Archive: News

Legislature Increases Funding for OAR to Support Transitional Reentry Housing
The Legislature, by unanimous vote ( Legislator Mike Sigler was excused), approved a one-time $100,000 funding increase for the agency Opportunities, Alternatives, and Resources (OAR) to provide start-up funding enabling it to expand its range of services to provide transitional reentry housing for those returning to the community following incarceration at the Tompkins County Jail. The funding will enable the agency to acquire and begin to rehabilitate a four-bedroom house at 626 West Buffalo Street in Ithaca to become a transitional reentry housing facility, with a projected capacity to house as many as five OAR clients. An additional $60,000 to support rehabilitation will be covered through outside grants and donations. Once rehabilitation is complete, OAR director Deborah Dietrich has indicated that the agency will obtain a mortgage on the property, and may have capacity in the future to offset the County's supplemental funding through adjustments in future budgeted appropriations. County Administrator Joe Mareane has stressed that the County will have no ownership stake in the building.

Last Thursday, Congressman Reed met with protesters holding a sit-in at his Ithaca district office. It was his first stop after arriving back in his district after meeting with President Trump in the morning in D.C. regarding the President's agenda.

"Even if we hold differing opinions on major issues, I look to find common ground so that we can create sound policy that will benefit all people who live in our district," said Reed. "Having these types of conversations is what democracy looks like, I will always be here to listen and find an area in which we can agree."

(ITHACA, N.Y., February 23, 2017) – The Tompkins County Health Department (TCHD) was notified by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) that drainage from Sunnyside Farms in Cayuga County was running clear as of Wednesday, February 22, 2017. Waters in Salmon Creek and its tributaries were also running clear to Cayuga Lake. NYSDEC reported the dissolved oxygen levels, an indicator of water quality, were at acceptable levels. Water quality was previously impaired due to a release of manure-laden water from the farm.

The Bolton Point water treatment plant has not detected any changes in untreated water quality since the spill, indicating that the contamination did not reach their intake. Based on this report, TCHD is removing the advisory against direct contact with waters in Salmon Creek and on Cayuga Lake's shore near the Salmon Creek inlet.

The Legislature's special Jail Study Committee heard from District Attorney Matt Van Houten and from Angela Sullivan, executive director of the Alcohol and Drug Council of Tompkins County, as it continued its examination of factors contributing to capacity issues at the Tompkins County Jail.

The County Legislature initiated the jail study process last fall, after the New York State Commission of Correction announced its intent to revoke the Jail's long-standing 18-bed variance that has allowed the Jail to operate above its 82-bed capacity. While the variance has been temporarily reinstated, the action has forced the County to consider how to respond, including the possibility of building additional jail capacity. Committee chair Rich John stressed again tonight that there has been no decision made to expand the Jail.

In 2013 the Town of Lansing issued a RFP (Request For Proposals) to developers interested in building on 156 acres of town-owned land that borders Route 34, across the street from the Town Hall and ball fields.  Four proposals were submitted, and three of them were deemed to fit together to fit a concept of what the Town had developed as a potential future town center.  The developers were willing to build the infrastructure, including a package plant to handle sewage, roads, water mains, lighting, and so on.  Then, for some reason, the fairly detailed concept plans one of which included a purchase proposal, faded away.  Nothing happened for years until this January when the Town issued a new,  24 page RFP.

"A lot of times 'RFP' would stand for 'Request For proposals'," says Lansing Supervisor Ed LaVigne.  "This time it's more or a 'Request For Purchase'."

The Lansing School District has been trying to save energy dollars by contracting with a developer to generate solar energy since 2013.  At first it appeared the District could save $1,055,067 over the course of a 20 year contract.  But over time the attempt has hit many speed bumps, including a change to the contract that would have halved the savings and raised the time frame to 25 years.  Consultant Chris Chris Santospirito told the Board of Education Monday that she had planned to tell them why the project was dead.  But a last minute offer from the developer may breathe life into the project.

"We were going to say we're done!  We're walking away.  And then they came back and said 'we can tweak this a little bit more.  We think we can make this work a little bit better.'  This bumps up the savings to about $550,000.  Instead of $17,000 savings a year it's more like $20,000 to $26,000 depending on the year you're in."

Congressman Tom Reed is leading a bipartisan effort to enhance job creation and encourage U.S. energy security. The bipartisan bill would extend tax provisions that make it easier for companies to develop energy technologies, such as fuel cells, geothermal combined heat and power systems and wind turbines.

