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Last month four of the five Lansing Town Board members had such grave doubts about an $82,245 New York State Shared Municipal Services Initiative (SMSI) grant that they couldn't even get a second to a motion to support it.  The grant would fund a countywide evaluation of water and wastewater systems in all the Tompkins County municipalities.  A month later the board voted to support the grant.

All the affected municipalities have voted to support the grant except the village of Lansing.  Unless all municipalities sign on the money will not be released.  While board members expressed doubts about the value of the study and noted that Lansing has not historically received much support for infrastructure projects in the past, concern about being the only naysayer drove the 'yes' vote.  Supervisor Scott Pinney said that he now supports the study.  "We want to work with these people, too," he noted.

A week earlier the Village of Lansing considered the proposal.  While some members of the Board of Trustees waffled between not wanting to ruin it for the other municipalities and their contention that the study would be a colossal waste of money, Trustee John O'Neill argued forcefully against supporting it.  Ultimately they did not bring it up for a vote.

Wednesday night Town officials seemed convinced that the study could be of some value in supporting future infrastructure projects, but they expressed doubt that the County will follow through.

"Considering it is a county-wide application and knowing what generally happens with county-wide applications you have to weigh whether you believe any of that will benefit the Town of Lansing," noted Town Attorney Guy Krogh.  "Lansing did not receive much municipal support relative to prior sewer infrastructure studies."

"It's on paper, but are we gong to see some of these things?" said Councilman Marty Cristopher.  "I don't want us to be the municipality that holds back this 82 thousand bucks.  I probably could be convinced that if some of these items are followed through on -- I would probably go along with it."

"Some of the concern was whether it would cost us more and what benefits would the Town of Lansing get out of it," Councilman Matt Besemer said.  "It's not going to cost us anything.  The money has already been issued, and the Tompkins County Industrial Development Agency (IDA) is providing the 10% local matching funds.  We've asked them to apply for this grant, and to turn around and say no throws their work out the window."

That may put pressure on Village officials to change their minds.  O'Neill, who was present at the Town Board meeting Wednesday continues to oppose it on the grounds that it duplicates work that has already been done by most of the municipalities, and is a waste of taxpayer dollars (in this case State and County tax dollars).  Last week he said he doesn't mind being the 'bad guy' if it will prevent wasteful spending.  "I think it is a shame to spend all that money again," he said.  "They might hate us a little bit, but that's OK."

Pinney, Besemer, and Christopher all voted to support the study.  Deputy Supervisor Connie Wilcox (who was against the study at last month's meeting) and Councilman Bud Shattuck (who favored it last month) were not present.

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