Russell Cusano displays one of two Kwanzan cherry trees he recently planted at the CRHS Performing Arts Center entrance as part of his Eagle Scout Service Project. (Submitted Photo)
Cumberland Regional High School senior Russell Cusano has enhanced the landscaping at CRHS as a way to improve the community on his way to the esteemed rank of Eagle Scout.

Cusano, of Upper Deerfield Township, recently completed a project at the CRHS Performing Arts Center entrance that transformed the grounds with sod, trees, and shrubs. He worked with school district officials and area farmers to coordinate plan design, donations, and execution of the service project after advancing through the Scouts program since kindergarten.

“It’s always been a big part of my life,” Cusano said. “I’ve learned a lot with the Scouts, especially when it comes to things like life skills, morals, and values.”

When considering ideas for his Eagle Scout Service Project, an opportunity for a Boy Scout to demonstrate leadership while making a positive impact on his community in order to achieve Eagle Scout rank, Cusano noticed that the landscaping at the entrance of the Performing Arts Center (PAC) could use improvement.

“I asked around for feedback and realized that since this is one of the main areas that everyone sees at the school, it really should look nice,” said Cusano.

Ackley’s Deerview Nursery stepped up to donate boxwood shrubs to delineate the entryway, and Johnson Farms generously donated a Kwanzan cherry tree for each side of the PAC entrance, as well as lush sod to carpet the area. Cusano made sure to coordinate an irrigation system with the district to ensure maintenance of the grassy grounds.

“Anything that’s worth doing, you want to last,” he noted.

Cusano emphasized his gratitude to all those who helped him complete the project and work toward the honor of becoming an Eagle Scout, including Ackley’s Deerview Nursery and Johnson Farms, the Cumberland Regional School District maintenance crew, Boy Scout Troop #98 in Bridgeton, Mr. Bostwick and Mr. Sayre at CRHS, district administration, and his parents, Ronald and Darlene Cusano.

Cusano will appear before the Eagle Scout Board of Review on Nov. 13.

Contact the South Jersey Times at 856-935-1500 or 856-451-1000 and news@southjerseymedia.com

Seattle is widely considered an inventive city. We rank 13th in the world when it comes to “patent intensity,” the ratio of patent applications compared to the city’s population. And, the University of Washington recently reported it now ranks among the top five American educational institutions that incubate new businesses by parlaying research into commercial applications. That’s a jump from 15th two years ago, which puts UW right up there with MIT and UCLA. We’re a creative city, too — the arts are widely touted and embraced — but creativity, broadly speaking, seeps into all sectors, from computer gaming to biotech.

The landscape of business invention, or more broadly, innovation, changes with time. From the ’50s through the ’80s, many major businesses that relied on “knowledge workers,” from Boeing engineers to software coders, moved to the suburbs to create park-like campuses that were thought to stimulate creative juices and big ideas. Employees commuted to places with low-slung buildings and manicured landscaping, tucked away from the rough and tumble of the city and the sprawl outside company walls. Some of these complexes — Microsoft’s main campus in Redmond, for example — took on the feel of college campuses, places where young, brainy workers could focus without distraction. 

The trend has shifted in recent years, exemplified by Amazon’s expansion in downtown Seattle, where the company is building high-rises. Amazon’s new headquarters will offer employees respite, but instead of a park, it’s building bio-domes. Other tech companies are opting for urban neighborhoods, including Fremont (Adobe), Pioneer Square (game companies), South Lake Union (biotech), Kirkland (Google), and downtown Bellevue (Microsoft). Density is the new incubator.

The shift is highlighted by a ’60s-era creative space that was recently put on the state’s “most endangered” heritage list: the Talaris Conference Center in Laurelhurst. Built for the think tank Battelle Memorial Institute, the center was where brainiacs used to tackle energy and defense work for the government. Their big thoughts were nurtured by the design of legendary landscape architect Richard Haag, who also designed Gas Works Park. The old campus is about to be converted into a housing development. The Washington Trust for Historic Preservation and neighbors are lobbying to protect it, but the repurposing of the property is emblematic: The pastoral is passé.

The physical and mental landscape of our region’s inventiveness is part of the focus of a new permanent exhibit at the Museum of History Industry called the Bezos Center for Innovation, which opened on Oct. 12. The center, funded with a $10 million gift from Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos, attempts to survey the history of innovation and offer wisdom shared by locals ranging from Amazon’s Bezos and Starbucks’ Howard Schultz to biologist Leroy Hood and glass artist Dale Chihuly. 

Innovation is tied to place, but how? Architect Alan Maskin, principal of the firm Olson Kundig, which designed the new center, says that today’s innovation story isn’t fully told by the solo genius having a “eureka” moment, but is the result of a web of interactions. Innovation has a collaborative dimension, from task-oriented teams to crowd-sourcing to the idea of people sharing working spaces. “Seattle is a place where researchers run into musicians on the trails or at the local farmers’ market and those elements of a place factor into innovation,” Maskin says.

