- By Dan Veaner
- News
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Next Tuesday Village of Lansing voters will go to the polls to elect two Village Trustees. John O'Neill and Julie Baker are both running unopposed for their own seats on the Community Party ticket. O'Neill is running for his fourth term, and Baker for her second. Both say that most of what they will face in the next two years is keeping the Village on the track it has been on, providing quality services while keeping the tax rate low."It will be more of the same," Baker says. "I expect to continue to participate in the pro-active maintenance of the Village. That's the philosophy of the board. I'll try to keep things on an even keel, and try to anticipate any problems before they get out of hand. We're very fortunate to live in the community that we have."
Trustees Julie Baker (left) and John O'Neill are running
for a new term in Tuesday's election.
While Trustees paved the way for a new project at the Shops at Ithaca Mall recently, they will have their own building project to contend with this year. An old water tower that looms over the current Village Office will be taken down to make room for a new Village Office building. The new building will house the entire Village staff, while the meeting room in the existing facility will continue to be used. Baker says she will be involved in that project.
O'Neill says that while things in the Village are going well now, there is one concern on his radar. With few tools to regulate natural gas drilling, municipalities have been doing what little they can to mitigate potential damage to their communities before it becomes a reality here. While there is almost no chance that there will be actual drilling in the Village, trucks traversing Village roads is a major concern because of the cost of repairing roads that degrade more quickly because of heavy truck traffic.
"I'm really worried about this gas thing, not right here in the Village, but in the Town," he says. "It's a very big thing. We have the trucks here and it's a big mess. We have a lot to do to get ready for that. We don't know, but we'll do that. We'll see what it is."
Baker says that public participation is key to running the Village smoothly.
"I'm involved in whatever comes before the board," she says. "I don't have a particular agenda or cause. I support communication and openness. We love to have people come to the meetings and express their concerns about whatever needs to be dealt with. The deer issue is always something. We were fairly successful this year with the bow hunt. We're hoping to expand that in the future."
This year is similar to many past elections where the local village Community Party has put forth the candidates who run for and are ultimately elected to the Board of Trustees. The Community Party is comprised of people of various political persuasions, who share goals for maintaining the Village.
"As far back as I can remember I can't remember an election where there were candidates challenged," Baker says. "It speaks to the fact that people are fairly happy. We have a very reasonable tax rate if you consider all the surrounding areas we're doing pretty well. For a long time people have been happy with what the board is doing. We're very fortunate that we have these folks. People are welcome to run for Trustee. We welcome participation."
The theme for both candidates in maintenance, rather than big projects and issues.
"Right now it's very calm here," O'Neill says. "So thank goodness."
The polls will open at noon in the Village of Lansing Office next Tuesday (April 27) and close at 9pm.
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