Archive: News

To paraphrase the famous Monty Python 'dead parrot' routine, the sewer isn't dead -- it's just resting.  Well, that's not completely accurate.  The large overall sewer project is indeed dead, but a smaller project on the east side of Lansing is alive and well.  That project will bring sewer service from the Village of Lansing sewer system up to the Warren Road Business Park, where Transonic Systems has taken the lead -- and paid the bill for a sewer study. "We've priced it out in two ways," says Town Councilman Bud Shattuck.  "One is if it just goes out and collects sewage from the business park itself.  The other is if it extends on to the Lucente properties."


The project was initiated because Transonic Systems, a growing international company, needs sewer to expand its headquarters in the Warren Road Business Park.  COO Bruce Kilmartin originally approached the Town Board last year to see if the business park could be included in the larger sewer project.  When that fell through, he lobbied them to support a smaller project along Warren Road.  The company picked up the cost of the sewer study and has been a prime mover in getting the project on its feet.

Town, company and Tompkins County Area Development (TCAD) representatives have met three times so far to discuss the project.  Shattuck stresses that there will be no cost to town taxpayers, because the project will be paid for only by those who end up in the sewer district.  But he notes that if residential homeowners want to be part of the project it will be eligible for low interest 4.5% federal loans.  He reported that the group has been in communication with the Village of Lansing, and that the new sewer would not overload the capacity of the existing sewer there. 

The group has approached the Lucentes to gauge their interest.  It will cost an additional quarter of a million dollars to get to their properties from the business park.  But that could provide an advantage, because it would allow them to build more affordable housing on land that is currently required for septic systems.  "They have alternately asked about extending that even farther," Shattuck says.  "A lot of residences can't afford the sewer project as it is now.  The costs are quite different if you build it as a municipal project and have to pay the state mandated rates."

He notes that deed restrictions in the business park require companies to hook up to sewer if it becomes available.  "None of the business are going to say no," he reported.  "They've all said yes, and they have agreed to front that cost if we go only to the business park itself.  Even with the higher EDU cost that we have we're still hoping to go farther to extend to the Lucente property."

Shattuck says the group plans to meet again at the end of the month, and that all the information needed to go forward may be gathered by then.  That would mean a public hearing could take place in January.

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