Archive: News

A discussion about fund balance policy pitted the Lansing Town Board against Deputy Highway Superintendent Charlie Purcell and Recreation Supervisor Patrick Tyrrell Wednesday, highlighting Lansing's apparent inability to plan for periodic equipment replacement.  They criticized present and past boards for making vague funding promises that don't materialize, frustrating attempts to plan for orderly equipment replacement.

"For seven years I've tried to implement a five, or 10 or fifteen year plan," Purcell said.  "It's frustrating.  The board as a whole has done nothing but blow smoke up our behinds.  We sit here and have these conversations year in and year out at budget time.  How many times have I presented a five, 10 or 20 year plan?"

Deputy Lansing Town Supervisor Sharon Bowman reported Wednesday that the Town is having difficulty in getting easements for water mains that will be connected to a new water tank on Bone Plain Road.  Bowman said that of 18 property owners seven have failed to respond.  Supervisor Kathy Miller said that the Town will pursue eminent domain if the land owners do not respond.

"It has been a painful process of getting executed easements," she said.  "I have reached out to a number of people and offered to come to them with my notary stamps, but no one is responding.  We have been dealing with this since September."

State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli’s Fiscal Stress Monitoring System has identified 22 villages in New York in some level of fiscal stress. DiNapoli’s office evaluated and scored 539 villages, which predominantly have a fiscal year ending on May 31.

For 2014, three villages have been classified as in “significant fiscal stress,” four in “moderate fiscal stress,” and 15 as “susceptible to fiscal stress.” Last year, a total of 15 villages from this group were listed in fiscal stress.

Congressman Tom Reed announced Wednesday that Yates County farmers received nearly $284,000 in Disaster Relief administered by the USDA through the Emergency Conservation Program.

"Last May I saw firsthand the damage done by widespread flooding in Penn Yan and Yates County," Reed says.  "I heard from homeowners, businesses and farmers about the amount of repairs they would need to their properties. I told them then that I would work tirelessly to get them the assistance they needed to get back up and running."

Senator Mike Nozzolio announced that the New York State Senate enacted four measures to crack down on cyber terrorism and its rapidly expanding threat to the state's security and finances. The legislation would enact tougher penalties for cyber-related crimes, create cyber security programs to identify potential risks and threats, and require the state to perform a comprehensive review of all its cyber security measures every five years.

"Cyber-terrorism continues to be one of the most serious threats to our national security and our personal privacy, and I am proud to work with my colleagues to address this vitally important issue," said Nozzolio. "These measures enacted in the Senate will enhance New York State's cyber-security and help protect our citizen's personal information, while strengthening penalties for those found guilty of cyber crimes."

Lansing School Administrators presented a plan to add about $290,000 worth of operational and instruction positions in the 2015-2016 budget.  After years of reductions Business Administrator Mary June King says this is the first time new instructional positions have been added in at least seven years.  She said that with $240,000 in cuts, mainly due to retiring employees, the new positions will only cost the district a net $50,000.

"The rollover budget presented to you two weeks ago was projected at $28,650,000," King said.  "The projected budget with these additions is $50,000 more.  It's really an instructional program growth of $290,000 value that we can get for less than $50,000 because of the reductions, some related to retirement breakage.  That is something we expect to see in the next few years, some retirement breakage planning."

New York State Senator Mike Nozzolio called on residents Wednesday to sign his petition to cut the gas tax and ensure that the funds collected from the tax are used properly. While national news stories tout gas for less than $2 per gallon, New Yorkers have seen prices drop but are still paying significantly more than in other states. Currently, New York leads the continental United States when it comes to the price at the pump.

"With gas prices falling across the country, New Yorkers have seen little relief at the pump and have literally watched the roads crumbling beneath them," said Nozzolio. "My goal is to cut New York's gas tax and make sure that any funds collected are used to repair our deteriorating infrastructure."

The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, recognized today the Tompkins County Shared Services Electronic Records Repository as part of the 2015 Bright Ideas program. This year's cohort includes 124 programs from all levels of government—school districts; county, city, state, and federal agencies; as well as public-private partnerships—that are at the forefront in innovative government action.

"Unlike larger governments, small local governments in New York State often do not have the resources to implement and support high-level uses of technology within their records management programs.  Often, the best alternative is to pool resources and collaborate with other like governments, in order to provide access to technological efficiencies and eliminate redundancies," notes Maureen Reynolds, Tompkins County Clerk.  "In 2009, Tompkins County implemented a digital archiving records program (Laserfiche) and for the past three years has been able to support a hosted solution within the system for use by other local government agencies via a secure Internet connection, or other locally managed direct network connectivity.

Legislature Receives Comments on Proposed Comprehensive Plan Update
The Tompkins County Legislature took public comment tonight on the draft 2015 Tompkins County Comprehensive Plan, representing the first full update of the Plan since it was first adopted by the Legislature eleven years ago.  Sustainability, regional cooperation, and fiscal responsibility are overarching principles of the Plan, presented to the Legislature two weeks ago, and the Plan addresses climate adaptation for the first time.
 
At the half-hour-long public hearing, eleven people spoke, and comments were overwhelmingly positive.  Many praised the Planning Department for its thoroughness in preparing the document and its extensive community outreach, then incorporating opinions expressed into the Plan.  Strong support was voiced especially for the Plan’s continued goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050, and many of the speakers urged that the goal be made even more ambitious—to achieve that benchmark perhaps 15 or 20 years earlier.

Local law enforcement agencies did not properly safeguard seized property, including cash, drugs, firearms and vehicles, according to an audit released today by State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli. The audit reviewed records in ten municipalities: Herkimer and Madison counties, the cities of Auburn, Elmira, Troy and Watertown; the towns of Hamburg, Irondequoit and Newburgh; as well as the village of Johnson City.

"When seized property is missing, it can jeopardize the prosecution of criminal cases and could result in dangerous items, such as drugs and firearms, making their way back into our communities," said DiNapoli. "Without proper oversight, it's impossible to know if the missing items were destroyed, transferred to other agencies, returned to owners or stolen. Fortunately, law enforcement officials in the municipalities we audited understand the seriousness of this issue and have already begun to implement many of the recommendations made in this audit."

The Lansing Fire Department to a partial roof collapse call Wednesday at the Cayuga Mall.  A cinder block wall was crushed, causing damage to the roof area around Party City and a vacant store that will be an Advance Auto Parts store.  Workmen alerted the Fire Department and Village of Lansing Code Enforcement/Zoning Officer Marty Moseley around 8am Wednesday.  The entire mall was closed and evacuated while workers shored up the wall and cleared the roof of snow and ice.  The mall reopened Thursday morning.

"The girder crushed about two and a half courses of block," Moseley says.  "So it fell about 16 inches.  As of Wednesday night between 8pm and 10pm they shored the wall up in accordance with an engineer."

Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton (D/WF-125) has been named to a new Assembly Climate Change Work Group that will explore policy initiatives on both state and federal levels to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and combat the effects of climate change. The group's formation was announced today by New York State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie.

"I'm thrilled to be asked by Speaker Heastie to serve on an Assembly Working Group on Climate Change," said Lifton. "As many of my constituents know, working on the fracking issue has led me to be deeply concerned about the threat of Climate Change, and I am grateful that the Speaker understands the need to put more focus on this critical issue. I greatly welcome the opportunity to work with the new Chair of the Assembly Committee on Environmental Conservation, Steve Englebright, who will head up this working group, and all my colleagues, to help make greater progress on reducing greenhouse gases in New York and adapting to the changes in weather we are already experiencing so as to protect all New Yorkers from the effects of Climate Change."