Archive: News

When Lansing School District voters go to the polls this May they will be asked to approve the amount of taxes levied for the 2014-2015 school budget, approve bus purchases, and say yes to a $4 million capital project to replace failing septic systems on the school campus.  The New York State tax cap law has complicated the process, limiting the amount the tax levy can rise unless a supermajority (60%) of district voters agree to pay more.

Part of the problem is that items impacting the tax cap amount for the coming year may force the Board Of Education to hope for that supermajority of votes.  $1 million of debt service is falling off in 2016-17, which will reduce the district's property tax levy limit by about $400,000.

Lansing School Superintendent Chris Pettograsso and Board Of Education member Karen McGreevey were in Albany Monday to advocate for adequate public education funding.  The two met with Assemblywoman Barara Lifton and Senator Mike Nozzolio.

"Our Lansing representatives are pushing hard to restore the Gap Elimination Adjustment (GEA)," Pettograsso told the school board Monday.  "The GEA is a loss of funding that school districts started to see ain 2010.  Our message to our representatives was to not only say how much the GEA affected the education we are able to deliver in Lansing, but it happened at the same time as the value of the Cayuga Power Plant decreased significantly.  It was a significant hit for us in 2010 and 2011.  We've been making budget reductions."

	*     State Participant **   State Finalist *** State Champion

V Boys Indoor Track
10th    Andrew Kuramoto
Jacob Lange
11th    Ben Eisenhut
Max Jordan* - Coaches Award 2013-14 Varsity Indoor Track
John Losurdo
12th    Dylan Bland* - Coaches Award 2013-14 Varsity Indoor Track
Austin Candea
Anders Presthus* - Coaches Award 2013-14 Varsity Indoor Track
Zarien Weeks

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The petition to repower the Cayuga Power Plant got off to an encouraging start in its first week with estimates of over 700 signatures.  Town Councilman Ed LaVigne says that as the word gets out more people are showing their support for repowering the plant.  In addition LaVigne and other Lansing officials are planning a visit to Albany Monday to lobby for keeping the plant open.  He stresses that natural gas is an interim solution that will give greener energy time to develop while saving the Lansing economy.

"If the electricity isn't produced here it will come from someplace else," LaVigne says.  "That source might be from a plant in Ohio that burns coal.  So what have we really accomplished?  Are we really burning something that is a cleaner fuel?"

Legislature Supports Alternative to Governor’s Property Tax Freeze Proposal
Maintaining that Governor Cuomo’s proposed two-year tax freeze and rebate program is not the way to achieve meaningful property tax relief, the Tompkins County Legislature has voted official support of an alternative approach—with the State assuming the cost of its own mandated human services programs, beginning with Medicaid, to produce immediate and meaningful tax relief for property owners.

The resolution, advanced by Legislature Chair Mike Lane and approved by unanimous vote (Legislator Leslyn McBean-Clairborne was excused), states that the Legislature agrees with the need to prioritize property tax relief, but that “Tompkins County finds no quantifiable evidence that the property tax freeze would result in significant property tax relief, while a phased state takeover of the costs of its own mandated human services, starting with Medicaid, would provide immediate, permanent, and measurable property tax reductions for all classes of property owners.”  Such realignment, the Legislature maintains, “would achieve historic levels of property tax relief.”

The Village of Lansing election was set Monday for April 22,2014.  Two Board of Trustee seats are up this year.  John O'Neill will run for his sixth two-year term, and Gerry Monaghan is running for Julie Baker's seat.  After three terms as a trustee Baker has chosen not to run this year.

O'Neill has served as a Village Trustee for nearly ten years.  He has taken a special interest in municipal services.  He has served as a liaison to the Town of Lansing, attending nearly all the Town meetings and reporting back on them to the Trustees.  He monitors Village roads to make sure they are in compliance with State laws.  And he worked with Lansing Fire District officials on the new Oakcrest Road fire station that was recently completed.  He was also instrumental in starting the deer population control program that is now largely maintained by Trustee Lynn Leopold.

