for 2024 is on Saturday December 7 from 5-8 pm and is a potluck meal. Residents should have received messages with details via the FHIA mailing list. If you are a new resident, send a request to be added to the list to foresthomenews@gmail.com with your name and street address.

2. The next morning (Dec 8), the ceremony to install the Pearl S. Buck historical marker will begin at 11am. The plaque will be mounted and unveiled by Tom Campanella and FHIA president Charlie Trautmann. We will meet first in the basement of the Forest Home Chapel at 224 Forest Home Drive, where there will be hot coffee, then move to the marker location just out front. Parking is limited; please use the Mundy Wildflower Garden lot if you are driving. More information about the historic marker is below.

3. Minutes from the FHIA Annual Meeting are now available at https://www.fhia.org/minutes/

4. Details about the new historic marker prepared by Tom Campanella, who has spearheaded this project.

The Buck marker was funded by a grant from the William G. Pomeroy Foundation, awarded via community partner Historic Ithaca. It is the second marker that we collaborated on for a Pomeroy grant (the first marks the 212 Cascadilla Street birthplace of Verdell L. Payne, a fighter pilot with the Tuskegee Airmen).

The new marker recognizes Pearl Buck’s brief but formative residency in Forest Home a century ago. Pearl, her husband J. Lossing Buck and daughter Carol lived in the community in 1924-1925, mainly at the Chapel parsonage (Lossing was assistant pastor). Each was enrolled in a master’s program at Cornell—she in English (studying with Martin Sampson), he in agronomy (studying with George Warren). Lossing, who helped found the Department of Agricultural Economics at Nanjing University, later carried out the earliest comprehensive survey of crop production in China (Chinese Farm Economy, 1930). Pearl’s help was vital; she interviewed hundreds of farmers in Chinese for the project. The family returned to Cornell in 1932 for Lossing to pursue his PhD, residing this time at 614 Wyckoff Road. Buck had just received a Pulitzer Prize, and six years later was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature “for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China.” She received the Nobel medal in Stockholm 86 years ago next week.

Pearl Sydenstricker Buck was born in West Virginia but raised in China, where her parents were Presbyterian missionaries and Chinese her first language. She developed a keen interest in the lifeways of the rural peasantry, which she drew upon in writing one of the most beloved novels of the twentieth century—The Good Earth (1931). Effectively banned in China after 1949, the book is today better known there than here (though interest was revived when Oprah Winfrey chose it for her book club in 2004). As Nanjing University’s Liu Haiping put it to the New York Times, Buck was a “revolutionary . . . the first writer to choose rural China as her subject matter. None of the Chinese writers would have done so; intellectuals wrote about urban intellectuals. Many of us feel we should include Buck as part of Chinese literature.” Buck went on to write scores of other books—novels, non-fiction, translations, biographies, young adult and children’s books. She died in 1973.

The Town of Ithaca Budget for 2025 was approved at the Town of Ithaca Board meeting on 11/04/2024.

Forest Home is mentioned in the capital improvement plans, which are described in two sections, covering 5 years. Listed are paving of Forest Home Drive and Judd Falls Road in 2025-26 and sidewalk improvement for the S-curve on Forest Home Drive in 2027-2029.

For the budget document, see
* https://lfweb.tompkins-co.org/WebLink/DocView.aspx?id=356617&dbid=9&repo=TownOfIthaca
For the meeting, see
1. the agenda and packet of materials other than the budget document
* https://lfweb.tompkins-co.org/WebLink/DocView.aspx?id=356461&dbid=9&repo=TownOfIthaca
2. the recording of the meeting
* https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCC9vycXkJ6klVIibjhCy7NQ

FHIA’s Annual Community Meeting will be on Wednesday, October 30 7-8:30 pm, at Forest Home Chapel (224 Forest Home Drive). The Board strongly encourages residents to attend to vote for officers for the coming year and to hear about achievements of the last year and results of the community listening sessions.
The sheets that were produced at the two listening sessions are online at https://www.fhia.org/community-listening-sessions-september-5-and-8-2024/

===== Also, a reminder about Leaf Collection (from Town of Ithaca flyer) =====

Leaf collection will begin at 7 a.m. on Monday, November 4th and will
continue throughout the week until finished.

