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Village of Lansing Mayor Donald Hartill reported Monday that unsigned easements for a new sewer extension are holding up construction.  The project would bring sewer along Cayuga Heights Road in the Village, and also make Sewer District #1 possible in the Town of Lansing.

"The thing that is still a challenge is getting the necessary easements," Hartill said. "We have six that have not been signed yet, of the 14 for the sewer extension, uh, along 34 and Cayuga Heights Road. We have to have those easements almost all in hand before we can bid the project, which means we're really pushing the envelope on the construction season for that kind of project."

The town portion of the project is only about a tenth of a mile.  A gravity system is planned along East Shore Drive from the location of the proposed English Village project to the intersection at Cayuga Heights Road.  Sewer District #1 was officially created by unanimous Town Board vote in July 18th, 2018. 

At the intersection a pump station will push waste material to a forced main system in the Village, along the east side of Cayuga Heights Road. A gravity system, which will share the ditch with the forced main along Cayuga Heights Road, will flow northward to that same pump station. An area from Oakcrest Road to a sharp bend on Cayuga Heights Road may also be sewered by a smaller gravity main to a pump station very near the sharp bend.  Construction has not begun on either of the two major developments -- Robert Weinstein's Cayuga Orchards (102 unit rental town homes between Michaleen's and Asbury Road) and Jack Young's English Village (59 town homes and 58 single family homes).

Only property-owners - those two developments, the Community Recreation Center, and one other property that are included in the new Town sewer district will pay for its installation.  Once constructed it will be dedicated to the Town, which will charge fees for service and maintenance.  Lansing Town Supervisor Ed LaVigne says that town taxpayers will not pay anything for the new district, and that monies spent while exploring the feasibility of the project will be reimbursed to the Town by landowners within the district.

The Village sewer is configured differently -- instead of sewer districts such as the Town has (the new District #1 plus the Warren Road and Cherry Road sewer districts), the Village itself is effectively one big sewer district.  But Village taxpayers will have some relief in this project, because Young and Weinstein have agreed to contribute to the cost of building the Village portion, which is needed in order to route waste through the Village of Lansing to the treatment plant in Cayuga Heights.  While construction is being done on the sewer Hartill also hopes to square off the intersection where Cayuga heights Road meets East Shore Drive (NY 34), transforming it from a Y intersection to a safer T-intersection.

Hartill said that part of the problem the Village is experiencing in trying to get easements is that out of town landowners only have a PO Box listed as an address to send property tax bills to, so contacting them to obtain easements is difficult, especially if they don't choose to reply.  Village Attorney William Troy said that the Village could exercise Eminent Domain in order to be able to lay the new sewer pip on properties for which the owners have not granted easements.  Hartill said it is expensive and time consuming, but Troy advised him that it could be done quickly, citing a case in Dryden as an example.  He said there were no complications in that case.

"Nobody seems to be holding a long term grudge because all they're doing is just putting a pipe in at the end of the day," Troy said.

But Hartill said he prefers to not exercise that option.  He noted that the Village also had a problem obtaining easements for the Triphammer Road reconstruction project some years ago.

"I avoided eminent domain on Triphammer Road, though I was very tempted. It's a last resort from my point of view," Hartill said.

Much of this year's construction season has passed, and if easements cannot be obtained soon it will likely push the new sewer project back until next spring.

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