Archive: News

11 million COVID-19 diagnostic tests have been conducted in New York State as of Saturday. Governor Andrew Cuomo also announced another record high number of tests—134,267—were reported to New York State yesterday. In the top 20 ZIP codes in areas that have seen recent outbreaks - Brooklyn, Queens, and Rockland and Orange Counties - 8,676 tests were conducted, yielding 450 positives or a 5.2 percent positivity rate. In the remainder of the state, 125,591 tests were conducted yielding 1,281 positives or a 1.01 percent positivity rate.

"This pandemic is not over. We continue to closely monitor the data throughout the state, push our testing capacity to new highs and keep an especially close eye on the ZIP codes in hot spot areas, which represented 26 percent of yesterday's cases despite being home to 6.7 of the population," Cuomo said. "We know that washing hands, socially distancing and wearing masks makes all the difference in our ability to tame this beast. So my message to New Yorkers is please stay vigilant and my message to local governments is do the enforcement. We can beat this thing if we work together and stay New York Tough."

The Lansing Town Board unanimously approved two resolutions in a special meeting Wednesday that authorize Town Supervisor Ed LaVigne to send letters of support for two major solar proposals that could amount to a total of 2,700 acres of solar panels in Lansing and Groton.  The letters will be sent to the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) in support of sPower (Cayuga Solar) and CS Energy's (Yellow Barn Solar) Renewable Energy Standard (RES) solicitation applications.  If both projects are approved they could potentially generate up to 360 megawatts of electricity.

Both projects seek to take advantage of existing high power lines that connected the now-closed Cayuga Power Plant to NYSEG's electric grid, providing electricity for the state's wholesale electricity market.

Over the past few weeks there has been an increase in COVID-19 cases in the Southern Tier region. Nearby counties to Tompkins County are seeing a dramatic rise in positive cases, with some locations breaking records since the start of the pandemic. The Tompkins County Health Department is reminding the community to stay vigilant and providing guidance critical to stopping the spread. The Southern Tier region includes Broome, Chenango, Chemung, Delaware, Schuyler, Steuben, Tioga, and Tompkins Counties.

In his media briefing on Monday, October 5, Governor Andrew Cuomo identified 20 hotspots around the State, each with a positivity rate of about 5.5%. Tompkins County is not included in the list of hotspots. The hotspots include zip codes in Broome, Tioga, and Chemung counties as well as areas downstate. The Governor compared the hotspot areas to the statewide positivity rate of about 1%, and urged vigilance, mask wearing, and testing. The Governor provided warnings about common locations of transmission: schools, religious gatherings, public spaces, and businesses. He reiterated the need for enforcement and acknowledged that monitoring zip codes is not an ideal measure because they are arbitrary lines that the virus can easily spread across. The Governor announced a new "Cluster Action Initiative" designed to map and address hotspots, including the one identified in Broome County.

The Lansing Planning Board considered a site plan for a 9,100 square foot retail building across Auburn Road from the property immediately north of the Lansing Fire Station Monday, to be used to house Lansing's second Dollar General store, if approved.  Bohler Engineering Assistant Project Manager Steve Vukas presented the project in behalf of Franklin Land Associates, LLC, which will lease the store to Dollar General for a 15 year term.

"I like to think of them as kind of a modern day general store. Some have been confused thinking that it's a dollar store since it has dollar in the title of the store, but that isn't really the case. The one thing I'd say they have in common is they try to keep their prices affordable and some of the types of items that you can expect to purchase there are name, brand products that are frequently used and replenish such as food, snacks, health, and beauty aids, as well as cleaning supplies, family, apparel, housewares, and seasonal items," Vukas said.

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today appointed the members of the state's independent Clinical Advisory Task Force that will review every COVID-19 vaccine authorized by the federal government, and will advise New York State on the vaccines' safety and effectiveness in fighting the virus.

"We want to make sure we can tell New Yorkers the vaccine is safe and then we want to have a distribution plan, and we're putting together our own group to determine that," Cuomo said. "Once the FDA says it's safe, we'll have a New York group of doctors and some of the best doctors around the world review what FDA did so I'll be able to say to New Yorkers it is safe. There are polls that say half the American people wouldn't take the vaccine right now because they don't believe it's safe. I want to be able to say to New Yorkers it is safe, take it, and I want to have the best distribution because ideally we want to be the first COVID-safe state in the nation."

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo signed an executive order Monday reminding international travelers entering New York from Level 2 and 3 countries to quarantine and fill out the NYS Department of Health traveler health form to further prevent the spread of COVID-19 as countries across the globe experience alarming second waves of the virus. New York State has since March 2020, required a mandatory quarantine for any traveler entering New York from a Level 2 or Level 3 country - that's all but 31 countries on the globe.

