PAGE A-6 THE POST-STANDARD Saturday, February 26, 2011
LOCAL NEWS
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F-M says it must cut its staff
Budget is $2.6 million
BANACH & TOOMEY
short. Chief: ‘‘Next year
will be very, very hard.’’
INSURANCE
By Elizabeth Doran
Staff writer
0000266264-01
1239 W. Genesee Street, Syracuse • (315) 471-6390 The Fayetteville-Manlius
info@banachtoomey.com • www.banachtoomey.com school district needs to cut
$2.6 million from its budget
this year. T, and to accomplish
that the district is proposing to
O’Dunk & O’Bright’s
eliminate 14Ö positions and
make reductions in other areas,
district officials said Friday.
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Of the 14Ö jobs, four would
be cut through attrition and the
rest would be layoffs, Superin-
tendent Corliss Kaiser said.
The total number of job cuts
could be higher, she said.
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0000267830-01 PARTICIPANTS IN the Pretty Girls (and Guys) Fashion Show held Friday at the Beauchamp Branch Library included
(from left) Janesia Wallace, 11; Nylanna McClain, 9; Reychell Holifield, 10; Rose Marie Cuthrell, 10; Navi Shaw, 9;
Xzabian Simmons, 18; Zanetta Bey, 13; Pekeyla Townsend, 12; Shania Robinson, 14; and Shyanne Shaw, 12.
Fashion’s
a passion
for these
children
Staff report
Children from Syracuse’s
South Side ages 6 and up
showcased their fashion
sense at Beauchamp Branch
Library on Friday.
The show was part of
Syracuse Winterfest, which
runs through Sunday.
COUPON
The event also included a
Let us deliver dance routine and reading of
Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘‘I
a slice of Have a Dream’’ speech by
young members of the com- SOME OF the girls strike a pose backstage, including (from left) Janesia Wallace, 11;
heaven! munity. Rose Marie Cuthrell, 10; Reychell Holifield, 10; and Navi Shaw, 9.
Large Cheese Pizza,
20 Wings & 2 Liter Soda
Fitzpatrick won’t say when he plans to retire
$
15 95 Bianchi’s FITZPATRICK, FROM PAGE A-3
0000267650-01
Add any
topping $1.00 Pizza retirement bracket. The issue
of pension compensation while
Pad
plus tax
working after retirement has
2623 Milton Ave., Solvay
come to the forefront,’’ she
488-2931 Wed-Sat. 8am-9pm
wrote.
Sun. 10am-9pm (Closed Mon. & Tues.)
‘‘One challenge is that
many people don’t really have
first-hand experiences with the
0000267682-01
DA or understand how the po-
CNY RV and sition or the person serving in
that position affects their lives,
Camping S HOW like other elected positions
where public policy and laws
are set forth,’’ she added.
Fitzpatrick faced no opposi-
tion in his first three runs for
office in 1991, 1995 and 1999.
March 3-6 Vanessa Bogan, now a City
Court judge, mounted an un-
successful challenge in 2003,
and lawyer Tina Bennet failed
in her 2007 bid to unseat him.
Asked about highlights of
his unprecedented fifth term,
Fitzpatrick mentioned his
work with the state district at-
torneys’ association and as the
state representative to the na-
tional association.
Fund could create 10 new jobs, 5 businesses
FUND, FROM PAGE A-3
business owners must enroll in
the initiative’s small-business
program and be a member of
the area’s newly formed busi-
ness association. The program
offers free one-on-one classes
in marketing, financial strate-
gies and basic market research,
among other topics.
Once they have gone
through the program, business
owners submit a business plan
to the Near Westside Small
Business Development Com-
mittee for approval. Upon ap-
The board will discuss the
budget recommendations at a 7
p.m. special meeting Tuesday
in the Fayetteville Elementary
music room.
The district is recommend-
ing cutting 6Ö teacher aides
and assistants, five teachers
and two custodians, and down-
sizing the business office staff.
The district has about 765 em-
ployees.
The district stands to lose
$3.1 million in state aid under
the governor’s proposed bud-
get. F-M plans to use about $1
million in federal money to
help offset that. The total bud-
get in 2010-11 was
$74,020,783.
The board will discuss a
He noted he was responsible
for the creation of the Com-
mittee for the Fair and Ethical
Administration of Justice by
the New York group. The
committee has created proto-
cols for law enforcement agen-
cies to videotape interroga-
tions and confessions in major
crime cases and protocols to
ensure against wrongful con-
victions across the state.
