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In the wake of Albany's failure last week to permit the Town of Lansing to hold an early sewer vote, Lansing Supervisor Kathy Miller is trying to find a legal way to hold some kind of straw poll before spending more money on the project.  While the board has voted to hire an engineering firm to conduct environmental review of the project, it failed to set a public hearing required to go forward with that process.

"If we voted on the SEQR (State Environmental Quality Review) in the next meeting I think it would be two for, two against, and one I'm not sure," Miller said.  "So I don't know what would happen."

With the Town Board split down the middle, Miller wants an early vote to determine what the majority of townspeople really think.  Even if an early vote were approved the project would be subject to a permissive referendum once the approval process is finished -- if the early vote is 'yes'.  While she favors sewer, Miller notes that a benefit of a 'no' vote would be that the Town will immediately stop spending money on the project, which she says would save the town over $10,000 in engineering and environmental study costs in the short run alone.

On June 15th the Town Board voted 3-1 in a special meeting to ask New York State Senator Michael Nozzolio and Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton to introduce legislation to allow the town to hold a September vote on sewer.  Legislative permission is required for a vote to be held before environmental studies and approvals are completed.  The Senate voted Tuesday to approve an early sewer vote, but the Assembly failed to act.  Because the Assembly's last day in session for the year was June 20 (Thursday), the earliest it can be acted on going forward is January.

Town officials and Sewer Committee members agree January is too late to reap any benefit from an early vote.  Assuming the State Legislature passes a bill, by the time a vote can be organized, advertised and held work on the environmental studies and related engineering tasks would be nearly completed and the money spent.

Miller vowed to have some kind of vote even if the State Legislature did not permit it.  But Town Attorney Guy Krogh says that if the vote is not approved by the State it would be an illegal expenditure of taxpayer money.

"Unless you are statutorily authorized to conduct a vote you are not permitted to do it," Krogh said.  "It's an illegal expenditure of funds to do it.  The exception is that the Legislature, pursuant to a home rule request, can authorize it."

Sewer Committee members are continuing to work on explaining the benefits of the project to the public, and asked Miller to proceed with the project as planned.  Proposed sewer payments are split into two tiers.  Tier 1 includes properties within the initial service area that will pay 60% of the capital debt, an operations and maintenance charge and for sewer use based on water usage.  Tier 2 properties may or may not get sewer in the future, but would pay 40% of the capital costs amounting to $0.23 per each thousand dollars of assessed value.

Andy Sciarabba presented numbers showing that by the 2017-2018 school year sewer-related growth could save the owner of a Tier 2 $200,000 house $110 based on projections that show a tax rise of $156 minus a $46 sewer charge. 

While the bulk of the committee's work is done, its work is now focussing on explaining the facts about the project and developing a plan for adding sewer to Tier 2 properties in the future.  Sciarabba presented Town Engineer David Herrick's cost estimates for adding service to four areas including Franklin and Maple Drive, Sunset Drive, Beach Road, and Brickyard Road over a ten year period.  Sciarabba says at the peak of these projects they would add only $20 to tier 1 payments, and just under $5 per hundred thousand in Tier 2.

The committee is also working on replacing members after LaVigne and Tom Jones resigned last month.  Former Ithaca Mayor and current Lansing resident John Gutenberger attended Wednesday's meeting, and Miller says the Board will vote to officially approve him as a member at their next meeting.

Meanwhile a group of four local developers plans to meet to decide whether to contribute to the project if the Town agrees to raise the proposed treatment plant capacity of 150,000 gallons per day.  Miller says that this is just an idea at this time and the group may not decide to go forward with it.  She says that not all of the group have immediate development plans, but a contribution to sewer would be an investment that would allow them to develop with more density on their properties while reducing the costs to existing property owners.  A change to the plant capacity in the Map Plan Report (MPR) would normally delay the process, but with the process already stalled Miller says it wouldn't add much time.

"One of the things we're fighting against is (the perception) that we're doing this for developers, not for the Town," Miller said Wednesday.  "So if the developers are willing to basically fund their own infrastructure it may be an easier sell (to the public).  We haven't gone to the Comptroller and nothing more has been done on the SEQR.  And it would make the cost less."

A Town Board vote against sewer at this point would kill the project without a public vote, something Councilman Ed laVigne said he would like to see without spending any more taxpayer dollars on the project itself or even on a vote.  But Miller says she wants a poll so that even if the vote doesn't go the way voters want it to they will feel they had a voice in the process.  The next scheduled Town Board meeting is July 17.

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