- By Dan Veaner
- News
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Lansing's budget passed 3-2 Wednesday. A bone of contention during budget talks in the past few months has been the addition of a full time municipal planner to the Town's employee roster. At least one board member says that the Town has done just fine with part-time planner Jonathan Kanter, a professional municipal planner who retired from the Town of Ithaca a few years ago. Kanter's contract ends soon, and while all the board members have said they have been quite impressed with the impact a professional planner has had on the development of the comprehensive plan and Codes Office operations -- and Kanter's work in particular -- Board members disagree on what to do next.Lansing Supervisor Kathy Miller says that the Town needs a full time planner. She made her case Saturday at a budget forum. Miller made the point that the number of employees in the department has decreased from five to two and a half (Kanter is currently completing a part-time contract), but the workload has not.
"Without a planner developers can drive what happens in your town," Miller said. "And that's what's been happening here. It's been driven not by what we want. it's been driven by developers. That's not good for the Town."
A journalist, a candidate, three council-member spouses and a legislator walk into a courtroom... It may sound like the beginning of a joke, but that's all that showed up Saturday for the Lansing town Budget Forum, billed as an informal chance for citizens to ask questions about the $4.86 million 2014 town budget that will begin a gradual property tax rise after five years of reductions. The highlight was a presentation by Councilwoman Ruth Hopkins that actually made the budget and the thinking behind it understandable.
Tompkins County has achieved a very favorable interest rate in its sale of nearly $9 million in Serial Bonds, refunding of 2004 debt that will save the County more than $700,000 in total—more than $100,000 each year over its term.
The Legislature’s budget committee today recommended the Legislature take necessary actions that would ultimately enable ownership of Ithaca’s Beechtree Care Center (formerly the Reconstruction Home) to be transferred to the private company which has been operating the facility, under receivership, since September.
Martha Robertson (D) is challenging Tom Reed for Congress in next year's election. This year she is running for Tompkins County Legislature, a body she has served on since 2002 and chaired since 2010. Originally from Baltimore, MD, Robertson came to the Ithaca area to go to college. A former teacher, she has raised two children in her Dryden home, and became the first woman and the first Democrat to be elected to the Legislature in her western Dryden district. Among other responsibilities, she also chairs the Tompkins County Industrial Development Agency. She has two grandchildren.
Tom Reed (R) is running for his third full term in the House of Representatives. In 1999 Reed, an attorney, opened a private practice in Corning and was a partner in real estate and mortgage brokerage businesses. He then became the Mayor of Corning, before being elected to finish the remaining term of Congressman Eric Massa (D) in a special election. A Corning native, he was raised in a family of 12 children. He and his wife are raising their own two children, 15 and 13, in the house his grandfather built in 1921.
Sheriff Ken Lansing reports that on Wednesday (10/30) at around 3:40pm members from the Tompkins County Sheriff's Department, Cayuga Heights Police Department and Ithaca City Police Department responded to the Econo Lodge located at 2303 North Triphammer Road in the Village of Lansing for a robbery in progress involving a handgun.
Congressman Tom Reed and the House Manufacturing Caucus welcomed a panel of experts Tuesday to Washington for a discussion on the “National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI) – Past, Present and Future.” The caucus delved into a conversation of the first national manufacturing innovation institute, what current proposals exist for additional institutes, and the outlook for legislation to authorize future innovation centers to promote job growth in the United States.
In a brief special session, the Tompkins County Legislature formally adopted amendments to the County Administrator's 2014 Tentative Budget and 2014-2018 Capital Program, as recommended by its Expanded Budget Committee. The vote was 14-1, with Legislator Pat Pryor voting no. 
Senator Mike Nozzolio announced the adoption of legislation designed to cap agricultural land assessment increases at two percent per year, ensuring more predictable tax rates for New York’s hardworking farmers.
Hydraulic fracturing of shale is likely to be significantly less productive in New York than in Pennsylvania, while still creating widespread problems associated with ancillary activities such as water impoundments, compressor stations and waste disposal. That is the conclusion reached by a team of analysts and presented at a forum at Cornell University on Wednesday night.
The Lansing School District's athletic programs became a hot potato at the July 29th public hearing at which NYS Public Service Commission (PSC) representatives collected public input on whether the Cayuga Power Plant should be converted from coal powered to natural gas. Some residents testified that closing the plant would decimate school tax revenues, noting that athletics and co-curricular activities would be the first on the chopping block.