Nothing Like a Little Spring Cleaning

On Friday, I knew I'd be going out on a story with Karen because Joleene was out for vacation. As we sat in the morning news meeting and I overheard one of the reporters say this week was "one of the slowest" he could remember "in a long time," I realized we wouldn't be covering any significant piece of hard new.

But it was a fun day regardless because Karen and I went to Strawberry Farms in Clay for the major community garage sales the development holds every year. Many families and homes held garage sales, and as usual, hundreds of people stopped by the neighborhood for some bargain hunting.

Vendors told us people starting coming to their houses at 5:30am and continued throughout the day to scope out clothes, furniture, books, and toys. People parked a mile outside Strawberry Farms just to get in. Ice cream trucks were parked down the street to make the most of the heat and craziness.

We put an economic spin on our story, asking shoppers and buyers whether or not they think the economic recession is over, why they thought people were coming to the garage sales this year, and if there were more or less people attending than in years prior. As it turns out, there were mixed opinions on whether or not the recession was ending, but some did think there were more at the sales than usual since the cheaper, the better!

It wound up being a quick, easy story to turn, which allowed for a lot of girly bonding back at the station between all the reporters and made the day really enjoyable!

School Budgets: A Rising Trend

It's happening all over the country, all over the state, and definitely throughout Central New York. Schools are making enormous budget cuts, eliminating teachers, and extra-curricular activities because they simply don't have the money, nor do they know how much the state will be giving them.

This was the issue at hand at last night's school budget meeting in Hannibal, a small, rural town about 45 minutes outside Syracuse. Last night, the board unanimously passed the budget at $25,462,989 with a 2.99% tax levy. Because the town has yet to learn how much money it will be receiving from the state, these numbers are still up in the air, and the tax rate (which is comprised of a formula determined by the tax levy and number of assessed homes) is unknown as well.

Kat and I interviewed parents, students, the superintendent, and president of the board, who explained by proposing this budget, the district is asking for enough to get by but not so much that the state wouldn't pass it...he hopes.

But students and parents are hoping for more. So much has been cut from the district in the past few years (marching band, foreign languages, music and English teachers), they said they really can't afford to lose any more. These students are dependent upon their education and extra-curriculars in order to move forward with higher education.

Kat went live with the story at 11pm, and we left the school to return to the station by midnight. It was a late night, but another interesting school budget story that brought gloom to parents and high hopes for an improved economy in the near future.

Last night was an intense night for Hannibal, but it's not unlike anything we've seen in Syracuse City School District, Liverpool, and other districts in the area. A public hearing will take place May 11th, with a final vote on May 18th.

Fulton, NY: Losing Chocolate, Factories, and Jobs

In a journal entry dated 4-16-10:

I could tell immediately today was going to be an odd day at YNN. Everyone was pretty quiet at the morning news meeting, there weren't a whole lot of fresh ideas brought to the table, and Joleene didn't show her normal chipper attitude.

It had been announced yesterday that New York Chocolate & Confection in Fulton had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company had taken over the former Nestle plant in 2003, but because of embezzlement and financial issues, the work never really got underway.

Joleene and I researched the issue as much as possible and headed to Fulton in Oswego County to figure out how we could turn a package on it. We also got some insight from Andy, one of the Oswego County reporters who just so happened to be covering for someone in Syracuse that day. He knew a bit about the situation and was able to inform us of some of the details.

We interviewed a woman at the BOCES in Fulton to see if there had been an increase in people looking to train for future employment, but she didn't really speak to the Chocolate Factory issue, so our interview didn't amount to much. It was also an awkward interview since the PR and higher-ranked people at BOCES were in the room, observing our interview, making sure the woman didn't leak any information she shouldn't have.

Eventually we left, but with no word back from the Fulton mayor, we didn't have enough for a whole story, and we went back to the station. (Though not before making three pitstops on a search for chocolate covered pretzels before finally settling for Reese's Peanut Butter Cups!)

I spent the rest of the day writing a VOSOT for air about the National Grid President who spoke at the New York Energy Symposium.

It was disappointing that we weren't able to make the story happen, but it has been updated on the YNN web site since. Here's the link.

Noted

"We've reached the point where the entertainment divisions are doing the news and the news divisions are doing the entertainment." -ABC News correspondent, Robert Krulwich

When Stories Are In Sync With My Life...

In a journal entry dated 4-14-10:

I was hoping that today, as a Wednesday, would not be one of my typical Wednesdays interning at YNN. This is because usually Wednesdays tend to be filled with problems, failures in finding a successful story, and coverage mishaps. Luckily for Kat and I, today was different...in a good way!

Kat and I went to Le Moyne College to do a story on graduating seniors looking for jobs in the current economy. It was a pretty light, basic story to cover on a slower news day, and the package came out looking pretty good. For the first Wednesday ever, I was able to complete my entire package, but that probably had to do with the fact that we had already shot everything and returned to the station by 6:00ish.

That being said, we spoke to someone from their Career Service department and variety of Le Moyne seniors. What we learned is that the job market is still down 15% from where it was two years ago. But considering how bad it was for graduates last year, it has actually improved 5% from last year.

Students do seem worried about finding jobs in their field, and are therefore keeping their options as open as possible. Both the students and career counselor told us the best thing one can do is make their resumes stand out, either by completing as many internships as possible or being involved on-campus.

As someone graduating from school in May, this story was completely relevant for me and piqued my interest. Luckily, I was also hired Monday as a VJ (Video Journalist) at YNN in the bureau in Corning, NY. My job search has officially ended :)

A Day Cut Short

In a journal entry dated 4-9-10:

Today was a pretty rough day for me. I sat in our daily morning meeting at YNN (formerly News 10 Now), where we discussed story ideas for the day. Joleene and I would be checking on one thing quickly and then covering another, FUN story.

