Archive: News

With two large septic systems on their last gasp and a third at the end of its projected useful life the Lansing Board of Education was nervously putting a septic replacement project on hold while waiting to learn whether they would be able to hook up to a municipal sewer.  Last month the sewer project was halted, and Town Supervisor reiterated last week that municipal sewer in lansing is dead.  That puts the school district in a race against time to replace their aging septic systems before the very real possibility that one may fail.

"Now that the sewer project is officially dead in Lansing we are getting organized to proceed as quickly as possible to put together a project focussed on replacing the three septic systems in the district which are beyond their useful life," said School Board President Glenn Swanson Monday.  "We've been holding off doing something about it until we heard what was going on with the Town.  Now that we have official word that (the sewer project) is dead, we'll be pursuing that as fast as we can."

The failing septic systems have been on the Tompkins County Health Department's radar for years, but officials were willing to hold off with the promise of sewer so close.  The longer they waited, the more precarious the situation became.  The Board Of Education worried in June that a septic failure could require them to spend money on replacing one system immediately only to spend more to hook up to sewer once it was constructed.  But School Business Administrator Mary June King said she was loth to spend ten to twenty thousand dollars on an engineering/cost septic system study until the fate of the sewer project was cemented.

Now the board must act as quickly as possible to craft a capital improvement plan to replace the septic systems.  Septic replacement is estimated at more than $2 million.  About 60% of that is eligible for state aid.

A new capital project will have to be approved by voters before bidding and construction can begin.  With so many recent capital projects funded by reserves at no additional cost to property taxpayers, it is likely that the septic project will slightly raise taxes.

Swanson said septic was the hot topic at a school Facilities Committee Meeting Monday.

"That was a major topic," he said  "We hope to get it in before we have a catastrophic failure.  There are some other things we want to adress in a future project.  But we're going to keep those separate and focus on the septic system in the short term."

v9i32