Archive: Around Town

The Lansing town Board considered establishing a reserve fund Wednesday that could expand the town's pathways in the future.  While there is no official town pathways committee, town officials have long been interested in creating safe walking paths that connect the Town Hall campus area with other parts of Lansing including the Village of Lansing and the Lansing School campus.

"Say we were able to piece together easements for a trail down to the schools," said Town Councilwoman Katrina Binkewicz.  "We might need matching funds, and we would have it.  It would be part of long term planning for some of the larger projects."

The Lansing Pathways Committee, a 'Friends Of'-style committee made up of volunteers, has established two major trails including Lansing Center Trail on town land across the street from the Town Hall and ball fields, and Emilie Jonas Falls Nature Trail off of East Shore Circle.  Last year they expanded the Lansing Center Trail to include Murdoch Spur, which connects the main pathway with the old Highway Department property that now houses Scoops Ice Cream.  The Village of Lansing has its own pathways system, and town and village officials have spoken of connecting the two in the future.

Town Board members began a discussion Wednesday about how funding future pathways could be structured.

"It would be a Capital Reserve Fund for Land Acquisition and Rights for Pathways and Other Public Improvements," said Town Attorney Guy Krogh.  "It would be real estate acquisition.  It could be an easement, it could be ownership.  It wouldn't necessarily have to be related only to Pathways.  Lets say land became available next to Myers Park for a reasonable amount.  That was the concept that I understood, that it would be land acquisition.  Included in that would be easements and the ability to build pathway networks, but it wouldn't be limited to just pathways."

Binkewicz has been advocating for a land acquisition reserve for several months.  She has a leadership role in the Salt Point makeover that has turned the area, owned by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) but managed by the Town of Lansing, into a beautiful town nature park.

"It's planning for the town moving into the 21st century as far as being walkable and connective," she said.

Supervisor Ed LaVigne noted that town officials always ask that pathways and park areas be included in new developments.

"When we've met with developers about new projects the discussion of pathways is always there," he said.  "We request them to put in pathways.  If there are wetlands we ask whether they will put this in as a barrier, or if you put a road in can you make it a few feet wider so we can have a bike lane and things of that nature.  Those are all options we present."

The Town Board will discuss the kinds of uses they want to put a reserve to use for, and are expected to begin the process of creating the reserve at its April meeting.  LaVigne said it could be seeded with $10,000.  Krogh explained that citizens would vote to allow the use of the money on any given project in a similar way to the school district's capital project votes.

"You can create it by resolution and put money in it," Krogh said.  "Whichever town board is then seated will have to send a notice of permissive referendum and give the public an opportunity to say we do or we don't want our money spent on that.  You just have to decide what would be the allowable uses for this type of fund."

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