- By Dan Veaner
- News
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Two seats on the Lansing Town Board are up for election. Republican Marty Christopher and Democrat Connie Wilcox are both incumbents running for another term. They are being challenged by Hugh Bahar, running on the Independence Party ticket. The two with the most votes will fill the seats. He has lived in Lansing most of his life, currently living here with his wife Margaret. They have two grown children, both of whom attended Lansing schools, a son who lives with his wife and 16 year old son in Ithaca, and a daughter in Cincinnati. He is retired after a career in records management, first at Tompkins Trust Company, and later at NYSEG. He has also worked at a variety of jobs, including as a security guard at the Pyramid Mall until very recently.
When you meet him just about the first thing you find out is that he is a passionate Cleveland Browns fan. He has had a history in sports himself, lettering on the Lansing varsity football, basketball, and baseball teams, and serving as captain of all three teams in his Senior year, and along with his father, author Matt Christopher, is in the Lansing Sports hall of Fame. The Lansing Star talked with Christopher about his campaign in his kitchen a few weeks ago.
Lansing Star: Why are you the best candidate for the job and what unique benefits do you bring to the job?Marty Christopher: Well I think I'm the best candidate probably along with Connie (Wilcox). I know the town, I know the people, I bring a background of knowing more people here than probably anybody around.
LS: New people and old people?
MC: I know a lot of the new ones. When you say new ones, some of the newer ones are 20-25 year residents and I consider them new! I make a point of knowing these people. But again I had two kids in school up until Melanie graduated in 1995.
LS: You know why I ask it in that way, because I know that the town has gone through a lot of changes. The new people, me included, think it has always been exactly the way it was when they got here.
MC: Well I think that makes me the best candidate. The benefit that I bring to the job is that people know where they can get in touch with somebody now. I think over the last four years I have found that. They found a sounding board on the town board.
When I first went out and was talking about doing this -- when (Town Supervisor) Steve Farkas first asked me to run -- I thought oh God I better go around and see what people think about having me. I got the kind of reception from people like ‘Yeah, we don't even know who's on the town board now Marty. It would be good to have somebody's name that we know and can call up.' And people have no problem, regardless of what it is about, calling me, talking to me. They're going to get an answer one way or another. They know I tell it like it is. I don't have a hidden agenda or anything pulling me. People feel confident in me, they trust me.
If they don't, they don't know me. But most of the people do. They may not like what they hear and I never promise to tell somebody that they are going to like what they hear, but they're going to get the truth.
LS: What interested you in doing it outside of Steve asking you to run?I know the town, I know the people, I bring a background of knowing more people here than probably anybody around.
MC: Steve and I have been close. Steve and I graduated from high school together. We have grown up together since we were in the 7th grade. I think what convinced me was exactly the fact that I stressed earlier: they need people here that the community feels comfortable with, and some familiar names. When you go around like I did four years ago and took a survey of people and talked to them and who do you know on the town board? People would say, ‘I don't know anybody.' That's not good.
I think now people are more apt to know not just myself and Connie and Steve, but I think they are apt to know people. I think we are as visible town board, a close harmonious group as they have ever had.
And how you really find out is by talking to the people at the town hall. They have never experienced having town board members be around as much. In the beginning they were very, very concerned. Why are these people around here all the time? Are they spying on us? Once they found out that, well Marty comes down because he likes to come down and say hello and visit and check his mail, he wants to see what's going on. That's how I learn.
Now they enjoy seeing us. If they have a problem they don't have to wait and send us an email or call they are going to see me every day. I like that and they do too. I think that is a comfortable thing for the people who work there. You got to be accessible and I think we probably have the most accessible board that they have ever had in Lansing.
LS: What are the top two or three issues facing the town in your opinion over the next four years, and what will you do to address them?
