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Tompkins County Legislator Mike Sigler told the Lansing Town Board Wednesday that Lansing homeowners who live on Cayuga Lake on East Shore Drive north of the Cornell Sailing Club and south of Esty Hill want sewer.  Sigler said the topic came up while he was going door to door for his reelection campaign.  Sigler said he would be asking the Town to pay for a study.  he said he could only circulate a petition among neighbors there to gauge interest once the study determines cost of sewer in that area.

"But it's for our town.  That's 50 houses right on the water that are all Lansing residents.  The study has to come, and then I have to collect signatures on a petition to see how much interest there is down there.  I have to come to you first before I can actually see the level of support."

Sigler noted that it should be easy to hook up sewer line in that neighborhood, because an existing sewer that goes all the way to the town line could simply be extended.

"The sewer there literally ends at the town line," he said.  "About 50 houses in Lansing are right on the water and have really small lots.  They were concerned about not having sewer, so I told them I would work on that.  The line is right there, and we already have an agreement with Cayuga Heights."

That agreement is a Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) that would allow the Town to hook up to the Village of Lansing sewer system in order to transport effluent to the Village of Cayuga Heights Sewer Treatment Plant. 

The first beneficiaries of the MOU will likely be included in a new Lansing Sewer District #1.  The proposed sewer district would install a pipe along the west side of North Triphammer Road from the Village of Lansing sewer to the 102 unit Cayuga Farms (rental town homes), 117 unit English Village 59 town homes and 58 single family homes), and the RINK. 

Sigler noted that waste treatment can be a problem in the area he visited because lots there are small for effective septic systems, and because the lots are right on the lakefront.

Supervisor Ed LaVigne asked Town Engineer David Herrick whether the property-owners within the proposed district would be required to foot the entire bill.  Herrick said that if it turns out there is an environmental threat the state moves quickly to get the Town to mitigate it with sewer. 

"If you needed environmental benefits and the State wanted it done, then it would probably pit a project in a better position of chasing assistance than otherwise," Herrick said.

LaVigne said that the Board could discuss paying for a study if a solid cost estimate can be provided with enough time before the next board meeting for board members to consider it.  He suggested that it be brought up in the Town's Water and Sewer Advisory Board. 

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