New Heights in Keeping Ithaca "Gorges"

By Kaitlyn Rich


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Lately Ithaca's gorges have not been looking so gorgeous. In particular Cascadilla Gorge has seen an accumulation of trash over the years. Many initiatives have been taken by volunteers from Cornell and the surrounding area to keep the campus pristine. But areas such as the north side of the gorge behind the Chi Phi chapter house, with its over 200 foot cliff have made cleaning "A bit out of the means of most," according to Todd Bittner Cornell Plantations Natural Areas Director.

That is why fraternity brothers from Chi Phi along with the Cornell Inter-fraternal Council, Cornell Outdoor Education and the Cornell Plantations grabbed their harnesses and repelled into the gorge next to Stewart Avenue on Saturday to clean up trash and debris.

"Well we're the ones that should be doing it. We made the mess so it's on us to do this," said Chi Phi president Micheal Brenner. The clean up happened this weekend after months of planning and pressure from the Inter-fraternal Council on the fraternity to clean up their garbage. The fraternity has made attempts in the past, and needed the assistance of professionals on Saturday for insurance purposes said Bittner.

"One time the police stopped by and stopped us from repelling down into the gorge. So yeah we're trying to help as much as we can because it's our problem, it's our mess, it's our house, and it's our responsibility to keep it clean," said Brenner.

Body found at Cornell, campus gorges -no foul play suspected

- Samantha Allen

Although little information is being released at this time, the Ithacan  reported that a body was found in the Cascadilla Gorge on Cornell campus yesterday. Today, the Cornell Daily Sun reported that the body was that of '98 alumna Jakeb J. Jenecka. He was 33 years old.

Ithaca Police Department (IPD) is still working on discerning what really happened - officials are releasing that no foul play was suspected and the Jenecka allegedly jumped head first into the gorge off of the College Avenue bridge.

Jenecka is a PA native, so it is still unclear what he was doing in Ithaca.

According to the Sun, IPD, Cornell Police, Bangs Ambulance and the Fire Department arrived at the scene around 2:15 p.m. yesterday, closing off the street for immediate access. The picture is posted above, which I found on the Sun's site.

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The situation is so sensitive that officials are urging students to attend on-campus counseling centers if they have been affected in any way by this tragedy.

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And according to my research, the last report of an alleged suicide at Cornell's gorges was Keith O'Donnell, class of '09 in 2007, who threw himself into Cascadilla Gorge.