Archive: News

Businesses pay for what they use, and bring much needed tax revenue without putting an undue strain on local resources, especially if local planning boards do their jobs when approving the conditions for business construction and zoning.  Today in the face of reduced federal and state aid, the AES Cayuga debacle, and the miserable economy, attracting new business to the town is even more important, and keeping existing businesses here is essential to reducing the tax burden on homeowners.

That's why the Warren Road Sewer project is so great for the town.  The immediate benefit is that Transonic Systems, in desperate need of expansion, will not only stay in Lansing, but will add 50 good jobs over the next five years.  Taxes on the property will increase, and the sewer will benefit other companies and developments that can expand because they can build on space that would have to be reserved for septic fields.

Depending on how long it takes to get final permits Transonic may be able to begin construction on a 30,000 square foot manufacturing facility as soon as a week from now.  Company officials deserve a lot of credit for being patient while the wheels of government slowly turned to make the project happen.  Tompkins County Area Development (TCAD) and Town Of Lansing board members also deserve huge dollops of credit for what has turned out to be a win-win-win project.

One of the things that startled me when I started covering local government was how much time it takes to get things done, and how unexpected special interests delay or kill projects that would genuinely benefit communities.  The Warren Road Sewer Project was born out of the ashes of an ungainly, much larger project.

What really made it happen was that representatives of the Town and the County immediately saw the benefits such a project could have, and the rough outline of what a project could look like was immediately sketched out.  While it was another couple of years before an actual sewer appeared -- that's where the company's patience came in -- the project was fast tracked with the ultimate goal of keeping Transonic Systems and all the benefits it brings here.

That all paid off this week with the ground breaking for the new facility.  Keeping business here is good for Lansing.  If you don't believe that look at what's happening to the school budget with the problems AES Cayuga is suffering and the reduced tax agreement -- for the second time -- that was just approved by County officials.

I am hoping that the new town sewer proposal is affordable enough, when all is said and done, that it can also become a reality.  That will solve huge problems for the schools and attract more business to the new town center, as well as allowing the Watchtower Society to realize its dream of selling Kingdom Farm to developers who can make the most of sewered property, not only attracting more business, but putting a large piece of valuable property back on the tax roles, and helping to mitigate the AES reductions.

Lansing had all its eggs in the AES Cayuga basket for too long.  It is long past the time to distribute those eggs into a lot of smaller baskets.  Then if any individual basket breaks, most of the eggs are preserved.  Keeping Transonic Systems in Lansing with the Warren Road Sewer certainly created an important basket that I hope will inspire the creation of many more.  When that happens everyone will win.

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