- By Dan Veaner
- News
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Village of Lansing Deputy Mayor Larry Fresinski
That figure came out of a meeting of the Tompkins County Council Of Governments (TCCOG) last week at which Hinchey tried to explain how the money will be distributed. "There was a lot of confusion and not much specificity as to how this is going to work," says Village of Lansing Deputy Mayor Larry Fresinski. "There is no specific plan as to how the money is going to be distributed."
Village Trustees discussed the possibilities for getting stimulus monies for Village projects at their regular meeting Monday. Fresinski noted that only 'shovel-ready' projects will be considered. "The idea of the funds is to stimulate the economy," he said. "You can't give somebody a check and then wait ten years for it to complete. The idea is that this money would be spent starting tomorrow, and that the implementation would start as soon as this summer."
Village officials say that may be bad news for the Town of Lansing. Town officials have floated the idea of using stimulus monies to resurrect the major sewer project that was killed when the Town couldn't control the cost. Village officials strongly opposed that project because it would have meant constructing a trunk line through the Village to connect the Town's sewer to the Cayuga Heights Treatment Plant.
"They've calculated that when all is said and done and all the mandates are taken out you've got $26 million left," Fresinski said. "It's a good chunk of change, but any one project that's multi-million dollars wouldn't likely make it, because they're trying to spread it across so many categories."
Trustees did not see the federal package as renewing that threat because they don't think the sewer project has a chance of getting any money, or enough to bring costs down effectively. "There's not enough money for it," Trustee John O'Neill said succinctly.
But it may be good news for a project the Village has on the books. Village Clerk Jodi Dake noted that Mayor Donald Hartill (who was unable to attend Monday's meeting) plans to propose the 900,000 gallon Horizon Drive Water Tower project. Because it serves many municipalities within the county she says Hartill thinks it has a good chance of receiving funding. The tank would be used as a backup while the 1.5 million gallon welded steel tank on the same site is painted. Then it would be used to expand that tank's capacity, allowing for the removal of a smaller tank just above the Village Office building. (Click here for water tank story)
A new water tank will be located next to this one east of
Burdick Hill Road. The project may be eligible for federal
stimulus package monies
Trustees say the water tank project has a good shot at being funded because it meets the 'shovel-ready' standard. The project is already planned for this summer, and Village Attorney David Dubow says that water commission officials are already talking about bonding.
Once the package is passed governments from the federal level on down are going to have to decide how to distribute it. Arcuri met with county officials, including a representative from Lansing a few weeks ago to discuss possible projects. But at this stage the one thing that is clear is that nothing is clear.
"I can't imagine what the battles are going to be like to get access to this money," Fresinski said. "Especially since there is not supposed to be any pork associated with this. There is no guarantee, but people are scrambling to get their ducks in a line so that if an opportunity opens up we have materials ready to go."
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