Since the CDC has continued to roll back their screening measures at airports accepting international flights, this measure is necessary to link travelers to the appropriate local Department of Health for contact tracing purposes. The Commissioner of Health will expand his Emergency Health Order which authorizes the imposition of civil penalties if individuals refuse to fill out the required form. To complete the Department of Health Traveler Health form online, travelers should visit here.

Lansing passed  a Solar and Wind Energy Law last July that set rules for constructing small to moderate sized solar farms, while also meeting the Town's comprehensive plan goal of protecting farmland, especially in the north of the Town.  Around that time Governor Cuomo took a virtually unprecedented step to supersede local laws where large solar installations are concerned.  Essentially if you want to build a very large solar installation the State determines where to put it, whether a municipality wants it there or not.  Tompkins County Legislator (Lansing) Mike Sigler told the Town Planning Board Monday that towns will have some input into the process after all, and asked them to amend the current law or recommend a new law for the Town Board to pass that will better protect local residents who live adjacent to a potential large solar installation.

"Even the farm Bureau says these aren't solar farms. This is a solar city that we're building in the town," Sigler said. "And it's not going to be just one. It's not going to just be a thousand acres. You can put 400 megawatts on that (existing) power line. Well that's four 2000 acre parcels that could be built in the Town of Lansing that would send power out. And we would see really, we would see a tax benefit, obviously, but we wouldn't see lower power prices. We wouldn't see any of those things."

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced the State's Tenant Safe Harbor Act will be expanded until January 1, 2021 to protect additional residential tenants from eviction if they are suffering financial hardship during the COVID-19 public health emergency. The Executive Order extends the protections of the Tenant Safe Harbor Act to eviction warrants that existed prior to the start of the pandemic.

"As New York continues to fight the pandemic, we want to make sure New Yorkers who are still struggling financially will not be forced from their homes as a result of COVID," Cuomo said. "We are extending the protections of the Safe Harbor Act through January 1 because we want tenants to have fundamental stability in their lives as we recover from this crisis."

After calling on the state to expand access to free COVID-19 testing in the Finger Lakes region, Senator Helming is now offering the state another solution to the problems created by its new testing mandate for nursing home visitors.  Helming is asking the New York State Department of Health to supply nursing homes with rapid tests that provide a COVID-19 test result within minutes. Scheduled visitors can then be tested on the same day of arrival.

"If the state is going to mandate testing, then it must ensure that the necessary resources are in place for people to get tested," said Senator Helming. "This rapid test would protect our nursing home residents and allow family members to safely visit their loved ones in accordance with state guidelines."

An application for Lansing's second Dollar General store on a 5.73 acre North Lansing lot will be considered at next Monday's Lansing Planning Board meeting.  The proposed site is on the west side of Auburn Road, between Decamp and Sharpsteen Roads, across the street from the North Lansing Fire Station.  While the Planning Board will begin considering the project next Monday, local residents and business owners are already protesting the store location.

"We bought in North Lansing because it's this rural agricultural area without a lot of development and we thought it would be safe from further development like that," says Sharpsteen Road resident Benjamin Finio. So we were caught off guard when we saw they were going to build another dollar general on that corner.  Why would they put another Dollar General there there's one only five miles away?"

The expanded Budget, Capital, and Personnel Committee of the Tompkins County Legislature met to review the proposed 2021 departmental budgets from Assessment, the County Clerk’s Office and Department of Motor Vehicles, Information and Technology Services, County Attorney’s Office, Board of Elections, the Clerk of the Legislature, and the County’s recommended capital plan. The Tompkins County Public Library and rural library services also presented proposed supporting agency budgets. Due to financial impacts from COVID-19, County departments were required to submit budgets that reflect a 12% reduction.

2021 Recommended Capital Plan
County Administrator Jason Molino presented the 2021 recommended capital plan. The proposed capital projects include green facilities and vehicle fleet investments, a downtown government campus, public safety building improvements, an emergency response backup dispatch center, ITS infrastructure, facility restoration, and an airport terminal expansion. The capital plan is an ongoing program to sustain and improve county facilities and infrastructure. The recommended plan reflects a $20 million decrease in the total capital reinvestment, and an ongoing financial strategy to achieve net-zero emissions by 2040.

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, as a result of the prolonged period of hot and dry weather, Tompkins County and much of the Finger Lakes are experiencing moderate drought conditions..

"The Health Department is working closely with our public water supplies to monitor the situation. We will continue to update the public if additional conservation methods are needed. With little precipitation in the forecast, we encourage all residents to take measures to conserve water," stated Frank Kruppa, Public Health Director.  "Health and safety are a priority during the drought, and as the COVID-19 pandemic, continues please wash your hands with soap and water for 20 seconds and maintain cleaning protocols."