First we drove to the SUNY-ESF campus and shot some video of construction workers moving one of their Abraham Lincoln statues to another part of a campus for a short VO story. Then we got ready to go to a parade in Clinton Square for Vera House's White Ribbon Campaign to spread awareness of abuse. In this parade, men walk a mile in women's shoes to metaphorically understand their daily pain and struggle.

Unfortunately, I was not feeling well at all. Instead I was interviewed by the station's general manager and news director, Ron, for the VJ (video journalist) position I applied for. Then I went home. Too bad I didn't get to do the story with Joleene because it would have been fun, but it just wasn't an option for me.

Live from Auburn...it's Wednesday night!

Meetings are something I've noticed as a sort of trend for nightside reporters to cover, and tonight was no different. Kat and I went to Auburn with Ben and the live truck to cover a story about developer Pioneer Industries trying to build a Hilton Garden Inn on a piece of land in Auburn currently owned by three different people/families.

Eminent domain is on the table right now, as the owners of a vacant lot, a Chinese restaurant, and a dog grooming business are trying to keep their land as developers try to take control of it with the help of the Auburn Industrial Development Authority (AIDA).

Last night, Pioneers' President David Murphy announced he started to make deals with both the Wards, who own the dog grooming business, and the Jangs who own the Chinese restaurant (and their own apartment above it). At this point, the general deal would allow the dog grooming business to stay, but would force the Jangs to relocate their home and restaurant to another part of the city.

Right now, parties are still trying to work out specifics and details of the agreement, so nothing is set in stone yet. Last night, they AIDA board said eminent domain wasn't off the table yet, but they're holding off voting until next month.

It was a pretty crazy meeting, which forced the AIDA board to go into Executive Session in the middle. It was a perfect time for us to get interviews with Doug Ward, the dog grooming business owner, and the Jangs' attorney. After the meeting ended, we also spoke with David Murphy, Pioneer president.

Then it was time to go live, shoot our stand-ups in front of Auburn City Hall, edit in the live truck, and do another live hit at around 9:45. It was a really long night, and maybe unnecessarily so since we had time to drive back to Syracuse. Overall, it was a complicated but interesting story to cover, and definitely not something that's going away anytime soon.

One of the Best I've Ever Had

Let me start by saying yesterday was AWESOME. Now I will continue by saying that yesterday was one of those days during which I thought to myself, "This is why I'm in this business. This is why I love my job." Or future job I should say.

I got to the station, and it was a pretty slow news day because of Good Friday. Not much was going on except Easter preparation...until Joleene noticed "Greek Peak Skiing" written on our idea board. What is that about? Well we went there and found out!

Joleene and I, who were both coincidentally wearing skirts yesterday, headed to Greek Peak Ski Resort in Cortland to do a feature story on spring skiing. Now, on an 80 degree day, we didn't expect to see many skiers, and there weren't but there were enough to find out all about it. Here are some things we learned:

• Spring skiing is more popular than you would think.
• It generally lasts until mid-April in the CNY area.
• The snow is leftover natural and man-made snow from the season. There's less of it, and it's less compact, but it's still skiable.
• Only the season pass ticket holders and die-hard skiers ski regularly in the spring.

In order to get some good shots, Joleene and I went up in the ski lift...and needed to get ski socks and rent skis to do it. However, I've never actually been skiing before, so for me, this was amazing. Unfortunately, for insurance reasons, we couldn't ride the lift back down the mountain again, so some of the Greek Peak patrolmen drove snowmobiles to the top and drove us back down when we got there.

Amazingly, I didn't fall when I got off the lift! Though wrapping my legs around a patrolman driving me on a snowmobile -- in a skirt -- was a bit interesting.

We finally got back to the station by 2:00, at which point I had a job interview with my boss. I was still able to turn my SOT-based package by 5, and it was a GREAT day.

Here's Joleene's version of the story. PS: I shot her stand-up on the lift!

Saying Bye to Syracuse's Gem

I arrived at YNN (formerly News 10 Now) last night hoping for a good story to cover. I attended the monthly meeting with the entire staff, chatted with Joleene Des Rosiers for a bit since we hadn't seen each other in a few weeks. For the next couple of hours, I read up on the meeting we would be attending at 7pm.

In the Town of Dewitt, a law went into effect in January that prohibits people from parking large RVs or boats in their front lawns or driveways in a residential area. However, residents can petition to have their area exempt from the law as long as they have 50 signatures. We were to attend a meeting, detailing the process the zoning of these two potentially exempt areas in Dewitt.

Initially, we hadn't realized that people had already begun the petition process. When we learned the story was different than originally anticipated, we decided to just VOSOT and not package it.

We got shots of people with boats and RVs in their driveways, a few interviews with people from the Town Planning Board and Dewitt residents, shots of the meeting and headed back to the station. We had about an hour there before we left to go to Doc's Little Gem Diner, which Kat and I had previously covered.

A staple in Syracuse, Doc's Little Gem has been on the market for a few weeks but no one has made a formal offer to purchase the restaurant. Francis "Doc" Good told us if he had been able to get loans to expand the space, it would have remained open but he just didn't have the money.

"Doc" announced earlier yesterday that he would be closing the restaurant at 10pm. We went live outside the restaurant at 10pm, where Kat interviewed one of the last customers to eat at the restaurant. "Doc" had to keep the place open later because of all the people who came out last night to support him and say goodbye.

We stayed til 11pm to see if it would still be open, which it was. But the waitress had closed out the last check, and asked "Can we smoke now?"

"Light up!" Doc said, and he closed his gem forever.