Archive: Around Town

With excitement building about a Lansing Town Center, people are thinking about what could be at the current town square location, what might be built on town land north of the Town Hall, and ways to physically make the town a cohesive community.  Doing that will involve finding ways to include neighborhoods and important pieces of the town including the school campus and the RINK.  That's where the Lansing Recreational Pathways committee comes in, and they were at the Lansing Farmers Market Saturday to get input from residents.

"We're taking the opportunity to participate in National Trails Day to advertise our local group, Lansing Recreational Pathways," says committee chair Maureen Cowan.  "We're hoping to establish non-motorized trails and paths in the Town of Lansing for recreational use.  It could include sidewalks, perhaps paved trails, walking paths that are meant just for hiking and walking."


The committee had a tent at opening day of the Lansing Farmer's Market was also happened to be 'National Trails Day'.  The American hiking Society celebrates the day annually to inspire and celebrate hiking trails, and to provide exhibits and demonstrations to encourage hiking.  That perfectly dovetailed with the Lansing Recreational Pathways tent, where visitors were encouraged to write down their suggestions for pathway locations for a chance to win a T-shirt.  They also set up a display in the Lansing Community Library outlining transportation history of the area and information about trails in Tompkins County. 

The Lansing Recreational Pathways committee was formed over 18 months ago to brainstorm on where safe walking paths should be.  With its rural roots, Lansing is joined by roads but there are few walking paths and no sidewalks, making it dangerous for people on foot.

"The safety piece of it is a big part of what we're doing as well," Cowan says.  "Right now most people have to use the roadways, and many of them do not have wide enough shoulders.  It's not safe in the Town of Lansing because we're rural.  We have vehicles speeding by.  Having off-road access is really important."


In mid-April the Town Center committee showed Lansing residents how small changes like adding sidewalks to Route 34B or turning the Town hall parking lot into a town green could dramatically change the look of the center of town and begin to present a focus that will attract future developments that could include pathways and a new park.  The tentative concept for the Town Center already includes recreational space including such ideas as a town center green, a new park, and recreational trails, and safe access  to trails.  The committee also hopes to eventually provide safe access to schools through a series of sidewalks and trails.

"We're working with some of the other committees in the Town," says Pathways committee member Linda Westlake.  "The Town Center Committee has already produced maps.  They have embraced the trail concept.  We want to work with them and the community.  There has been a lot of positive feedback about trails at their meetings.  We want to build more support."

Cowan says that her committee envisions paying for walkways with federal and local grants.  She says that in-kind donations and volunteerism could help make pathways a reality, in much the same way the new playground is being built this week in Myers Park.

The committee is made up of Cowen, Bill Demo, Ruth Hopkins, Larry Cathles, Reenie Sansted, Linda Westlake, Marcia Herrick, Dale Baker, and Roger Hopkins.  Saturday's booth was the first of what they envision as many opportunities to tell the public about what they are doing and to get ideas from a wide swath of community members.


While a series of walking paths that radiate from the town center to join destinations such as the schools, Myers Park, the RINK, and other locations are the eventual plan, the committee has its eye on the short term as well.  Their first project will likely be to renovate and extend an existing trail that goes from Woodsedge Apartments to the site of the old Egan's grocery (behind Rogue's Harbor Inn). 

Cowan says that most of the trails are envisioned to be placed on public land, but she wants to encourage private landowners to extend and join the public trails with their own, giving the public permission to use them.  She says that developers will also be encouraged to include pathways in their new projects, and notes that local developer Jack Jensen is already doing that in his Farm Pond Circle project on Collins Road.

"That's what we'd really like to see," Cowan says.  "Plans like this are meant for a diverse population.  They're open to the public.  It doesn't involve paying money to use them.  It can include people who are handicapped and various forms of recreation -- walking, biking, pushing a baby stroller."

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