Archive: News

Village of Lansing Trustees passed their 2009-2010 $3,829,110 budget Monday.  Taxpayers will be responsible for only $538,035 of that, representing a 2.7% rise in the tax levy.  "My general philosophy is that we should be increasing the levy at roughly the inflation rate," explained mayor Donald Hartill.  "If you're not increasing it at the inflation rate you're fooling yourself.  Our costs go up at inflation just like your personal costs go up."

Hartill said that the Triphammer Road project was spread out such that the Village could fund it as they went along.  This means the Village has no long term debt except for a sewer bond issue that would be more costly to pay off than to keep, because of an early payment penalty clause.

Improvements planned for the Village this year include pavement, sidewalks, and storm drains on Dart Drive, and paving of three roads including Cayuga Heights Road.  The Village will pay about $50,000 toward the $100,000 cost of a new traffic light on the intersection of Warren Road and Bomax Drive to relieve traffic trying to exit the Warren Road Post Office.

Other projects include a share in a new water tank to replace the tank next to the Village Office.  Hartill says the Village's share will be about $200,000 unless federal stimulus money is assigned to the project.  Once the old tank is removed Hartill has plans for the site.

"In the next couple of years we'll build a new office complex on that site," he said.  "That will provide office space for the DPW folks, and planning/zoning, and (Clerk/Treasurer Jodi Dake).  It gets the entire staff together instead of being in two separate locations.  As part of that we'll be expanding the garage complex."

He said the existing Village office will be used for storage, except for the meeting room which will continue to be used for meetings.

The village has also budgeted for a four to six month overlap to allow them to hire a new Code Enforcement/Zoning Officer to learn the ropes before Ben Curtis retires.

Hartill reported that he is still negotiating with the Town of Lansing on the cost of snow removal.  In the past the Village's contract specified a fixed base cost that was adjusted annually according to how severe the previous winter was.  This year's payment would have been about $25,000, but with rising costs of fuel, materials and labor the Town is asking the Village to pay the actual cost, which they say is around $75,000.

The Village contract was similar to a contract the Town holds with Tompkins County, except the county contract used a floating base price that rose according to costs over the years.  Hartill says that if the Village had used the county formula its cost would be about $53,000 this year. 

"If you add up all of the things that the Town does for us (it costs them) $100,000," Hartill told the Trustees.  "75 of that is snow plowing by their numbers, and the other 25 is brush pickup and miscellaneous things they have done this past year."

Hartill says he hopes the final cost to the village will be in the range between fifty and sixty thousand dollars, and that negotiations are ongoing.

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