Archive: News

Voter participation for school district budgets statewide more than tripled to 1.6 million votes cast amid the COVID-19 lockdown for the 2020-21 school budget year, after in-person voting was temporarily suspended and replaced with absentee ballots. The results were similar to 2019 when only 1.6 percent of the budgets failed to pass on the first vote, according to a report released today by State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli.

"The pandemic has upended every aspect of our lives and our schools are no exception," DiNapoli said. "Using the absentee ballot process put into place this year, voters participated in greater numbers to approve the vast majority of school district budgets. We need to embrace smart actions like this to help New Yorkers engage on issues critical in their communities."

New York State has the third lowest percentage of positive COVID-19 test results, according to a testing statistics website maintained by Johns Hopkins University & Medicine.  As of this writing (10/20) New York State was reported at 1.2% positive results, with 998 new cases -- down from the previous week.  6.2 per thousand New Yorkers were tested, up from the previous week.

The site offers several views including an overview of the states, and maps showing new confirmed cases per thousand people, percentage of positive tests, and the weekly change in testing.  It also offers charts on which states meet WHO testing guidelines, testing and deaths statistics, and trends.

The Tompkins County Health Department is alerting the public of potential COVID-19 exposures. The Health Department received notification of an individual who tested positive for COVID-19 and dined at Ithaca Ale House and Liquid State Brewing Company during their infectious period. Another individual who tested positive for COVID-19 worked multiple shifts as a cashier at the Ithaca Wegmans. Both individuals are residents of other Counties, and their respective Counties are managing contact investigations. Close contacts of the individuals will be contacted by the respective County’s Health Department.

 

Potential public exposures may have occurred at Ithaca Ale House, 111 N Aurora St., Ithaca during the following dates and times:

 

• Friday, October 9: 7:00-8:30pm
• Saturday, October 10: 2:30-4:00pm

 

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced Tuesday that Arizona and Maryland have been added to New York's COVID-19 travel advisory. No areas have been removed. 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.

Neighboring states Connecticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania now meet the criteria for the travel advisory -- however, given the interconnected nature of the region and mode of transport between us, a quarantine on these states is not practically viable. That said, New York State highly discourages, to the extent practical, non-essential travel to and from these states while they meet the travel advisory criteria.

Superintendent Chris Pettograsso told the school board at its October 13 meeting that the Lansing Central School District is in good financial shape.  But she warned that especially with the high level of uncertainty about state aid reduced because of COVID-19, that spending is an ongoing serious concern.  While the general budget is in good shape at the moment, School Business Administrator Kate Heath reported that self-sustaining programs, including the school lunch program and the childcare program are suffering losses because of the impact of the pandemic.

"We are really lucky that we have such a strong program. Our typical expenses are  payroll and benefits, the food and supplies such as utensils, napkins, office supplies, et cetera.  Our typical revenues are from sales, which could be student meals, adult meals, a la carte items, which would be for example, ice cream or some of the snacks that they have in catering. And then of course there are the federal and state reimbursements," Heath explained.

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo outlined New York State's new "micro-cluster" strategy Saturday to tackle COVID-19 hot spots that may come with the Fall and Winter weather. The micro-cluster strategy is predicated on three principles: refined detection, specific and calibrated mitigation, and focused enforcement.

Using New York State's approach to track cases by address with the help of nation-leading levels of testing, the State will identify outbreaks and implement mitigation measures tailored to the precise areas where outbreaks occur. The State will implement rules and restrictions directly targeted to areas with the highest concentration of COVID cases, known as red zones, and put in place less severe restrictions in surrounding communities, known as orange and yellow zones that serve as a buffer to ensure the virus does not spread beyond the central focus area. Enhanced focused testing and enforcement will follow.

Three things have happened over the past week and a half that could mean better high speed Internet coverage for Lansing in particular, and Tompkins County in general.  1-On October 14th it was announced that an Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) Partnerships for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization (POWER) grant had been awarded that will bring a 17-mile long fiber broadband trunk extension from Ithaca to the future location of a  data center in Lansing.   2- On Tuesday Tompkins County Legislator Anna Kelles' amendment to spend up to $95,000 for a study to identify gaps in Internet coverage was unanimously approved County's Expanded Budget Committee.  3- Lansing's Internet Committee continues to try to identify gaps in town coverage and find remedies.

Lansing Town Supervisor Ed LaVigne said Wednesday that he had spoken to Kelles earlier in the day, and hadn't realized the Town was being asked to contribute $5,000 to the County study, as it hadn't been mentioned in previous paperwork.  But the Town Board unanimously passed a lengthy resolution supporting the study, including the $5,000 contribution, resolving that "Town of Lansing’s Town Board asks the Tompkins County Legislature to support a one-time Over Target Request of not more than $80,000 for a planning study that will provide the following deliverables to help us identify a possible path forward for a county-wide build-out of both middle and last mile fiber optic cable in Tompkins County", listing the deliverables as a market assessment, design, business and operations model, operations and maintenance plan, and capital and operations costs.

