Archive: News

As an all-town sewer plan is approaching its final shape, the Sewer Committee is putting together a presentation outlining the benefits sewer will bring to Lansing, both tangible and intangible.  Town and School officials do not just see sewer as something that will bring a rosier tax, development, and environmental picture at some point in an undefined future.  They also view it as an urgent need.

"The timing will probably never be better," says Sewer Committee member Tom Jones.  "We've got a grant and we've got record low interest rates.  Those opportunities are not going to come back.  That coupled with being forced into it in the future, 25 years down the road, at twice the cost or more..."

Committee member Andy Sciarabba cautioned last week that a $2.537 million state grant could be withdrawn if the Town cannot demonstrate substantial progress on the project by the end of this year.

That's what happened in 2008 after a major sewer project was withdrawn by the Town.  Even with a $4.2 million dollar Environmental Bond Act grant from the New York State DEC (Department of Environmental Conservation) that project would have been too expensive with annual fees around $900 per year and usage fees on top of that.  Additionally the project, which would have required a trunk line to bring effluent from the Town through the village of Lansing to the Cayuga Heights Sewage Plant was politically unpopular, especially among Village residents.

The good news was that the State allowed the Town to retain about half that grant to apply to the Warren Road Sewer Project, greatly reducing the annual payments by district residents there.  But it left the Town in the lurch as far as the schools, town center, and Triphammer area was concerned.

The new project is estimated at about $10.8 million.  Sciarabba emphasized the importance of showing the State that progress is being made, because without the new grant to keep propertyowners' annual debt reduction fees down, he said the project will be doomed.  He also says that now is a time when contractors are competitive in getting big jobs, and that favorable buyer's market won't last long.

With two out of three large septic systems failing school officials are also anxious for sewer to come as soon as possible.  Board Of Education Vice President Glen Swanson said Monday that the board needs to publicize the fact that school district taxpayers will have to pay either way -- either for three major septic systems or for hookup to sewer.  Or in the worst case scenario, for both.  In the short run costs are estimated to be about the same whether sewer comes or new septic systems are installed, but over time sewer will cost the school district less.

"It's not a maintenance issue.  It's a life-of-the-system issue," Swanson said.  "It will cost about a million dollars to put in new septic systems to replace the ones that are now held together by bubble gum.  The Middle School is OK.  The High School is in dire straights.  Fortunately the Elementary School is aimed downhill."

He added that Buildings & Grounds Supervisor Glenn Fenner has had to pump out the systems when they have failed in the past.  The High School system would be most costly to replace because it has to pump effluent uphill from the building to a septic field above the school.  Pumps, tanks, and the leach field would all need to be replaced.

School District Business Administrator Mary June King says that even the third septic system that is in good working order may not be long for this world.  King has profided figures to the Sewer Committee and has participated on the Economic Development Committee, which is working on issues to do with the makeup and look of the proposed town center along with other issues such as sewer.  King notes that it would cost $1.5 million to replace all three septic systems.  About 60% of that is eligible for state aid (as a capital project to hook up to sewer would also be).

"The Middle School septic system is actually within three years of it's defined useful life according to the building condition survey," King told the School Board Monday.  "I've included that in the figures I provided members of the Sewer Committee.  We have to have this dialog, because we need the sewer."

Swanson says ideally the school district needed the sewer three years ago.  School officials say it is now a race to see whether a major septic system will fail first or sewer will be constructed in time.  King says she asked architects to develop a 'Plan B' that would be an emergency project to replace a failed septic system.

"The worst case is that we don't make it and invest in a new septic tank, then decide later to hook up to sewer," Swanson said.  "Then the community is paying twice for a septic system that would be idle in the ground and a sewer.  We'd have to spend a million dollars if the sewer doesn't go through.  If (the septic systems) shut down the whole school would shut down.  I don't know what we would do."

The Sewer Committee voted to recommend an all-town sewer district to the Town Board.  That would exclude the Village of Lansing, but include two smaller sewer districts currently in the town.  Exemptions for agricultural arcels are being calculated.  The initial service area has not changed -- a more or less west to east strip ranging from the Lansing Central Schools campus to the juvelile detention centers in South Lansing with a southern piece that picks up Ladoga Park and the Myers area will be the first to get sewer.

Town Councilman Ed LaVigne says the Town Board should be ready for preliminary action at a February 6th meeting.  At Wednesday's sewer meeting it was agreed that engineer David Herrick will bring a presentation to the board with an eye toward getting board reaction in time for him to bring them a completed Map Plan and Report at the February 20th meeting.  At the same time an environmental review process will begin in February.  That will begin a regimen of procedures that optimistically will lead to a vote by property-owners within the proposed district some time in September.

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