Archive: News

Lansing Town officials went 2,300 feet below ground as they toured the Cayuga Salt Mine Friday (9/11), and New York State Senator Pamela Helming toured the mine Tuesday.  Mine officials offered the tour in the hope that it would help them understand the health and safety issues motivating the construction of a new 2,500 foot deep mine shaft about seven miles north of the mine's existing lakefront above-ground facility. 

"The Town of Lansing and Cargill have a long-standing partnership and to that end, Cargill is committed to maintaining an open and transparent dialogue about our work at the mine," said Mine Manager Shawn Wilczynski. "We hosted the tours as an opportunity for elected Town of Lansing officials and Senator Helming to visit the mine so they could see our facility, ask questions and gain a deeper understanding of why the #4 shaft is vital for the safety and health of our employees."

The Tompkins County legislature unanimously voted to support a New York State Electric and Gas (NYSEG) petition to the New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) requesting permission to construct a pressure-boosting compressor station project to address safety, pressure, and reliability issues for current natural gas customers in the Lansing area.

"It's not a matter of should we do it or should we not do it.  NYSEG has put our town in a dangerous situation -- that is according to them," Legislator (Lansing) Mike Sigler said at a Wednesday evening town Board meeting.  "That's in their paperwork.  The compressor would increase the pressure to the existing system, so when it gets below 20 degrees the problem is everybody's using gas and the pressure falls dangerously low.  They are trying to solve that problem, frankly a problem that should have been solved before it became an issue."

Washington, DC – The co-chairs of the Congressional Diabetes Caucus, Tom Reed (R-NY), Reps. Diana DeGette (D-CO) are taking next steps in their inquiry into the rising price of insulin after meetings during the past two months with stakeholders at major trade associations and in the diabetes community.

These steps include, first, working with the Food and Drug Administration on developing lower cost, biosimilar versions of insulin. Reps. Reed and DeGette also sent a letter to the Endocrine Society seeking input from endocrinologists on insulin prescribing practices.

Town Board members accepted a tentative $4,911,788 2018 budget Wednesday.  Lansing Supervisor Ed LaVigne said the fiscal outlook for the Town this year is good, despite the continuing devaluation of Lansing's largest taxpayer, the Cayuga Power Plant.  he said new building and a rise in Lansing's overall assessment means the Town will receive more tax revenue this year while maintaining a low tax rate rise.

"We're in a good spot in my opinion," LaVigne told board members.  "We took a $25 million hit with the power plant, but we still went up $11 million total on the other side.  What that means is that the tax rate is 1.49 and we've got $16,000 to play with.  It's not a windfall.  It's not huge.  What it does mean, though, is we keep our expenses within range, our fund balance this year we used $202,000 to front-load it (reduce the tax levy).  Last year it was $215,000.  At the end of the year all the fund balances went up."

Lansing's TST (Tompkins Seneca Tioga) BOCES Board of Education member Pat Pryor reported Monday that an $8 million capital project may still be on hold.  Pryor said that if a grant application is not successful before the end of this year, construction may be pushed back an additional year.  Lansing School Superintendent Chris Pettograsso said that getting the grant is a main contingency imposed by the Ithaca School District when it agreed to funding the project.

"The situation with the capital project is still quite complicated," Pryor said.  "We still don't know for sure when we're going to be able to start on that, even if everything goes smoothly from here.  We have applied for a grant in addition to the capital project.  The grant has to go through its own approval project.  We are hoping to hear something about that grant before the holidays."

Planning Board members said Monday they do not think a proposed partially subsidized housing development is good for the Town of Lansing.  What would have been a pro-forma vote on appointing the Planning Board 'lead agency' for reviewing the 'Lansing Trails Apartments' project proposed by Cornerstone Group turned into an impassioned discussion over fears of increased taxes and local crime.  While many board members expressed reservations, Planning Board Chairman Tom Ellis was adamantly opposed to the project that could bring 128 rental units, most of them subsidized, to Lansing.

"I think this is bad for the Town," Ellis said.  "I think it's a bad investment.  I think it's a bad 'kickoff' use of that land.  I'm having trouble finding something possible about this.  Is this really the 'kickoff' project we want there, given that we know some local history about some of the other projects in the county?  I'm struggling with (the Planning Board) being the lead agency for the Town.  I think it's a bad proposal."

Beginning this October, United Airlines will serve the Ithaca Tompkins Regional Airport (ITH) with Embraer 145 jet aircraft (ERJ 145) as part of a service upgrade program. These 50-seat jets will replace the existing 37-seat turboprop planes to accommodate increased passenger demand at ITH. With the introduction of the ERJ 145s, ITH will now have an all-jet service to each of its three hubs.

“We are very excited that when United Airlines commences its jet service this fall, all of our air service at Ithaca will be with jets, providing a better experience for our customers,” stated Mike Hall, Director of Ithaca Tomkins Regional Airport.

Washington, DC – Congressional Diabetes Caucus Co-Chairs Tom Reed (R-NY) and Diana DeGette (D-CO) led several colleagues in sending a letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi urging the immediate reauthorization of the Special Diabetes Program.

Set to expire on September 30th, the SDP provides federal funding for diabetes research and prevention and management programs for high-risk populations. It enjoys broad, bipartisan support.

The Legislature, in special session, authorized acceptance of two grants from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and approved the award of contracts for the projects funded by those grants. All four resolutions were approved without dissent (Legislators Carol Chock and Peter Stein were excused).

Passenger Boarding Bridge:
An FAA grant in the amount of $870,763 was accepted to fund 90% of the cost of installation of a Passenger Boarding Bridge at the Airport. Another 5% ($45,375) will be funded by the New York State Department of Transportation (DOT), and the remaining 5% local share ultimately from Airport passenger facility charges. Acquisition of the additional Passenger Boarding Bridge is needed, since all airlines serving the Airport now provide exclusively jet service.

County Legislator Peter Stein announced Tuesday that he will step down from the Tompkins County Legislature effective Friday, September 22.

“My wife and I had planned a move from District 11 to District 10, which is why I chose not to run for office in November,” Stein explained. “However, circumstances have led to our move’s happening earlier than expected. Because I will no longer reside in District 11, I can no longer represent the people of that district, whom it has been an honor and a privilege to serve for nearly a decade. I wish only the best to our county’s hardworking staff and to my successor as County Legislator for District 11, Shawna Black.”

Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton (D/WFP-125AD, Tompkins/Cortland) announced that she has written a letter to the SUNY Charter Schools Institute calling for the rejection of a new teacher certification proposal that would allow charter schools to hire uncertified teachers and to set up their own programs to certify those teachers with as little as 30 hours of classroom experience. By creating an alternative pathway for teacher certification, the proposal will result in an inferior workforce of teachers who won't be qualified to give New York's children the superior education they deserve, Lifton said.

The Lansing Town Planning Board was given an introductory presentation on the Cargill Mine Shaft #4 project Monday, and discussed the Board's jurisdiction of the project.  Now that the mine has received the 'OK ' from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), the project must be reviewed and approved by Lansing's Planning and Town Boards.

"I want to try to keep the focus on the need for the shaft," said Mine Manager Shawn Wilczynski.  "Regardless of all the rhetoric over the past couple of years, the main need for this shaft is for the safety and health of the employees of Cargill.  The 200 employees that work there, and particularly the folks that it takes 45 or 50 minutes one way to get to work, and the health and safety of those employees, as far as binging in air pressure and ventilation, and also the ability to get into and out of the mine in a much more timely fashion than they can right now."