Cross-pollination is the key. The new exhibit will have interactive elements asking young people to share their ideas for solving specific problems, helping them tap their inner innovator and provide brain fodder for other young problem-solvers.

It used to be thought that Seattle’s geographic isolation was a virtue — we were forced to be more self-reliant in manufacturing, we had abundant resources, we developed “the Seattle Spirit,” which meant that innovation came from yanking hard on our own bootstraps. In the global era, we’ve shifted to a new model, where our more diverse urban culture, access to capital and global connectedness are seen as competitive advantages. Seattle is being reconceived as a citywide think tank in a setting that can’t be matched by any mere campus.

This story originally appeared in the November issue of Seattle Magazine.

LINCOLN — A special legislative committee charged with crafting a fairer tax system for Nebraskans finally has a proposal on the table.

But it was far from certain whether the up to $100 million plan discussed Tuesday would be advanced by the group.

The revenue-neutral proposal would deliver only $30 million in property tax relief — about a 1percent cut — and only for one year.

It also would impose $60 million to $70 million in new sales taxes on currently exempt consumer services and limit the income tax deductions allowed for the wealthiest Nebraskans, among other changes.

A vote on the proposal was put off until the committee’s Dec. 3 meeting. The Tax Modernization Committee is scheduled to issue its recommendations by Dec. 15, less than a month before the Legislature convenes.

After the panel discussed various tax overhaul options for nearly four hours, State Sen. Kathy Campbell of Lincoln laid out ideas that were based mostly on suggestions made earlier by Sen. Galen Hadley of Kearney.

Hadley is chairman of the Legislature’s Revenue Committee, which oversees tax policy.

“I just wanted something out on the table so we could get some idea what that looks like as a package,” Campbell said.

She said elements of the plan may not make the final cut, and it’s pretty clear that whatever the committee advances would be a first step toward bigger tax changes.

It will take more time, Campbell said, for the Legislature to decide on more complicated changes, such as taking away sales tax exemptions — an idea advanced by Gov. Dave Heineman earlier this year — or substantially increasing state aid to schools and local governments.

The committee also decided to study an idea suggested by Sen. Tom Hansen of North Platte: Plow an additional $145 million into state aid to schools to reduce local property taxes.

Hansen said most of the money would come from the $115 million now devoted to the property tax credit. But several committee members said that change would not provide tax relief.

Several lawmakers expressed doubts about the Campbell-Hadley plan and how, exactly, it would be funded.

Sen. John Harms of Scottsbluff said $30 million in property tax relief didn’t seem like enough, given all the complaints from taxpayers about high property taxes.

Tax changes under consideration by the Tax Modernization Committee

Return an additional $30 million to taxpayers through an existing property tax credit program. On a home valued at $100,000 for tax purposes, it would add $15 to $20 to the $66 credit that a homeowner will get this year. Lawmakers said that it would be only a one-year tax savings and that the entire property tax credit program should be reviewed.

Impose $60 million to $70 million in new sales taxes on previously tax-exempt services. Exactly which services would be taxed wasn’t spelled out, but the committee has talked about taxing contractors and auto repair labor, landscaping services, haircuts and funeral services.

Provide a sales tax exemption on repair parts for farm machinery, a $9.7million tax savings that has long been sought by implement dealers and farm groups.

Index income tax brackets for inflation, a mostly revenue-neutral move to ensure that lower- and middle-income taxpayers don’t end up subject to higher tax rates because their incomes rise. The state’s highest income tax rate, 6.84 percent, kicks in at $54,000 of income for a married couple filing jointly, and that has been criticized as too low of a threshold.

Raise the income threshold at which Nebraskans must pay taxes on Social Security income, providing about $8 million in tax savings for retirees. Right now, the first $25,000 of income for an individual, and $32,000 for a couple, is exempt. But several states totally exempt such income, which leads to low ratings for Nebraska on tax friendliness for retirees.

Provide a refundable energy tax credit for low-income Nebraskans, supplying about $4.5 million in tax savings to about 50,000 households.

Adjust corporate income tax brackets so that the highest rate doesn’t kick in until after $250,000 in annual income. That would provide about $5 million in tax savings for smaller businesses.

Provide about $6 million in one-time aid to counties to offset the higher costs of the state’s new juvenile justice program, which shifted significant costs from the state to counties.

Cap itemized income tax deductions at $25,000 for Nebraskans with adjusted gross incomes of $400,000 or more, which would raise about $9 million in new tax revenue. The proposal would affect about one-half of 1 percent of the state’s taxpayers, said Sen. Heath Mello of Omaha. The idea, he said, was prompted by the federal government’s tax increase on the wealthiest Americans and to offset the cost of granting tax breaks to retirees. Mello said later that he didn’t think the idea would be adopted.