Archive: News

Legislature Approves Sale of Old Library Site
The Legislature tonight resolved many years of study and discussion about the future of the Old County Library site, authorizing sale of the property to preferred developer Travis-Hyde Properties.

The Legislature passed three resolutions regarding disposition—declaring the site, located at Cayuga and Court Streets in the City of Ithaca, just off DeWitt Park, no longer needed for public use; concurring with the City's determination that sale of the property for the proposed Dewitt House Project will not negatively affect the environment; and authorizing sale of the property to Travis-Hyde's Dewitt House Associates for a sale price of $925,000. The final vote authorizing sale was 11-3, with Legislators Carol Chock, Dooley Kiefer, and Leslyn McBean-Clairborne voting no.

Tompkins County Administrator Joe Mareane has delivered to the County Legislature a 2018 Recommended County Budget. The budget supports quality County services; sustained investment in infrastructure; reasonable and reliable employee wages and benefits; and opportunities to address urgent new priorities—including the need to reduce the County's jail population and to help mitigate a shortage of affordable housing many describe as a crisis.

The Recommended Budget supports total expenditures of $179 million (an increase of 1.6%) and local dollar spending of $86.6 million (an increase of 1.0%). It meets the Legislature's 2018 budget goal of a 2.4% increase in the County property tax levy, and is well below the County's projected 3.53% tax cap. Due to a substantial 3.1% increase in the county's tax base, which spreads the cost of government across a larger base, the budget contains a property tax rate that will go down again in 2018, to $6.58 per $1,000—a reduction of 0.7%. This is the fourth consecutive year that the tax rate has decreased, and is the lowest County tax rate since 2011. Under the Recommended Budget, the County property tax bill for the owner of a median-valued $178,000 home would increase by $12.

At its sixth and final meeting, and after a third required public hearing, Tompkins County's Shared Services Panel has formally adopted the County's final Shared Services Plan.

All nine municipal representatives present voted to approve the Plan. In a summary document to be submitted to New York State, County Administrator Joe Mareane projects annual net savings to be achieved by the plan at $145,975 in 2018; $281,037 in 2019; and $218,918 in 2020 and beyond.

Corning, NY - Congressman Tom Reed is encouraging members of the Teamsters union to make their voice heard in regards to the current pension reduction proposal that was recently approved by the Department of Treasury.

Union members have until September 6 to accept or reject the plan. If accepted, cuts would begin October 1, 2017. Lack of a vote is by default a "yes" vote to approve the proposal. Members can vote online, by phone, or by mail. If they cast a vote by mail it must be received on or before September 6.

A group of Lansing residents got an early look at the proposed 'Lansing Trails Apartments' development that is one of two solid proposals for town land across Route 34B (Auburn Road) from the Town ball fields.  Of questions raised by residents and town officials, the greatest concern was fear of crime a subsidized housing project might bring to the Town.  But Cornerstone Group President Roger Brandt said their property management company has strict rules that force tenants to leave after a second infraction.

"The key for managing the process is management," said Brandt. "I wouldn't want to go up against the person who runs that property management company, because if you get a lease violation you get one warning.  Second one you're out.  We do have a very tough policy with regard to managing the process, because it's a reflection on us, and it's just a nightmare."

Congressman Tom Reed announced yesterday that the City of Ithaca Fire Department has been awarded an Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) Program operations and safety grant for $22,637, and that the Ithaca Tompkins Regional Airport has been awarded a United States Department of Transportation grant for $870,763.00 for projects to improve and upgrade the facility.

"Our local fire departments must have the funds necessary to operate safely and efficiently I was happy to provide a letter in support of the City of Ithaca Fire Department to encourage FEMA to distribute this important funding," Reed said.

