This article features Marion Balyszak, interim director of the Finger Lakes Institute at Hobart and William Smith Colleges.
Organization aims to become hub of Finger Lakes information.
By Matthew Daneman
Staff Writer
(July 18, 2004) - GENEVA - The blank walls of the empty rooms in the Finger Lakes Institute still smell faintly of paint, while the new carpet hasn't seen enough feet yet to show wear. Yards away from the refurbished house, Seneca Lake is showing signs of strain.
Small amounts of atrazine, a common herbicide, have been found there. And the lake has been a home to zebra mussels, an invasive Eastern European species of mollusk, for at least a dozen years.
It has been nearly two years since the creation of the institute, based at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. The intent is to have a hub of research and data about the Finger Lakes as well as a coordinator of various efforts to balance economic growth around the lakes with environmental protection.
The institute's modest work so far is expected to accelerate over the summer and this fall.
"I anticipate it being a lot louder around here," interim director Marion Balyszak said with a small laugh. "Busy."
In recent months, the institute has hired Balyszak and renovated a South Main Street building to serve as its offices.
It will have furniture by fall, as well as a dozen Hobart and William Smith student interns doing everything from answering the phone to lake-oriented special projects.
The institute has purchased a pontoon boat and is getting it outfitted with a variety of water testing and sampling equipment, Balyszak said. Hobart and William Smith already has extensive data on Seneca's water quality issues; with the pontoon boat, researchers will begin heading to other lakes and testing water quality there.
The goal is to compile a database of test results from the 11 lakes and their tributaries, either with the institute itself doing frequent testing or by using the data and results of testing being done by others, Balyszak said.
The institute also plans to build a library of all the research ever done on the lakes, said Eric Primrose, the institute's educational outreach coordinator.
"We hope if someone thinks of the Finger Lakes, they'll go to the Finger Lakes Institute," he said.
Added Balyszak, "There's a tremendous amount of resources out there; it's just a matter of trying to centralize it all."
A teaching laboratory will be built in the institute's basement next year. Also on the want list is to hire a technician to coordinate lake research projects and do some of the monitoring.
The institute also wants to hire a geographic information systems expert, who would use mapping software and data to track growth around the lakes, and an economic development analyst.
"Over the next five years, we'll still be building, building, building," Balyszak said.
One thing the institute needs to build is a financial base through an endowment, she said. It is supposed to be financially self-sufficient, although the colleges own the building at 601 S. Main St. and provide some services.
The institute as an idea has been around for five years. It became something concrete in fall 2002 with the help of a $1 million state grant announced by state Sen. Michael Nozzolio, R-Fayette, Seneca County.
"The region would benefit greatly from an academic focus on key issues," Nozzolio said. "That's why I worked so hard to get the initial funding."