Archive: News

Cargill Facility Manager Shawn Wilcznski presented a sketch plan Monday to the Town of Lansing Planning Board for a 600' z 200' salt shed structure he said will reduce the impact on the environment,including Cayuga Lake.  The proposed pre-fabricated steel frame salt shed is proposed for the existing salt storage pad closest to the lake.

"The primary reason for this is to effectively reduce our environmental impact or the potential environmental impacts associated with us handling and storing of salts at the facility. So the discharge of the salts from the conveyor belt would be encompassed within the building structures," Wilcznski said. "Very seldom do we get to a point where we actually have an opportunity to tarp and cover that salt, that's on those pads in order to reduce the amount of storm water generation that's associated with us storing salt and handling salt at that facility. So primarily the reasons would be to reduce any impacts from, from dust emissions from the discharge of the conveyor belt, and then also to reduce any stormwater brine generation associated with the storage of the salt that's on the pad."

Congressman Tom Reed’s Corning campaign office was the target of violence Tuesday night. A brick was thrown through the window leaving glass strewn throughout the office.

“This extreme behavior is unacceptable,” Reed said in reaction to the attack. “Volunteers are usually sitting right by that window. I am thankful no one was here when this happened, and no one was hurt.”

If there is one word to describe the impacts of COVID-19, it is uncertainty.  If two words, the second would have to be expensive.  That was the picture Lansing School Business Administrator Kate Heath painted Monday, when she briefed the Board of Education on the double whammy of increased expenses to the tune of more than a half million dollars in COVID-related expenses, and potentially reduced revenue that may mean more cuts than the $690,000 already made in the 2020-21 budget voters already approved.

State school-reopening mandates require more equipment and personnel expenses not budgeted for before the pandemic hit.  Heath says she has already spent $76,000 just to be able to reopen the school buildings and concurrently pay expenses for technology needed to offer online learning.

Both the Town and Village of Lansing Planning Boards are considering new laws to regulate short-term rentals.  Both boards have found that the issue is more complicated than initially thought, so the process of deciding how much regulation and how it could be enforced has been a slow one.  This week Tompkins County Tourism Director Nick Helmholdt told the Town Planning Board about a monitoring program the County hopes to implement so that the County and its municipalities have access to more detailed information about Airbnb-style rentals within their borders.

"Our primary interest is in tax compliance, but we want to make sure that the data that we procure through this is accessible and available to the towns and villages and the city of Ithaca for other uses you may see with regard to whether it's code enforcement o  other questions you have. I know the city of Ithaca is strongly interested in the questions relating to housing affordability," Helmholdt said.

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced yesterday (Thursday) that New York State's rate of positive COVID-19 tests has been less than 1 percent for 20 straight days. The governor also updated New Yorkers on the state's progress during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The number of new cases, percentage of tests that were positive and many other helpful data points are always available at forward.ny.gov.

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today issued guidance for infection rates on college campuses and mitigation actions schools must take when the infection rate rises above certain levels. The guidance comes following reports of students at large gatherings, and experiences in other states with clusters developing with return to in-person classes.

"We've seen troubling reports of students congregating on college campuses, so we are setting a threshold that says if colleges have 100 cases or if the number of cases equal 5 percent of their population or more, they must go to remote learning for two weeks, at which time we will reassess the situation," Cuomo said. "We should anticipate clusters and that's what we're seeing. Be prepared for it, get ahead of it."

The Town of Lansing Planning Board heard a presentation Monday about a potential new bank to be located at the corner of Triphammer Road and Franklyn Drive.  Local architect George Breuhaus and Delta Engineers Project Manager Christopher Maby presented a sketch plan for a potential Lansing branch of the Cayuga Lake National Bank, just south of Terpening Corners (where Crossroads Bar & Grill is located).  Breuhaus said that if the project goes forward the bank would purchase the southern portion of developer Andy Sciarabba's property, the rest of the property where Sciarabba recently completed a professional office building.