"We care about ensuring that we can produce reliable, clean and affordable energy that our nation needs right here at home. By implementing common sense policies like this one, we can ensure that this can be accomplished," said Reed. "As we move forward with tax reform, having a structure that encourages this kind of development creates the quality, family-sustaining jobs that people throughout our country deserve, all while helping meet the energy demands of today and tomorrow. It's a win-win."

The Technologies for Energy Securities Act will phase out the tax credit to bring new technologies to market.

After two days of voting, part-time lecturers and full-time contingent faculty members at Ithaca College (IC) voted to authorize the IC Contingent Faculty Union/Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 200United Bargaining Committee to call for any action up to a strike. The authorization vote comes after 18 months of bargaining between the union and the IC administration.

Tom Schneller, bargaining committee member and Part-Time Lecturer in the School of Music, said: "We are energized and excited by the outcome of the vote, which demonstrates that contingent professors at IC are fed up with the status quo and willing to stand up and fight for job security and fair pay. We are fed up with being exploited as cheap disposable labor, to be hired and fired at will. We reject the Walmart model of higher education that is espoused by the administration. It is immoral and unsustainable that our top administrators are raking in massive salaries while many of the professors who provide the education our students struggle to afford are living in poverty. Our proposals are reasonable and achievable: for part-time faculty to attain pay parity at IC would make up 0.3% of IC's current budget. Doing the right thing at minimal cost to the college should not be a difficult decision. It is time for the IC administration to stop stonewalling and do what's in the best interest of faculty and students at Ithaca College, rather than their own financial priorities."

New York's water systems may require nearly $40 billion in repairs and improvements over the next two decades, according to a report issued today by State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli.

"Many drinking water systems in New York are over 100 years old and operating far beyond their useful life," DiNapoli said. "Too many places are dealing with water main breaks, leaks, contaminated drinking water and other problems that can result in public health threats, property damage or inconvenience for residents and businesses. New York needs to significantly invest in this area, or we're going to suffer the consequences. Unfortunately, paying for these solutions presents a considerable challenge."

NYS Senator Pam Helming (R,C,I-54th District) joined aging advocates representing thousands of seniors from across New York State and a bi-partisan group of lawmakers from the Senate and Assembly to call on legislative leaders to make New York's seniors a priority in this year's state budget.

"With a rapidly growing senior population statewide, we need to work to ensure that there are adequate services in place so people can remain in their homes and in New York," said Senator Helming. "We cannot go down the road of underfunding critically important resources that millions of New Yorkers depend on every year. Making the growing population of seniors a priority in this year's budget is good for our families, it is good for our communities and it will play an important role in keeping New York as a leader in senior care for years to come."

Responding to an announcement by the Tompkins County Energy and Economic Development Task Force (EEDTF) last week that NYSEG has requested a solution to the natural gas shortage in Lansing that will make a moratorium on new customers permanent, Lansing representatives said Wednesday the moratorium should be spread county-wide before any further decisions are made.  With close to 900 new building projects currently approved or undergoing the approval process in the Town, Lansing officials said that it's not fair that communities that have access to natural gas have come up with a plan that will deny it to Lansing.

"It's definitely not putting us on the right playing field," said Tompkins County Legislator Mike Sigler (Lansing).  "The gas moratorium is obviously something that's going to have an enormous impact on our town."

Members of the Tompkins County Energy and Economic Development Task Force announced Monday a possible alternative to the proposed West Dryden Road natural gas pipeline, that was planned to supply natural gas primarily to areas of Lansing.  The alternative would provide more reliable natural gas delivery to existing customers by installing a compressor station to insure a steady flow of natural gas, but would extend the existing moratorium on new Lansing natural gas customers to force new customers to find alternative energy solutions.

Task Force Chair Martha Robertson said that leaders in Tompkins County have a responsibility to address the issue of reducing fossil fuel use, while supporting job growth and economic development.  But Lansing representatives were very unhappy about the solution, complaining that it may solve the problem two, four or more years in the future, and while there is ample natural gas in the rest of the County, that 'rest of the County' was keeping natural gas out of Lansing and stunting development.

"We have a developer that wants to put $26 million into our town," says Lansing Town Supervisor Ed LaVigne.  "He's been delayed for three years because they're going back and forth with this natural gas situation.  The reality is that we need to put money into our town now, because we don't know where the power plant is going to go.  That is a critical, critical concern that I have right now."