Work continues to expand
DNA data banks and to pub-
lish an ethics handbook to be
provided to every assistant dis-
trict attorney across the state,
Fitzpatrick said.
Additionally, he pointed to
the continued success of the
joint law enforcement Internet
Crimes Against Children Task
Force, which has led to 40 ar-
rests since its implementation.
Fitzpatrick said he hopes
this year will see passage of
legislation to allow law en-
forcement to collect DNA evi-
dence from suspects at the
proval, the proposal goes to
the credit union, which makes
the final decision on the loan.
Small-business owners have
yet to receive a loan, but those
furthest along in the process
should receive their loans in
about a month, Short said. For
Radicchi, a small loan could
help her take on riskier, high-
er-paying clients, and eventu-
ally hire employees, she said.
‘‘The business has a lot of
demands that are difficult to
meet with one person,’’ she
said.
proposed tax levy Tuesday
night, but Kaiser said it’s like-
ly to be about the same as this
year, when there was a 1.89
percent increase.
When it comes to cuts, ‘‘our
mantra has been reduce, don’t
eliminate,’’ Kaiser said.
The district also recom-
mends:
4 Cutting extra-curricular
activities and professional de-
velopment by about $30,000;
4 Eliminating one after-
school late-bus run, so late
buses would run four days a
week instead of five;
4 Eliminating summer
school for grades 1 through 8,
which would save about
$38,000;
Brenda Duncan / The Post-Standard
time of arrest rather than after
conviction.
The McMahon Ryan Center
is also something the commu-
nity should be proud of, Fitz-
patrick said. He said the na-
tional prosecutors’ association
has contacted him about hold-
ing a convention here as a re-
sult of the new facility.
‘‘It’s a nice bonus,’’ he said
of the potential tax revenue an
event like that could produce.
As he gears up for another
campaign, Fitzpatrick said his
main goal remains the same.
‘‘It’s always been to keep
Onondaga County as safe a
place as it can be,’’ he said.
That includes pointing out
that the community is relative-
ly safe versus the perception
it’s not, created by recent out-
breaks of gun violence, he
added.
The challenge for a new
term is learning to do more
with less until the economy
gets back on track, Fitzpatrick
Whitney Daniels, another
Near West Side small business
owner, would like a loan to
buy some new equipment for
her pattern and graphic design
business. Her company, WRK
Designs, could use new print-
ers and some marketing and
advertising, Daniels said. She
does not want to depend on a
loan just to stay afloat.
‘‘I just need a little extra
boost to get things going,’’ she
said.
Both Radicchi and Daniels
currently work from home and
4 Making reductions in
supplies and maintenance.
Kaiser said that for F-M,
next year will be the toughest.
‘‘Every district has a cliff
year; ours is next year,’’ she
said. ‘‘Next year will be very,
very hard. Between this year
and last year, we will have cut
$5.4 million from our budget.
We’ve gone through every-
thing we have. After that,
you’re got to start talking
staff.’’
The board is expected to
vote on the budget April 11, a
public hearing is scheduled for
May 9, and the budget vote is
May 17.
Contact Elizabeth Doran at
edoran@syracuse.com or 470-3012.
Brenda Duncan / The Post-Standard
said. That means more collab-
oration, he added.
Fitzpatrick recently hinted
that he does see an eventual
end to his tenure in the office.
Addressing the media after
Steven Pieper recently pleaded
guilty to murdering former
girlfriend Jenni-Lyn Watson,
Fitzpatrick said there would be
‘‘an 81-year-old ex-prosecu-
tor’’ on hand to argue against
parole when Pieper is first eli-
gible in 23 years.
He later declined to say
when between now and then
he might call it quits.
When he talks about the job,
it’s in both professional and
personal terms.
He said he takes it personal-
ly when families like the Wat-
sons are devastated by crime.
‘‘I have 500,000 sons and
daughters here, and that’s the
way I treat the job,’’ he said.
Contact Jim O’Hara at
johara@syracuse.com or 470-2260.
credit the Near Westside Ini-
tiative for keeping them in the
area. A loan is simply the next
phase.
‘‘This would give me the
ability to go one step further
and stop working on a shoe-
string budget,’’ Radicchi said.
Daniels echoed those senti-
ments.
‘‘If all goes well, in a couple
of years I might be able to get
a nice little space and hire
some people,’’ she said.
Contact Lorenzo Arguello at
470-2259 or at
larguello@syracuse.com.