MC: Well, I think -- and as I say people don't realize that the five of us have our own selective opinions about things, and as Connie will say many times say I'd rather not hear mine in meetings (laughs) -- but I think right off the top and when you say the word ‘development' I may be restricting what I say a little more than the rest. I want to see some development but I want to see it according to the plan that we have, the comprehensive plan. I want to see that looked at. We need to follow that. I want to see the kind of development that people throughout the community will enjoy and not just development for the sake of development.I'm not opposed completely to the sewer but I was opposed to it completely with the price that they were throwing at everybody.
I'm not opposed completely to the sewer but I was opposed to it completely with the price that they were throwing at everybody. And until we had our vote many, many people thought our board was behind the sewer project and pushing it, and that upset me. It upset the rest of us, because -- I found out later -- people were alluding to the fact that Bud (Shattuck, Deputy Supervisor) was on the committee. They assumed because Bud was on the sewer committee that the rest of us were all for it. We were all opponents.
Finally I got upset enough when I saw some things in the paper and I made a point of telling people no one ever asked me what side I was one and then finally it came out. We would all be for it if the price was right, but it's not going to be like water, and truthfully until it happens that way it's going to stay right where it is. We need to get a big windfall for sewer to come in.
But water is the other thing and I think before my term is out everybody in Lansing is going to end up with water in a consolidated district. It seems like it's going very well.
LS: Even north of Buck Road?
MC: No, I don't think I'll have it here, but you know where I'm saying -- down in the areas that need it. I think that they will.
LS: Basically you're saying south of the protected farming area gets water.
MC: Yes right up through. And of course the village has it. If they develop between the village and Rouge's Harbor Inn you're going to see water all the way through.
LS: I have to admit that I've become fascinated with the theory and the reality of growth in Lansing as I was covering the sewer so closely, and some of the other stories.
MC: How they link together.
LS: Right, and also listening to the Village Board and how they deal. They don't have much room for growth in one way but in another way look at what just happened to the mall and is continuing to happen. There's growth in that kind of way.
MC: And the growth up on Warren Road that we're anticipating because I know they are going to be paying for their own sewer, that sewer project that's going on there. I think you're probably going to see a little bit of growth there.
LS: More residential growth?
MC: There could be.
LS: I looked at the plan and it does appear to be a sketch of where to go, but it's not very specific. It also seemed to me that -- not just this town board but in the history of the town -- there hasn't been a strong interest on planning. What will you do as a town council member in your second term to solidify a plan to figure out what people want, and to use the tools to make it happen?
MC: Something that we are in the process of trying to re-address is your zoning ordinances, making certain that everything that we've got written down and documented is appropriate for the kind of growth we're talking about.
But once again the area we all seem to come back to that area down in south Lansing, the Rogue's Harbor as a focal point. And I heard that for years. I heard that when I was growing up in high school back when Rudy Krance's gas station was where the Pitstop was and where the place across the street was the post office. And people forget Howland's Red and White that was there. We probably had more of a core back in the mid-‘50's.
LS: A town center you mean?
MC: Exactly. I would drive down there from Triphammer Terrace, ride down on my bike. There was more of a community.
LS: But that was then and this is now. Where would you like to see it happen now?
MC: I would still like to see it happen from that area and expand. I think that is the natural place. But how does it happen? There are certain places that would have to be moved out we know that. Just take a quick look and see. I've seen some designs already -- and I don't know how many boards back they go -- that really look nice. I don't know for a fact but I think some of them are based upon having sewer, because the water isn't a problem. If you're going to go through water but if they are based upon sewer than that seems to be what's derailed some of this growth.
I think that we can do some things without sewer. I don't know what. I don't have anything in mind to say we can do this without sewer or that, but I think that we can.
LS: Well that's not insurmountable. Some of the developments that the town planning board has been considering and talking about, I forget what they call it, it's like a big shared septic system.
