- By Dan Veaner
- News
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Village officials struggled with the sewer problem in their Monday (9/19) evening meeting in the Village Offices on Triphammer Road. The Town of Lansing is committed to bring sewer service to the southern part of Lansing, roughly including everything south of Buck Road. In order to get sewage to the Cayuga Heights treatment plant the main trunk line must go through the Village. Three possible routes have been suggested by the Town's engineers, and the Town has asked the Village's input before choosing a route.
The Town favors a route (knows as Alternate Route B) along the old Ithaca Auburn Railroad line which runs roughly parallel to East Shore Drive to the East at a higher elevation. Engineers have identified this route as the least expensive, in part because it would be run by gravity. A gravity system would not need pumping stations and the attendant ongoing maintenance. (Alternate A goes along Cayuga Heights Road and down Cedar Lane. Neither the Town nor the Village favor this route.) The Village favors Alternate Route C, which follows Route 34, because it would be lease intrusive to village residents during construction and maintenance. This is the most expensive alternative.
 Alternate Routes | Or is it? The reason Route 34 is thought to be more expensive is that it is a State road, and the Department of Transportation (DOT) has laid out stringent rules for construction there. Construction hours would be limited and all construction vehicles would have to be removed in the evening hours. Additionally the road would have to be restored to a passable condition each day. The Town estimates this would add a million dollars to the price tag (rough estimates at this time are $2.8 million for Route A, $2.0 for B and $3.8 for C). On top of this route C would require a pumping station below the processing plant to bring sewage up from the road. There is no obvious place to put such a station. The Town has sent its engineers to several Village meetings to answer questions. But Village Trustee Lynn Leopold feels there are more questions than answers. The sewer committee she heads has walked and driven the three routes, and is trying to understand the Town's hurdles. "There is no simple choice," she said. At the last Town Sewer Committee meeting, chair Bud Shattuck said humorously, "We can be bribed." He explained that he meant that if the Village wanted Alternate C they should be pro active about defending the route, and find ways to make it agreeable to the town. Trustee Frank Moore, who attends all of the Town sewer meetings, recommended that the Village conduct its own engineering study to see if it will support their preference. Village officials said the Town's studies are not detailed enough, and that it may turn out that the Route 34 choice is not as costly as it now appears. "The Town is making its decision on rough cut engineering," he said. He made a strong case for the Village to pay for its own study. Mayor Donald Hartill added, "The devil is in the details, and a lot of the details haven't been addressed." |
Route B has problems as well, not the least of which is that most of the railroad bed is private property, affecting multiple owners, including Ms. Leopold and Mayor Hartill. Ms. Leopold clearly struggled with this issue. She is deeply disturbed at the prospect of the area being torn up and both being able to be restored to it's natural state as well as the disruption that ongoing maintenance would cause. As a Trustee she feels she should keep an open mind, but as a homeowner she naturally prefers a different route.
Assumptions and fear plague town and village officials. The Town has the right to make the decision without Village approval. In fact the Village is within and part of the Town. Village officials fear the Town will invoke eminent domain, which allows a government to take private land when there is no other alternative to provide a service for the overall public good. The Town has repeatedly said it views eminent domain as a last resort and that they have a strong desire not to use it. For the Town's part they fear the village is being driven by NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) syndrome and that with its own working sewer system the Village does not share the Town's urgency to build the system before the value of DOT money diminishes. Both groups are concerned about costs, both monetary and human.
Mayor Hartill is very protective of the good relationship the Village has with the Town, so does not want to antagonize them. He has been in contact with Town Supervisor Stephen Farkas, who loosened the deadline for a decision from the end of October to the end of November to give the Village more time to deliberate. He said that the cost of an engineering study would be worth continuing goodwill.
Mayor Hartill also pointed out that phase 2 of the project will affect the overall cost, and that has not been considered. He said that hookup and expansion of the system, ongoing maintenance and other variables could make the eventual cost of Alternate C less expensive than B. Nobody knows at this point, but he argued that a study could support the theory.
Ms. Leopold recommended a public discussion, including all landowners with property along any of the three routes. Getting landowner permission could be difficult, tying up the project for years, something the Town does not want. Some homeowners have expressed willingness to allow access, while others have not. This meeting would give the municipalities a better sense of how difficult it would be to get permissions. The Trustees resolved to contact the homeowners so they can meet with them.
Trustees worried that the end of November might not be enough time to gather all the information they need. Mayor Hartill assured them that he would talk to Mr. Farkas about extending the time again if necessary. Now that the Village has a plan of action both governments will have something concrete to talk about.
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