Archive: News

The Lansing Town Board unanimously approved a new law Wednesday adopting a Planned Development Area (PDA) for the Warren Road Business Park on Dutch Mill Road in Lansing.  The business park is home to several office and light manufacturing businesses including Transonic Systems, Envisage, and United Parcel Service.  What makes the new law unusual is that the PDA was approved in 1988.

"Decades ago the Town approved the Warren Road Business Park.  It is light office and manufacturing uses," explained Town Attorney Guy Krogh.  "The regulations exist in terms of the approved PDA platt, and even though some of the regulations were set forth in restrictions and covenants that were filed common to the entire parcel.  Because a PDA is technically a zoning change it has always needed a local law to define and describe it as a stand-alone zone.  We're getting around to that now."

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton may have been the big winners in their home state primaries Tuesday, but Tompkins County voters had a different idea about who they wanted to run on the Democratic ticket in the general election.  And while Trump won the most Tompkins County votes, Lansing Republicans preferred John Kasich.


Bernie Sanders and Trump were the winners in Tuesday's presidential primary election -- at least in Tompkins County.  Sanders led Clinton 9,298 to 5,625, garnering 62.31% of the votes.  On the Republican side Trump snagged 37.13%.  Kasich took second place with 34.50%, followed by Ted Cruz (26.81%) and Ben Carson (1.55%).

The Lansing Board Of Education approved a $28,047,000 budget Monday for the 2016-2017 school year.  The budget represents a 1.14% reduction from this year's budget, keeping it below the state-imposed tax cap and making district property taxpayers eligible for refund checks.  King said that under-spending helped keep taxes down.

"We had significant savings in energy costs this year," she said.  "It's been a really soft winter.  We had that happen in the 2011-12 school year as well."

Lansing School Business Administrator Mary June King warned the Board Of Education Monday that the State is planning a major change to the School Tax Relief (STAR) program.  The new approach would take away the up-front property tax exemption, replacing it with an income tax credit when taxes are filed in April.

"The State has decided that for new home purchases they are going to move away from STAR being a guaranteed reduction in your school tax," King reported.  "Instead you'll be applying for those monies in your income tax."

The New York State State Senate has taken a tremendous step forward in protecting New York's volunteer firefighters by enacting Senate Bill 3891. The legislation, which Senator Mike Nozzolio drafted and sponsored in the State Senate, will provide presumptive cancer coverage to New York's over 100,000 volunteer firefighters.

Throughout his tenure, Nozzolio has been a tireless advocate on behalf of volunteer firefighters. This important legislation was introduced several years ago after Nozzolio met Matthew Foe, a constituent and volunteer firefighter from Geneva, New York. Matthew had served his community for over twenty years and had been diagnosed with brain cancer.

Due to chronic bus operator shortages, the TCAT Board of Directors, in a special board meeting Monday, voted 7-0 (with two board members absent) in favor of reducing service for the transit agency's summer service period, which begins Sun., May 22 and ends Sat., Aug. 20.

The changes include trimming trips or making adjustments to 21 of TCAT's 33 routes to include: Routes 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 20, 21, 22, 31, 32, 36, 37, 41, 51, 52, 65, 72, 81, 82, 90, and 93.

Meeting for the first time in nine months, the Tompkins County Legislature's Old Library Committee received a project update Monday regarding redevelopment of the site of the Old Tompkins County Library from preferred developer Travis Hyde Properties.

The hour-long meeting came at the request of the developer, to inform the committee about how the project is evolving since the Legislature granted Travis-Hyde preferred developer status, now that the project is reported about a third of the way through the review process by the City of Ithaca Planning Board and Landmarks Preservation Commission.

Tom Reed sponsored a Congressional resolution recognizing April as Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month. "We care about the survivors of sexual assault and want to come together to stop this preventable tragedy," said Reed. "This is something that has personally impacted my family and we need to stand with these survivors. They need to know that if they come forward, we will believe them, and hold their attackers accountable. It's just the right thing to do."

The bipartisan co-sponsor Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) had this to say: "From the military to college campuses, we are still fighting for climates free from harassment and sexual violence. Sexual assault survivors deserve our support in speech and action. We are all affected by sexual assault and we each have a role in preventing these crimes, from direct intervention to opposing an environment that leaves far too many perpetrators unpunished. I am proud to support National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month as well as many other initiatives to combat sexual assault and help survivors."

Full-time contingent faculty at Ithaca College met with their administration last week to ask that they be recognized as a collective bargaining unit with SEIU Local 200United. Their part-time contingent colleagues formed a union with SEIU this past May and are currently negotiating their first contract. An overwhelming majority of full-time contingent faculty teaching on limited-term contracts, generally for the duration of one year, have signed cards expressing their support to join their part-time colleagues in SEIU.

Shoshe Cole, Assistant Professor in Physics and Astronomy at Ithaca College and a member of the union organizing committee, said of the meeting, "We are moving forward in our effort to join our part-time colleagues at IC in the union and have the right to negotiate as one group of contingent faculty. We were disappointed that our administration decided not to remain neutral nor recognize our democratic majority of support to form our union.  It's sad that they have initially chosen to divide our community on this issue and spend tuition dollars on legal fees in an effort to stop us from organizing. They did the same thing with the part-timers and it was woefully unsuccessful. We are going to move forward to win by filing for a union election through the National Labor Relations Board. Still, we hope that they will reconsider their decision and instead uphold the values of Ithaca College by recognizing our democratic will to form a union."

A power-purchase agreement that could save the Lansing School District close to a half million dollars over 25 years is back on the table.  School Business Administrator Mary June King told the Board Of Education Monday that concerns about changes in various clauses in the contract have been worked out.

"We told them we would renegotiate the financial terms, but not the rest of the agreement," King said Monday.  "They agreed.  They have submitted the amendment to the agreement to me.  The Attorneys and I will have a phone conference to discuss those terms, and I hope I will bring something for you to approve on April 20th."

New York State Senator Michael Nozzolio today announced that the 2016-2017 State Budget includes nearly $30 million for the 54th Senate District to fund the Consolidated Local Street and Highway Improvement Program (CHIPS) and Local PAVE-NY projects. Nozzolio has led the fight to achieve transportation parity through expanded funding of roads and bridges in Upstate New York.

"A well-funded, well-maintained transportation infrastructure is critical for the safety and well-being of our residents and helps to create economic growth and opportunity in New York State," said Nozzolio. "As State Senator, I have continued my aggressive efforts to support the funding needed to keep our local roads, bridges and highways safe."

The Village of Lansing Board of Trustees passed its $3.1 million budget Monday.  The new budget is 70.86% higher than last year's budget, in part because of major road projects planned for this summer.  For village taxpayers it will mean a 10% rise in the tax rate, from $0.99 to $1.10.  Mayor Donald Hartill said the rise is part one of a two year plan to bring the tax rate back to a sustainable level.

"Three years ago we were adding a little more to capital reserves than we liked," he said.  "It was a period when we weren't doing heavy maintenance, so I reduced the tax rate from $1.20 to around a dollar.  Then instead of being at a level that is sustainable we we suddenly at a dollar.  We've managed over that intervening term to sustain it.  But this year it's clear that if we were to continue on that path we would be negative on our capital reserves in about ten years.  That is not a sensible way to run an enterprise like the Village of Lansing."