The Lansing School District set the tax rate at $20.72 per $1,000 of assessed value.  School District Business Administrator Kathryn Heath told the Board of Education Monday that the tax rate has turned out to be lower than anticipated at the time of the budget vote last May.  Heath said the tax levy went up by 5.75%, but the tax rate went up by only 0.975%, or 20 cents per $1,000.

"Our projected tax levy was $18, 343,000 with assessed values of $857 million, which made or tax rate about $21.03 per $1,000 (of assessed value) when we were talking about this in May," said School District Business Administrator Kathryn Heath.  "Our assessed values came in at $18.78 million more than what we anticipated, and our tax levy actually went down.  A couple of things played into that.  We allocated $115,000 more to help bring that down. Also, the PILOTs went up a little bit.  That brought our tax levy down.  At the end of the day our tax rate is $20.72 per $1,000."

Due to new United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) guidelines, the price of lunches provided to students in the Ithaca City School District will increase for the 2017-2018 academic year. The changing guidelines now require the ICSD Child Nutrition Program to mandate that students be charged comparable cost to State and Federal Reimbursements. Additionally, the program is now required to incur increased cost because of the finalized "Reauthorization Act".

"The guidelines are a good thing for our students' nutrition, but the changes do incur a rising cost to the program," said ICSD Child Nutrition Program Director Denise Agati.

Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit, Inc. (TCAT) this week announced the official release of real-time information to its passengers via mobile apps and on its web site as part of a $1.5 million Information Technology/ Intelligent Transportation System (IT/ITS) project.

TCAT contracted with Avail Technologies, Inc., based in State College, Pa., for the project, which was launched in February, 2016. The project was mostly funded by the City of Ithaca and partially with federal dollars.

About 50 Lansing residents attended a meeting Wednesday to learn about a revision of the Town's Comprehensive Plan (click here to download the current draft).  The last revision of the plan was approved in 2006.  Townspeople have worked on the revision for a half dozen years, but it is still not ready for final approval.  Comprehensive Plan Committee Chair Connie Wilcox joined the committee as Chair last year with the express agenda of getting it finished and approved, she hoped, by last fall, but intensive review by a variety of stakeholders has delayed it, and town officials now estimate that it may not be ready for approval until the end of this year, or the beginning of 2018.

"There are three basic ways comprehensive plans are created and updated: one is the Town Board does it itself," said Lansing Town Attorney Guy Krogh.  "The second way is that the Town Board refers it to a planning board.  The Planning Board does it, makes a formal referral and recommendation within 90 days.  Within 90 days of that public hearing the Town Board must also hold a public hearing, and then they make a decision within a reasonable period of time.  The third way is to refer it to a Comprehensive Plan Committee, which can be generally just about anyone.  This is a bit of a unique process, because Lansing chose to do all three."

Democratic Party candidates Walaa Maharem-Horan, Joseph Wetmore, and Michael Koplinka-Loehr report they have received an overwhelmingly positive response from independent voters to their petitioning for inclusion on the Lighthouse Party line. Maharem-Horan and Wetmore are running as the Democratic candidates for the Lansing Town Board, while Democrat Koplinka-Loehr is running for the District 6 seat on the Tompkins County Legislature.

The canvassing efforts of the two town board candidates resulted in 364 signatures from independent voters—more than double the amount needed to secure their positions on the Lighthouse line. In these times of shifting political allegiances, their conversations with Lansing's residents have been crucial.

The Village of Lansing Board of trustees got a first look at the next phase of the Shops at Ithaca Mall Monday, when a representative of the new owner approached them about a new approach to making the mall successful.  CMC Engineering Manager Kenneth Farrall said that by subdividing the property so that larger stores can own their own piece of the mall, it would provide more stability to the mall and attract more smaller businesses to locate there.

"The trend in the industry is that the shop owners want to own their own property," he said.  "Once they own it, if they are going to close multiple stores they'll hold on to a store that they own.   Rather than close it, they will close stores that they lease first.  This is a situation where we're going to get a tenant who is going to buy the property and invest into it."