"Cayuga Lake National Bank is a small bank. Their main headquarters is in Union Springs. They currently have a branch in Aurora and this would complete the East side at the South end of Lake. The bank is proposing to build at the corner of Franklin and Triphammer, which would be the South end of Andy's site -- he'll sell that to them. Basically, there's a two story center section. It looks kind of like a lodge. It's timber frame or laminated lumber," Breuhaus explained.

Legislation introduced at the request of the State Comptroller that will help ease the financial difficulties facing local governments and school districts and give them greater fiscal flexibility amid the COVID-19 pandemic has been signed into law, New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli announced today.

"Local governments across New York are facing dire financial consequences from the coronavirus global pandemic as sales tax revenues shrink and state aid is in jeopardy," DiNapoli said. "This legislation, proposed by my office, will help ease the burdens they will face until our economy fully recovers. I thank Governor Cuomo and the Legislature for enacting this important bill quickly."

Five states—Alaska, Arizona, Delaware, Maryland and Montana—have been removed from New York State's COVID-19 travel advisory. Guam has been added. The advisory requires individuals who have traveled to New York from areas with significant community spread to quarantine for 14 days. The quarantine applies to any person arriving from an area with a positive test rate higher than 10 per 100,000 residents over a 7-day rolling average or an area with a 10 percent or higher positivity rate over a 7-day rolling average.

New York State has had a rate of positive tests below 1 percent for 18 straight days. Yesterday, 2 deaths were reported from COVID-19, matching the state's previous low. No deaths were reported in New York City. The governor also updated New Yorkers on the state's progress during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The number of new cases, percentage of tests that were positive and many other helpful data points are always available at forward.ny.gov.

Ithaca College (IC) President Shirley M. Collado announced Tuesday that the IC campus will remain closed for the fall semester.  Collado said that remote instruction will continue to be offered to IC students.  Calling the decision "agonizing" she said that the extent of changes necessary for on-campus instruction and housing would result in an experience different from what IC students expect and college officials want them to have.

"The reality of COVID-19 is deeply concerning," she said. "This pandemic has infected more than 5.4 million people in the United States and has taken the lives of more than 170,000. We have been fortunate in New York State, and specifically in the Ithaca area, to currently have a low prevalence of infections. These numbers are encouraging, but we have learned from watching other communities how delicate this equilibrium is, and how quickly it can be disrupted."

Ithaca College (IC) announced Tuesday that their campus will be almost entirely closed for in-person learning (click here for the story).  While the news was disappointing to the IC community, the college is in good company: Michigan State University also announced Tuesday that it is going fully remote for the semester, and the University of Notre Dame announced that all instruction would be online for the first two weeks of the fail semester.  But in an online 'town hall' Tuesday, Cornell University and Tompkins Cortland Community College (TC3) officials said they are going forward with reopening their campuses, and how they are going about it.  Some Cornell students have already arrived, and the bulk will begin coming back this Sunday.

Cornell Vice President for Student and Campus Life Ryan Lombardi said there are still about 5,000 students who have not cancelled their on-campus housing contract, and while the deadline hasn't passed Cornell officials are expecting between four and five thousand will opt for living on campus in the fall semester.

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo released guidance Monday allowing gyms and fitness centers to reopen. The guidance applies to fitness activities and facilities, including, but not limited to, standalone, hotel, residential, and office gyms and fitness centers, gyms and fitness centers in higher education institutions, yoga/Pilates/barre studios, boxing/kickboxing gyms, fitness boot camps, CrossFit or other plyometric box classes, and other group fitness classes. The guidance documents can be accessed at the NY Forward website under phase four industries.

"Our local gyms and fitness facilities are now part of the NYS Phase 4 reopening process and can reopen within the posted guidelines, including for indoor classes. The reopening of these spaces was delayed as COVID-19 has progressed, and we appreciate the patience and adherence to the guidance by gym operators," said Tompkins COunty Public Health Director Frank Kruppa. "Exercise is so important for everyone's health and mental well-being during this challenging time. We ask that operators and the public be patient as Environmental Health conducts required inspections and as gyms put in place the necessary precautions to limit exposure and prevent the spread of the virus."