MC: It is. It's something Ron Secord has talked about for a residential area that's up there. A couple of people have brought this to our attention. We are doing some discussions with the planning board. We're trying to get more of the same ground with them. We need to be more instinct. We are there to help them, they work for us sure, but we're there to help them and we would like to be more cohesive as a group.
That is something that is on our agenda for all of us. We've got to be more communicative. We've got to see an end to some of the things that people in the community are saying that they are having problems with the planning board, and some people have. I think it's something that can be addressed and taken care of.
LS: When a candidate kind of makes something a campaign issue I do want to follow up on it, and one of the themes that Hugh Bahar has pursued in different venues has been to keep taxes down. As somebody who struggles with that like everybody else, I can relate. I hear it said that people confuse town, county, school taxes together when they say taxes are too high.
Do you think that just the Town taxes are reasonable and that the level of service that the town provides is what it should be?
MC: It's a perfect time for this type of question to come out. Just to delve a little bit, there is no question there is confusion. I have heard some people say that well we needed to have the school taxes down, they're talking to us about this. Well it's obvious we don't have a thing to do with the school taxes. I just got my bill now and believe me I know what people are going through.
As far as the town taxes which relates specifically to what we are working on now our budget. We have three major factors that I see as three primary things as it comes to our budget. Maybe not in this exact order but when you're looking at our taxes you've got your payroll, you've got your payroll for the people that you got, and we have got great people working for the town.
LS: That's about 40 employees?
MC: Right. You've got all the healthcare. Everybody's got to know that healthcare in the industry all throughout the country has become a primary expense. And the other thing here is the highway department. We have one of the best highway departments in the entire county if not the best. These guys are good. So what do you do? Where do you start?
Now, first of all, I've had people kiddingly say, 'gee, for crying out loud the highway department's got this, they got that.' I said, 'well take a look at the next time you've got a snow storm and what should we do? Should we call them off because they're going into overtime and we don't want to pay their overtime? You've got to get to work.'
These guys are out there when they should be. But that's one of our biggest expenses. That's one of the top three. Now services, I didn't know how many when I first started on the board. I'm just going to throw out a few that people probably don't realize we have to look into when it comes to our budget.
The LCLC which your Lansing Community Library Center. They need some. Lansing Dropin Center, we provide for them. The Lansing Youth Services - it's incredible how that is growing and we help fund them.
LS: Not just funding but the town owns the library building as well as the community center.
MC: Exactly. It's taxes, it's part of that. Gadabout. We provide some money toward the Gadabout because Gadabout services us up in Lansing. And then you have our Lansing Older Adult program and the senior van. I know a lot about that now because I'm a senior van driver, and I love it. We provide transportation not only for people at Woodsedge but for people throughout the Lansing area, senior citizens like myself who need transportation. Those are just a few of the service areas that we need to consider when it comes to our taxes.The bottom line is that I don't think we're going to have a great increase, but it will be an increase. And anybody that says they're going to go in and maintain the same level or lower taxes, they really don't know what they're saying.
Now what if we said no to every one of those? Yeah, it saves all of us on taxes but we don't do that and we can't do that, the way I see it.
Even with putting our best efforts into supporting these groups, we have maintained a very, very small increase in taxes in the past three years. And I think this year I don't have a clue what it's going to be right now because I know we're struggling right now looking at all the things that the highway department needs and the parks and recs, and everybody wants raises and everything and we're going through an awful time.
But when we come out of it the bottom line is that I don't think we're going to have a great increase, but it will be an increase. And anybody that says they're going to go in and maintain the same level or lower taxes, they really don't know what they're saying. They got to look into it a little further.
That's why when I first ran four years ago, I was kidded because I said the only promise I'm going to make in my first campaign as a politician is I'm going to promise not to make any promises. Because there's no way, when I hear these guys not just at our level but all over, ‘I promise to get the taxes down and this and that,' my God, until you know what you're really involved in you can't do it. Look at the gas prices alone how that has affected our highway department.