The Lansing Town Board voted Wednesday to contribute $7,000 to the Community Science Institute (CSI) to support Cayuga Lake monitoring.  CSI Outreach Coordinator Nathaniel Launer said that Lansing volunteers have been monitoring water in Lansing since 2006, providing a valuable database of findings that citizens and governments can use to identify pressing issues related to water within the municipality.

The Tompkins County Health Department received notification that an individual tested positive for COVID-19 who rode on a Tompkins Consolidated Area Transportation (TCAT) bus on Thursday, October 15, 2020.

Potential exposures may have occurred on Thursday, October 15, 2020 during the following times on Routes 31 and 43:

• Route 31 inbound: 10:27am-10:58am to Seneca St.
• Route 43 outbound: 12:00pm-12:36 to Tompkins Cortland Community College (TC3)/Dryden

THIS JUST IN....

BINGHAMTON, New York — October 22, 2020 — NYSEG announced today that the company filed a proposal with the New York State Public Service Commission to implement Non-Pipe Alternative (NPA) solutions in the Town of Lansing, New York that will improve reliability of the company's natural gas system. The NPA solutions are substitutes for traditional gas capital projects, such as pipelines, that utilize alternative technologies to address natural gas system reliability needs. This petition is among one of the first of its kind in New York State to use a portfolio of innovative solutions that, when implemented together, will strengthen the reliability of service for the company's gas customers in Lansing.

"This filing demonstrates our commitment to finding innovative solutions to traditional problems," said Carl A. Taylor, President and CEO of NYSEG and RG&E. "The company worked hard to collaborate with many local stakeholders on a solution to the challenges faced and we're proud to be able to lead this effort in Tompkins County. As a result, the safety and reliability of service for thousands of customers will be strengthened for years to come."

COVID-19 rapid result testing will be made available to every county in New York State. The New York State Department of Health will deploy an initial 400,000 rapid result test kits free of charge to local health departments, hospitals, pharmacies, and other health care providers to help increase access in all corners of New York State to free COVID-19 tests that can be done within 15 minutes and without having to send a specimen to a lab. DOH will prioritize the distribution of testing kits to counties and local health care providers in areas seeing recent uptick in cases. The rapid tests can be used to control new outbreaks, conduct surveillance testing, and will also be made available on a as needed basis to help schools in 'yellow zones' test students and staff as part of new requirements to monitor COVID-19 spread as part of the Governor's Cluster Action Initiative.

"From day one, testing has been one of the most vital tools we have to accurately assess COVID-19's spread in New York. Today New York State is building on our nation-leading testing program to expand rapid testing to every corner of the state, to give health care providers and localities the tools they need offer free rapid testing to their residents and patients," Governor Andrew M. Cuomo said. "These rapid test kits will allow health care institutions throughout the state to quickly and accurately determine COVID-19's spread, control outbreaks and keep families and communities safe. Further, the state is taking precautionary steps to ensure localities are providing rapid testing for schools that are nearby communities that have seen recent upticks in cases and are offering in-person instruction. We will provide rapid test kits, as needed, free of charge to all localities to help them meet this new requirement, giving parents, teachers, and students confidence in the safety of their educational experiences."

Last week Finger Lakes Land Trust Executive Director Andrew Zepp met with the Town of Lansing Conservation Advisory Council to discuss how a proposal for a 100 to 200 megawatt solar facility would impact a possible state park on what is now the NYSEG-owned Bell Station property -- about 490 acres with the largest undeveloped shoreline on Cayuga Lake, amounting to 3,500 feet -- in the north-west of the Town.  Zepp said that if the Cayuga Solar project (with sPower developing the project) takes a couple of hundred acres of Bell Station land for a solar array, there wouldn't be enough land for a state forest -- the only way the Town could receive tax payments from New York State.  But he said he wants to explore whether the Town would still want tax payments from the State if it can negotiate a lucrative benefit package with the solar developers.

"About half of the Bell Station property is wooded, shoreline and bluff; and about half is leased corn and soybeans, maybe some hay," Zepp said. "I have had conversations with several folks in Lansing. One is what does the community feel about this? But two... typically larger solar farms have a significant host benefit compensation package. And there's a fundamental question is if the Town supported a solar farm that included the field phones, would it feel differently about the necessity of having Payment In Lieu Of Taxes (PILOT) on the shoreline, which would now be difficult if not impossible, if you don't have the couple of hundred acres that the solar folks want."