Leaves should be at the curb by 7:00 a.m. on the first day of collection.
Leaves may be raked to the shoulder of the road or bagged in biodegradable paper leaf bags (30-gallon bags are available at many stores in the area).

Other debris such as pine needles, dead flowers, garden waste, grass clippings, etc., cannot be vacuumed and should be placed in bags. Please fill the bags and place them on the road shoulder, folding over the openings of the bags to close. Do not staple or tape openings. No plastic bags will be picked up.

The Town’s crews will go around the entire Town once with the leaf vacuum.

For the rest of the month of November, the crews will begin picking up paper-bagged leaves each Monday, which could extend through early week to encompass the entire Town.

Please note that we may send out leaf crews earlier than November 4th to test our equipment and to pick up paper-bagged leaves before they get wet.

1. Brush Pickup runs from Oct 21 until completed. Link to instructions is below.

2. “Nightsong”, a contemplative choral service sung by a choir, will be held at Forest Home Chapel, 224 Forest Home Drive, Ithaca, on Thursday October 24 at 8 pm.

Compline (“Nightsong”) will be sung by candlelight, meant to offer a time of calm and restoration. The origins and form of the service are ancient, from the monastic tradition. Chant, a hymn, and choral settings of various texts are included. This is a service of St. Luke Lutheran Church.

The service is designed for all people of any faith, or no faith at all. Come for the music, stay for calm and restoration in these tumultuous times. The sanctuary will open at 7:45 pm. Please enter through the basement door to avoid the construction work and come upstairs. Afterwards stay for light refreshments and meet the choir members.
For more information, use https://www.foresthomechapelumc.org/contact

3. FHIA’s Annual Community Meeting will be on Wednesday, October 30 7-8:30 pm, at Forest Home Chapel. Residents should watch their email for more details.

Reminder for Brush Pickup instructions:
Fall Brush and Leaf Collection 2024

The Town of Ithaca has announced the week for 2024 Fall Brush Pickup — October 21-25. Leaf collection will begin at 7 a.m. on Monday November 4.

Be sure to follow the instructions for preparing brush or leaves for collection. For generic information about the brush collection service, see https://townithacany.gov/brush-collection-drop-off/. The instructions for Fall 2024 are in the Town’s September Newsletter. For a convenient one-page document specifically for Fall 2024, see https://lfweb.tompkins-co.org/WebLink/DocView.aspx?id=355057&dbid=9&repo=TownOfIthaca.  

Remember that you can also take yard waste (brush, leaves, garden/yard debris) to the Public Works facility at 114 Seven Mile Dr., Monday through Friday from 7:00 a.m. through 2:30 p.m. year-round.

Saturday, September 14, 2024, 3PM, at the Forest Home Park.  Rain date is September 15.

WE WILL PROVIDE:
Hot dogs, hamburgers, veggie burgers, ice cream, non-alcoholic beverages, flatware, cups, and plates.

PLEASE BRING IF YOU CAN:
A side dish, salad, or pie; chairs; croquet, balls, outdoor toys. Please no alcohol.

VOLUNTEER TO:
Be a cooker or a server, set up, clean up, or help with garbage and recycling. We are hoping for 10 volunteers. Send email to foresthomenews@gmail.com to volunteer.

Thanks for your help. We look forward to seeing you!
Forest Home Fall Picnic Committee

TO OUR NEW NEIGHBORS:
Residents who would like to be added to the Forest Home Improvement Association e-mail list, please write to us at: foresthomenews@gmail.com