LS: The number of roads they can pave each summer, the cost of blacktop.
MC: You got the maintenance of the trucks, you got every type of equipment and it's mind boggling when it comes down to it, it really is. But our guys do, and I'll stress this, I'm in complete support of Jack (French, Highway Superintendent) and Cricket (Charlie Purcell, Deputy Highway Superintendent) and the highway department, they do a great job.
LS: Along those lines, should the town be doing more about services that the county provides? The obvious thing is road patrol. We have a big town in land mass, but when there are three patrol cars in the whole county then what do you do?
MC: It seems to pop up on occasion that part of the conversation simply because we have a town constable, and our constable's patrols are basically within the parameters of our parks and right around. To go any further out we would then probably have to consider some sort of Lansing police force along the lines of Trumansburg, Dryden, Groton, Cayuga Heights and that.
Every time that even surfaces as part of our conversation the expense would be mind boggling, even to put two on a force. Granted it probably would be good, but I would think before we even considered that we would really have to have someone concentrated analysis of the costs, there would definitely be a public hearing on it, and I just can't see it happening in the very near future.
More apt to happen if we ended up seeing that growth of the community, it would probably be more apt to happen if that was to take place. But other than having our constable now patrolling the parks and so on, even though we're shorthanded throughout the county. And they are, I know Steve has been in touch with Pete Meskill, and you're sort of in a bind. I know, like everybody says, you call and you just hope to God that they can get there in time.
LS: Well I guess there's a breaking point for these things. At some point there's enough crime to make it worth it to the community -- literally worth it. But we're not there yet.
MC: And I hope it doesn't reach that point, I mean I hope that in my time or for the rest of my terms we don't get to the point that we're so concerned with crime that we have to add our own police force in Lansing. That would be a shame I think.
LS: We touched on change in the near future. I want to go 10 to 20 years out and ask you what kind of changes you hope to see in the community?
MC: Twenty years ahead... maybe they will have a really nice retirement home for someone who will be 85 like me, (laughs) and they better really expand Woodsedge and have a great new senior van system!I hope it doesn't reach that point, I mean I hope that in my time or for the rest of my terms we don't get to the point that we're so concerned with crime that we have to add our own police force in Lansing.
That's a good question. I don't think anymore I think out that far. 20 years. Ten years, yeah I do because I hope to still be here.
My intentions are to stay in the area. I'm not one of these individuals for whom retirement means moving south. I could never do that. I enjoy being in the community where I can drive almost any place around here in Groton and even in Ithaca and people see my truck and know it's me. They see the Brownsmobile with the orange grid on the front and the helmets and they know its Marty. I certainly can't hide any place. I mean I go into Homer or Cortland and people wave because they know me.
I think in 10 years as long as we get some of the proper development, and it doesn't expand beyond those parameters that we got...
LS: In other words the kind of defined areas of the town that this is where we want to see this happening like keep the north for farmland, try to focus new growth...
MC: Into the central area and make sure that one thing does happen. Make certain that the kind of residential growth that we have is also going to allow people to buy something affordable. I don't like the word ‘affordable housing,' I really don't, but I guess that's what we have to use.
LS: Some people think it means ‘low income housing.'
MC: Exactly, so I don't like using that because it's so different in different areas. I mean people say we can't afford to buy a house or build a house out there and the taxes are high. Well granted all throughout the country your average price for houses are going up.
Look at Buck Road. We were the 7th house from the corner, we are now the 19th house. Some of the places at the other end are pretty good sized homes. But to call anything here an affordable home -- that's not right.
People are obviously buying and living, they're moving into them. And then right across the field from me someday I hope that we can look over there and see something developed into that big Kingdom Farm area, because we know that that's still on their agenda.
That would be something that I think would be great before I end up kicking off. I would love to see that area, just some nice gorgeous development there of some sort, that everybody could be proud of here.
