Archive: News

Legislator Brian Robison Announces Resignation
Legislator Brian Robison announced last Thursday that he will resign from the Tompkins County Legislature as of November 30, to become Tompkins County Undersheriff.  Tompkins County Sheriff Ken Lansing today announced Mr. Robison's appointment, as part of a Sheriff's Office reorganization for the Sheriff's second term.

Robison, a retired police investigator, with 21 years of service with the Ithaca Police Department, has served on the County Legislature since 2010, representing District 9 (Town of Groton and portions of the Towns of Dryden and Lansing.)  He has chaired the Legislature's Public Safety Committee since 2013 and has served on the budget committee during his entire time on the Legislature.

The special legislative committee charged with reviewing expressions of interest to redevelop the site of the Old Tompkins County Library recommended last Friday that all four sponsors of active concept proposals submitted to the County be invited to advance to the next stage of the process, response to a detailed Request for Proposals (RFP) issued by the County.  The recommendation was supported without dissent by all five members of the Old Library Committee.

The prospective developers are DPI Consultants, LLC; Franklin Properties, MCK Building Associates, STREAM Collaborative, Taitem Engineering, and Dr. Marne O'Shae, MD; Rochester's Cornerstone Group, Ltd. and Cayuga Housing Development Corporation; and Travis Hyde Properties and HOLT Architects.  (Two others had also responded to the RFEI, but over the course of the review period withdrew from consideration.)

Incumbents were the big winners in Tuesday's elections with Governor Andrew Cuomo, Congressman Tom Reed, and Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton handily winning another term in their respective offices.  While the results were not surprising, the size of the gap between Reed's 58.57% of 23rd Congressional District voters and Tompkins County Legislator Martha Robertson's 35.34% (unofficial results until write-ins are counted) following the very close race two years ago between Reed and Tompkins County Legislator Nate Shinagawa.

The 23rd District is largely conservative with the notable exception of Tompkins county, which joined Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Chemung, a portion of Ontario, Schuyler, Seneca, Steuben, part of Tioga, and Yates Counties in redistricting in 2012.  Reed won by a wide margin in every county except Tompkins, where Robertson led 54.61% to 41.11%.  District-wide Reed garnered more than 103,000 votes to Robertson's more than 62,000.

A majority of adjunct professors at Tompkins Cortland Community College signed authorization cards in support of affiliating with New York State United Teachers, citing job security as a major factor in the drive to unionize.

The new unit — known as the TC3 Adjunct Association — would represent more than 250 adjunct members. They would be joining the 20,000 adjuncts from colleges such as the State University of New York at Cortland, Syracuse University and Finger Lakes and Mohawk Valley Community Colleges now represented by NYSUT affiliates.

Seneca Lake, NY – Entering the third week, starting at 7:00am Monday protesters blocked the gates of Texas-based Crestwood Midstream’s gas storage facility on the shore of Seneca Lake. 15 people were arrested at about 9:00 AM after Crestwood called the police. Last week, ten protesters were arrested in acts of civil disobedience blocking the gates, just as the 15 people did today. Protesters have held blockades at the Crestwood gate since Thursday, October 23; on Wednesday, October 29, they began blocking two of the gates to Crestwood. Notably, the ongoing protests also included a rally with more than 200 people at the Crestwood gate on Friday, October 24th.

Friday, October 24th marked the day that major new construction on the gas storage facility was authorized to begin. The ongoing acts of civil disobedience come after the community pursued every possible avenue to stop the project and after being thwarted by an unacceptable process and denial of science.

On Tuesday November 4, 2014 at 6:37 PM Tompkins County Sheriff Deputies responded to the intersection of North Triphammer Road and Asbury Road in the Town of Lansing for a reported two car personal injury motor vehicle accident. Deputies report a 2003 Chevrolet was traveling north on North Triphammer Road when the operator who was attempting to turn left on Asbury Road failed to yield the right of way to a 2012 Cadillac that was traveling south on North Triphammer Road.

