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After months of negotiations broke down between the Town and Village of Lansing the Village decided Monday to go into the snow plowing business.  For years the Town has plowed the 17.2 miles of Village roadways at what town officials say is a fraction of the actual cost.  This year the Town sought to renegotiate the contract to adjust for the discrepancy.  Village officials balked at what would have been about a $45,000 rise in plowing costs this winter.

"Frankly I'm disappointed," said Village Mayor Donald Hartill, asking for some direction from Village Trustees.  "I'm very disappointed.  I am willing to spend the $74,000.  On the other hand we've been blindsided."

The Village owns one large truck and one smaller truck that could be put to this purpose.  Village employees have been plowing smaller roads and sidewalks while the Town Highway Department has plowed its roads, including 1.8 miles of Triphammer Road which has seven lanes near Pyramid Drive.  The Town owns one truck that is assigned to plow Village roads in addition to the trucks it uses for Town and county roads in Lansing.

Village Superintendent of Public Works John Courtney estimates it would cost the Village $57,161, including overtime, temporary labor, salt and related costs.  But Hartill noted that taking on snow plowing will require some capital expenses including around $24,000 for plow blades for the two trucks and eventually expanding the Village's storage barn.  He estimated that about 600 tons of salt would only leave room for the larger truck, with other large equipment left outdoors and smaller equipment scattered around Village buildings.

"We would probably only have enough room left to store one truck," he said.  "The new backhoe would have to sit outside and the other equipment we currently store there could be stored in nooks and crannies."

Other winter tasks such as sidewalk plowing would receive a lower priority than in recent years, a prospect some Village officials balked at, especially because sidewalks are an integral part of the recent very successful Triphammer Road remake.

Hartill estimates that of the $74,000 the being asked the Town will lose about $30,000 with the rest accounting for the cost of salt (a salt/sand mix can not be used in the village because the sand would clog storm drains there).


"They would be losing support for their manpower base," he said.  "That's roughly a half time person that they would have to absorb."

But with the Town operating at its estimated $44,000 loss Town Highway Superintendent Jack French says that losing the Village contract will not harm his department or budget.

"It will probably be a positive influence more than anything," French says.  "We'll have less mileage to plow and we'll be able to be on our own roads a lot more than we usually are.  We can cut down on overtime.  As far as the Town is concerned we're not only going to save money that we've spent on the Village, but money on overtime, not being out as long hours, and doing a lot better job on our own roads."

Courtney says that while the New York State Office of General Services (OGS) encourages municipalities to order their salt for the season by April 23, he was given a final deadline is July 9.  He estimates that the Village will need 1,000 tons for the season and says OGS requires municipalities to take delivery of 70% at first with the option of taking the rest in 100 ton increments.

Hartill said that negotiations with the Town are done, in part because of that deadline.  But he said he would try to negotiate a 'halfway house' agreement in which the Town would continue to plow Triphammer Road for the first few years.  With multiple lanes he estimated the equivalent of three miles.  Courtney says that a mile of plowing for the season roughly translates to $4,000.

"John is willing to do it," he told the Board of Trustees in Monday's meeting.  "I'm concerned about going cold turkey from nothing to full-bore responsibility."

French says that even without the Village his employees are safe.  "As far as I'm concerned it won't affect jobs," he says.  "We'll just split it up a little bit more.  We could use the truck we used in the Village as our backup truck, and get rid of our backup truck.  We'd probably sell that in the auction.  That's what our thinking is right now."

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