LS: What are the two or three aspects of the town as it is now that you would like to see improved? I know you're on the technology committee for example and I have heard from just about everyone I talk to in the Town Hall that that situation has improved greatly.
MC: In the past two or two and a half years, it has made an upswing like you don't believe, not just because of the committee. It is critical having a technology committee because of technology. You're looking at a guy who didn't even have a cell phone when I got on the board and I was embarrassed into getting one by my fellow members, because they said how could I possibly exist without a cell phone?
We have a technology budget, we have equipment without doubt, which is upgraded periodically, and it is where it belongs. We have a great guy that handles this now, Steve Loncto. I am very pleased to say I helped to bring him on board. Our expenses for maintenance etc. have dropped because he's done what had to be done that wasn't done before. I think right now we are probably right where we need to be with maybe a few isolated pieces of equipment that haven't been replaced. He's got us into a system that we turn over and keep up to date and people are very, very pleased.
LS: That was something in the past that was identified that needed to be improved. If you had to look at the town today and say, ‘what's my next big project?' what would it be?
MC: This is sort of ironic, because when I first came on board one of the things that people on the board wanted to take advantage of was my expertise in records management. We were going to establish a records management committee -- which I did probably within the first six months. I have ideas to work along with our historian because that's my bailiwick, records management. You don't hang on to records just because they are there. This was always one of my favorite things, ‘I'm hanging on to this just in case.' The worst scenario in the world is to have records just in case because that can cause you more problems than not having them.
I learned that throughout my banking career, my NYSEG career and so. You follow a records retention schedule that's mandated to follow. You get rid of records when you're supposed to, you retain them when you're supposed to and you follow rules and regs.
So Marty went ahead and got this committee going. We had one meeting and they still kid me, because we still haven't had meeting number two. I mean and they have been busting me because we do need to address this in each of the departments. And it's something that I should be taking upon myself and working with (Town Historian) Louise Bement and looking at what each department has.
Space is always critical. It's tough.
LS: There's the whole records building now.
MC: Oh yes, and we need to be looking at how to put them there, what's going there, what about the basement?
So if I get elected I hope to have meeting number two of the records management committee, and get these folks on board again and put my nose to the grindstone and get something going.
I'm not saying we're going to put it into a new technological age, where we're going to have everything on to disks and CDs, but some of those directions we might end up taking, because we don't need all the hard copies of things that we got.
LS: Well I would think that certainly going forward that would be the way to go, not necessarily transfer everything.
MC: Exactly. The people who I had on the original committee always laugh because it's been a long time, and they just shake their heads and wonder when we're going to have another meeting. But I think most of them were glad because they were worried about what direction I was going to take because it was going to mean doing a little more work for some of them. So that's something that I really should focus on. Since it is my expertise I really should.
I like being here, I like the people, and I just still enjoy everything that I am doing at least for now. So one more term at least, I would like four more good years.
LS: What else would you like voters to know about your candidacy?
MC: I guess I would like to let people in the town know that I have enjoyed my first term. I have absolutely no regrets about running. The good times, and the comments, and the positive things have far outweighed those bad times and there have been some bad ones. There's been times -- Margaret's heard me come home and saying, ‘Expletive, expletive, expletive! Why did I even both with this? I'm retired, I don't need this!'
And I've had some good friends and we disputed things, and people who have tried to stretch me both ways because of knowing me.
But also I don't see any way of me changing if I get elected again. I'm still going to be Marty Christopher. I'm still going to be the guy that they can talk to. Maybe some people still feel like I tell it too much like it is, but I think they would rather hear that then consider me a politician who is trying to bull**** them, because I can't.
I just enjoy it. Like I say, it's my town. I am so involved in other things. The Sports Hall of Fame selection committee which I work on 12 months a year, I work for St. Anthony's Parish, I am very involved in the church and I just like it.
I like being here, I like the people, and I just still enjoy everything that I am doing at least for now. So one more term at least, I would like four more good years.
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