The 2012 Cadillac collided with the 2003 Chevrolet in the southbound lane of North Triphammer Road. The Chevrolet remained in the road while the Cadillac left the roadway striking a guiderail on the west side of the intersection.

Lansing Fire Chief Scott Purcell told Fire Commissioners Tuesday that his department is preparing for possible ebola emergencies.  14 Lansing EMTs have trained in handing calls with possible ebola victims so far, and the department has procured special suits to protect emergency responders from being infected.

"In the last couple of weeks EMS people have been busy writing an SOP (Standard Operating Procedure), or guidelines for ebola response that was required by the State Department of Health," Purcell said.  "We've done that.  We offered the mandated training to everybody last Thursday.  We also had to order five sets of protective suits that was required on the list of equipment."

Brian RobisonTompkins County Sheriff Ken Lansing, reelected Tuesday, today announced a Sheriff's Office reorganization in preparation for his second term of office.

Anticipating the planned retirement of Undersheriff Derek Osborne during 2015, Sheriff Lansing announced his appointment of Tompkins County Legislator Brian Robison as Undersheriff.  Consistent with the County's strategy of succession planning for management personnel, he said Mr. Robison will begin service prior to Undersheriff Osborne's retirement to ensure a smooth transition.

In an update report presented to the Legislature’s Government Operations Committee today, County Administrator Joe Mareane reported that the County is very close to attaining its living wage goals for County contracts—reporting that more than 90% of all covered contract employees are paid at or above the AFCU Living Wage, with nearly 80% of the contracts paying all covered employees at least the AFCU wage level.

But Administrator Mareane also cautioned that the County is reaching the point at which future progress will be limited by structural constraints faced by those few agencies that do not pay all covered employees the living wage—nearly all of which are mental health or elder care providers.  “Our contractors have estimated that the cost to bring the last 10% of contract employees to the living wage would exceed $2 million, and could cause complications so severe that some smaller agencies may simply choose not to participate in County work,” he said.

State tax collections of $34.2 billion through the first half of the fiscal year were nearly $610 million higher than projected and the state collected nearly $3.5 billion from financial settlements through September, according to the state monthly cash report and a mid-year report on revenue trends, released today by New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli. In spite of higher than anticipated spending, the General Fund ended the first half of the year $515.8 million above updated projections.

"Midway through the fiscal year, New York’s cash position continues to improve,” DiNapoli said. “Tax collections are outpacing projections and settlement revenue is boosting state coffers. In the short term the state’s fiscal outlook is positive.”

Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton, Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick, and New York State DOT, Region 3 in Syracuse, who together formed a Working Group on Truck Safety, have announced the next steps in their work in reviewing truck safety issues in Ithaca and implementing any and all feasible improvements to try to prevent tragic accidents such as the one on June 20th of this year that took the life of a 27-year old employee of Simeon's Restaurant on the Ithaca Commons.

After a lengthy general discussion of a number of some of the more drastic or high-tech ideas that have been suggested by the public or by city or state engineers, the group agreed to continue to compile all the ideas, large and small, and to more-thoroughly research and consider the options.  While many in the public have emailed their ideas to either the Assemblywoman or the Mayor (such as totally shutting down Route 79 in the city to truck traffic, more truck brake-testing areas, more signage, or sensors to detect and stop problem trucks, among others), all are welcome to forward any other ideas to either local office to be added to the list of things to consider.

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced Monday approximately $70 million in awards to fund 68 bicycle, pedestrian and multi-use path transportation projects in New York. The projects, funded by the Federal Highway Administration and which leverage a total investment of $103.7 million, will promote walking and biking, and boost tourism and economic development opportunities in dozens of communities across the state.

"These projects will help communities become more walkable and bicycle friendly, as well as show off the natural beauty that exists in every corner of this state," Governor Cuomo said. "I thank the Federal Highway Administration and our representatives for helping the state secure this funding so that residents and visitors alike can enjoy New York like never before."