[Last update: 9/10/2024 7:30pm] Replacement of the gas main on Pleasant Grove Rd in Cayuga Heights is complete; new sidewalks are being installed in the same area. Town of Ithaca work on the sewer main pump station upgrade continues in the triangle by the Forest Home Park. When needed, flaggers will be operating. The project is close to completion.
Of the Town of Ithaca planned repairs for sections of road in Forest Home, the 1xx block of Forest Home Dr is still due for crack-filling. The City of Ithaca has finished reconstruction of the asphalt surface of a section of Route 366 near Belle Sherman. Check the Emergencies and Alerts page under the Forest Home tab on this website for information about signing up for SIREN to get alerts for construction projects and emergencies. See https://www.fhia.org/emergencies-and-alerts/
For details and updates on road work on the Cornell campus, check https://cuinfo.cornell.edu/alerts/

MORE DETAILS FOR INDIVIDUAL PROJECTS

Tompkins County milled the surface of the section of Pleasant Grove Road in Forest Home on Monday June 17. They resurfaced the road on June 26 and added center line and shoulder markings on July 3. Milling took most of a day after rush hour, closing sections of one lane at a time, with flaggers. For some pictures of the work at the bottom of Pleasant Grove Road, see https://photos.app.goo.gl/SyXMzBFUN4WXARNYA. Re-paving started early on June 26 and asphalt spreading was completed by 4pm the same day. For pictures, see https://photos.app.goo.gl/RuBJu6G8HnhVxawU8. Repair to a culvert under Pleasant Grove Road part way up the steep section was completed on July 31; this involved lining the existing culvert, done without digging up the road.

Also on Pleasant Grove Road, but only within Cayuga Heights, NYSEG is replacing a gas main. The work started on June 24 at the line between the Town of Ithaca and Cayuga Heights (in the northbound lane towards Community Corners). Expect single-lane closure with flaggers. As of early September, the gas main work appears complete.  New sidewalks are now being built along the same section of Pleasant Grove Road.

The Town of Ithaca planned the following work this summer:
* Crack Sealing (June) 1xx section of Forest Home Drive, from City of Ithaca line to intersection with Pleasant Grove Road (including over Downstream Bridge).
* Crack Sealing (June) 3xx section of Forest Home Drive, and on to Dryden line. This work was done during the week ending June 14.
* Micro Sealing (June) Caldwell Road from 366 to the intersection with Forest Home Drive. This was completed except for new lane markings on June 27.

Additional Town of Ithaca work has been obvious in the triangle by the Forest Home Park. This is the continuation of the sewer main pump station replacement. See pictures with narrative from last Fall at https://photos.app.goo.gl/mE58KXXVX6m6JEEa6. Pictures (without narrative) for July 9 are at https://photos.app.goo.gl/LhVABJAqpZM2XpaV9 and for July 10 are at https://photos.app.goo.gl/1ecmVECumKermA2i9.  A third album covers miscellaneous further activity:  https://photos.app.goo.gl/mCKFNSGCfdyRY36o6.  A fourth album, for early September, is at https://photos.app.goo.gl/gBT7jpgKg4KCsxya8.

Starting June 17 and continuing for about 5 weeks, the City of Ithaca performed asphalt pavement reconstruction on sections of Route 366 between the “Five Corners” intersection involving Dryden Rd, Maple Ave, and Oak Ave and route 79.

The Town of Ithaca has announced the date for Brush Pickup — April 15-19. Although the procedure for preparing brush is the same in the Spring as in the Fall, don’t expect leaves to be vacuumed up in the Spring. However, bagged leaves will be picked up.

Be sure to follow the instructions for preparing brush for collection.

Remember that you can also take yard waste (brush, leaves, garden/yard debris) to the Public Works facility at 114 Seven Mile Dr., Monday through Friday from 7:00 a.m. through 2:30 p.m. year-round.

Thanks to all the folks who volunteered for the new Adopt-A-Street approach to Spring roadside cleanup. All the road segments have been signed up for. Send questions to Herb Engman or foresthomenews@gmail.com.

This is also the time to keep an eye out for invasive plants in your yard and to enjoy the flowers that are protected from the deer in the Mundy Wildflower Garden. See the post from this time last year for links to resources to help you identify and control Hairy Bittercress and Garlic Mustard. The same post has beautiful photos by Connie Stirling-Engman of Spring Ephemerals that you will soon find in the Mundy Wildflower Garden.