All the little signs dotted on the corners of major intersections in the Town of Lansing will be gone soon.  Wednesday the Town Board came closer to replacing haphazard signs with municipal wayfaring signs that will help drivers find local businesses.  Code/Fire Enforcement Officer & Building Inspector Lynn Day presented design alternatives to the board and asked board members to approve a plan.

"We had talked about having wayfaring signs on North Triphammer Road, across from East Shore Drive, and on the corner of Brickyard Road," he said.  "It's up to you where they go.  We will put the posts up and a 'Welcome to Lansing' sign.  Then each person will pay to get on it.  That will be their sign instead of having individual signs on the corner.  It will be a one-time charge."

For the past handful of years Lansing School Administrator Mary June King has been projecting hard times when the Board Of Education is faced with approving a 2014-15 budget.  While the personnel costs continue to soar, decreases in revenue out of the board's control have to mean higher taxes, deeper cuts, or both.  Next year's budget is estimated at $27,750, which could mean additional taxes of between $165 and $413 for a $200,000 home.  With a multitude of factors negatively impacting district revenue, the board worried Monday that this year's budget is going to be a particularly hard sell when it comes to a vote in May.

"(Director of Special Services Kathy Rourke) has been saying, 'Haven't you talked about the 2014-15 budget for the last five years?  Haven't you talked about how awful this was going to be?'", King told the board.  "I think I have.  And it's come to call now."

Tompkins County Legislator Mike Sigler and Lansing Councilman Ed LaVigne were out in the 16 degree weather Wednesday putting up signs supporting repowering the Cayuga Power plant with natural gas.  Sigler initiated a petition last week to collect what he hopes will be at least 5,000 local signatures to show Governor Andrew Cuomo and the Public Service Commission that there is overwhelming support for the repowering in Lansing.

"It's going really well," Sigler said Wednesday.  "Last time I checked online there were about 120.  I've collected about 50 and I have other people out collecting.  My goal is to get to 5,000. If we got there that would be great."

For the past couple of years Village of lansing Mayor Donald hartill has been warning the Village trustees that the deteriorating Cayuga Heights Road bridge that spans NY Route 13 is due for repairs.  Wednesday NYS Department of Transportation (DOT) representatives were in the new Village Hall to explain the project to residents.  The $2 million project will include a new deck, rails, substructure replacement, steel repairs as needed, new joints and painting.  But construction is not expected to significantly impact traffic.

"It's called staged construction," says  DOT Public Information Officer for Region 3 Gene Cilento.  "When you cross the bridge now there's no signal there.  In order to allow traffic in both directions to get by we're going to be putting up temporary signals where the exit ramps come off of Route 13, and control alternating two-way traffic in that one lane with an alternating signal.  Northbound traffic and southbound traffic will still be able to use it and the exit ramps will still be open.  There may be some minor delays at certain times of the day during construction."

County Legislator Mike Sigler told the Lansing Town Board Wednesday that the County is hiring a local resident to consult to the Ithaca Tompkins Regional Airport to identify measures that will bring passenger levels back after a 13% drop-off last year.

"There's been a large drop off of passengers at the Ithaca Airport and it's caused a lot of concern," Sigler said.  "The County is hiring a consultant to look at why and see what can be done."

In the swirl of frightening budget challenges the Lansing Board Of Education got some good news Monday.  Replacing three major septic systems will cost a million dollars less than projected at a school board meeting  in late January.  The project is now estimated at $4 million because existing sand filters will not have to be removed.

"At the last meeting we threw out the figure of $5 million," explained Tetra Tech Architects and Engineers Project Manager Tom Farlow.  "We are looking right now at about a $4 million referendum.  That million dollar reduction has a lot to do with the closure plan.  Tetra Tech was worked with New York State and the County Department of Health to find ways to reduce costs.  The million dollar savings is based on the fact that we can leave the existing sand filters in place."