Archive: News

Lansing's Wrestlers leave on Thursday for the State Wrestling Tournament at the Times Union arena in Albany. Wrestling starts at 10:00 am on both Friday and Saturday.

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Legislature Urges State to Consolidate State and Federal Primary Dates
The Legislature, by unanimous vote, called upon the Governor and State Legislature to change State election law to permit the federal and New York primary to be held on the same day. (Legislators Leslyn McBean-Clairborne, Kathy Luz Herrera, and Pam Mackesey were excused.)  Without such State action to modify the standard September primary date, there will be three primaries in 2012—a presidential primary in April, a federal summer primary, perhaps in June (because of a federal court ruling), and the State primary in September.

Village of Lansing Mayor Donald Hartill announced the formation of an advisory group to help plan the area on and north of Dart Drive.  The group will work with consultants from Barton and Loguidice, which has been hired to study the area and make recommendations that will impact the Lansing Reserve project and especially two other large parcels that may eventually be developed in the high density residential zone.

"One of the key challenges in this region of the Village is arriving at a sensible layout for possible new roadways and paths for pedestrians and bicycles," Hartill says.

The County’s Independent Redistricting Commission tonight voted to recommend an adjusted 14-district plan to reapportion County legislative districts.

The specific plan to be recommended in the Commission’s report to the Legislature, which was supported by a Commission vote of 6-2, adjusts slightly district boundaries within the City of Ithaca, compared to the scenario that had been advanced at two public hearings held in recent weeks.  In recommending the modified scenario, Commission Chair Dr. Henrik Dullea noted that it responds to input provided from citizens at those hearings and from members of the City’s Redistricting Committee.

Hydrofracking opponents cheered Tuesday when NY State Supreme Court Judge Phillip R. Rumsey ruled that the Town of Dryden can regulate land use to effectively ban fracking within its borders.  Lansing took a 'wait-and-see' approach to controlling the consequences of hydrofracking on the town until this year when the town's Drilling Committee recommended that the town council implement a one year moratorium on drilling to give the town time to catch up with updating its own ordinances, long range plan, and studies to support changes to Lansing law.  But Lansing Town Attorney Guy Krogh warns that Dryden's victory is only the first step in what may prove to be a long battle.

"The home rule power embedded in NY common law and the NYS Constitution are dispositive on this issue," Krogh says.  "But that, in the end, it will be the appellate courts and the NYS Legislature that will finally, or potentially, resolve this issue."

The Lansing Girls Basketball team advanced to the quarter-final round of the Section IV Class C tournament with a 60-11 win over visiting Sidney on Wednesday.

The team got off to a fast start finishing the first quarter with a 23-2 advantage, with five different players scoring in the period. Colby McCartney led the Ladycats with 14 points and a team high 10 rebounds, while Shanna Shaff chipped in with 13 points and a team high 4 steals.

A former investigator with the State Welfare Inspector General’s Office pleaded guilty to illegally obtaining unclaimed funds following an investigation launched by New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli. Gabriel Camacho, prosecuted by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, was sentenced on February 21 to community service and ordered to pay restitution.

“Fraud is fraud, but it is particularly egregious when it is committed by a public servant charged with investigating fraud,” DiNapoli said.

This week we were a Nielsen family.  You may know that the Nielsen ratings are used to poll television viewers across the country to see what people are watching.  The networks and individual stations use these ratings to determine which shows to keep, which to dump, and how much to charge for commercial time on each show.  So being chosen to be polled is kind of cool, because you have direct influence over what is broadcast.

It's also something of a pain in the patootie.  You have to write down all kinds of stuff about each show you are watching, and indicate who in your house watched it.  The most annoying part is trying to figure out the original air day and time if you have recorded shows to watch later.  My family watches almost no live TV because we are in love with the fast forward feature of our DVR.  So we fought all week over who would write down what we were watching.  Everyone wanted someone else to do it.

After studying numerous proposed concept plans for new Legislature space at three meetings held over the past month, the Legislature’s Capital Plan Review Committee today achieved a design recommendation to present to the full Legislature to move the process along to its next step.

After more than two hours’ discussion, the Committee voted 5-0 to recommend relocation of the Legislature to the second floor of the Old County Courthouse and a schematic design for the required renovation.  The proposed resolution also states that the Legislature plans to renovate and move into the space currently occupied by the Supreme Courtroom “as soon as is practical,” but no later the end of this year, and it directs staff to develop the budget for the renovations for final approval by the Legislature.

Lansing's County Legislator Pat Pryor asked the Lansing Town Board to pass a resolution urging Congress not to pass a new bill that would change the way public transportation is funded.  Pryor said the bill would threaten the way Tompkins County Area Transit plans finances and possibly threaten its actual funding.

"I don't know how much you know about our local transportation system," Pryor said.  "It's a good one.  For a city and county of our size it's considered to be the best in the nation.  Right now there is a proposal before Congress that would change the way TCAT and public transportation systems across the country are funded."

While the Lansing Central School District continues to look at about a million dollars in cuts for the next school year, District Business Administrator Mary June King had three pieces of good news to share at Monday's Board Of Education Meeting.  Most significantly, at the end of last year King was estimating a budget gap of $1.8 million.  Monday she reported that adjustments and recalculations have dropped the gap to $1,080,500.

"We're currently projecting the gap to be down from 3.7 to 2.9, which is a huge plus," she said.  "If we were to appropriate $1.9 million, the revenues start to catch up.  That would bring our projected budget gap to just over one million."

The County’s Independent Redistricting Commission put its recommended plan for reapportioning County legislative districts before the public again Thursday, at the second of two public hearings, held this time in the City of Ithaca.  About 30 people attended the hearing, including seven County legislators.

The Commission’s currently favored proposal would reduce the number of County legislative districts from 15 to 14, keeping the boundaries of the Villages of Lansing and Cayuga Heights intact and decreasing the number of “sliver districts” in the Town of Ithaca.  Four legislative districts would be created within the City of Ithaca, none of which would extend into the Town.