Archive: News

Long Range Transportation Plan Addresses County Emission Goal

The Legislature heard an update from the Ithaca Tompkins County Transportation Council on development of the 20-year Long Range Transportation Plan, which addresses area transportation needs to meet the County Comprehensive Plan goal to achieve a 40% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030.  Director Fernando Dearagon told legislators the Council’s analysis shows that meeting the goal will be challenging, but that the goal can be met through a combination of reducing drive-alone vehicle trips and increasing use of alternative transportation modes. 

Washington, DC – On November 20th U.S. Rep. Michael Arcuri (D-NY) and U.S. Rep. Chris Lee (R-NY) introduced legislation to eliminate all hauling costs for milk producers in efforts to protect dairy farmers from paying unfair fees to milk processors.  Arcuri and Lee have introduced this legislation to alleviate the financial crisis that many local, Upstate New York dairy farmers have suffered over the past year due to low milk prices.

“Helping Upstate New York dairy farmers get the assistance they need is critical for the economic success of the dairy industry and New York State as a whole,” Arcuri said. “This legislation will cut costs for dairy farmers and move towards a short-term recovery in the dairy industry, as well as a longer-term solution to help producers save money from production costs. I am committed to doing as much as possible for our dairy farmers, and I will continue to work with them across Upstate New York in order to solve this crisis.”

State Senator Mike Nozzolio announced last week that the State Senate and Assembly, have enacted legislation he co-sponsored to create felony charges for those who drive drunk with a child in the car. The bill was also signed into law today by the Governor.

“Endangering the safety of a child is one of the most serious crimes a person can commit and drunk drivers who put children’s lives at risk need to face felony charges,” said Senator Nozzolio. “It is essential to enact legislation that will strengthen our State’s DWI laws to further protect our most vulnerable citizens. I am proud that New York now has one of the toughest drunk driving laws in the country.”

Superintendent Stephen Grimm and architects from Tetra Tech showed the Lansing Board Of Education a synopsis of items to be included in a $3,612,000 capital project that will address learning, health, and safety issues at all three Lansing schools.  This comes on the heels of two other projects that the district was able to pay for without asking taxpayers for additional money.  Grimm said this new project is being formulated in the same way.

"We're trying to do this with the money that's in our capital reserve that we've been saving over the years," he said.  "The district currently has about $1.1 million available in capital reserves to help pay for the project.  State aid triples the amount of available money.  We're going to finance the project in such a way that it's not going to cost any additional taxes, just like we did the last time with the elementary school roof."

Legislature HighlightsLegislature Adopts 2010 Tompkins County Budget

Two-and-a-half months after the process began, the Tompkins County Legislature tonight adopted the County’s 2010 budget and the County’s capital program for the next five years.  The budget, which changed only slightly from the amended tentative budget approved by legislators at the end of last month, increases the County tax levy by 3.99% and the countywide average tax rate by 1.1% to $6.00 per thousand.  Local spending in the budget has decreased by nearly a quarter of a percent.

Chesterfield, MO - (11/16/2009) – Richard Moore of Lansing, N.Y, will begin his two-year term as president of the National Christmas Tree Association on Jan. 1, 2010. He has served on the NCTA Executive Committee since 2004 and on the NCTA Board of Directors since 2001.

“I believe Richard will do a great job for the association and its members,” said Mark Steelhammer, outgoing president and grower from Washington state. “He understands the needs and concerns of this industry and is always willing to listen.”

When the valuation of properties within the boundaries of a municipal taxing authority go up, property tax payers have a reasonable expectation that their taxes will go down.  The tax rate should be lower.  And the levy, the real dollars taxpayers pay their portion of, should also be less.  That's not what happened in the Town of Lansing last year.  While the rate went down, the levy was up by more than 15%.  Most of the money was used to rebuild depleted reserves to prepare for the tanking economy.  This year the levy is down by a fraction of a fraction, and the tax rate is down by another -4.59%.

"It is certainly a very difficult budget season," says Lansing Town Supervisor Scott Pinney.  "Revenue didn't meet projections, so we had to do a lot of cutting for next year.  But the departments worked very well with us and we got through the process with a good budget."

After many hearings and much debate the Lansing Town Board approved the construction of soccer fields on land adjacent to The RINK for use by the Ithaca Youth Soccer Club.  The proposal to build the fields there has generated some controversy, and was twice denied a zoning use variance by the Lansing Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA).  According to Town Attorney Guy Krogh that use is already allowed, but subject to a  special use permit as a not-for-profit private soccer club field.

"If a use within a zone is subject to allowed use by special use permit, then by law it is allowed in a zone," Krogh explained.  "It is not an unallowed use.  The special use permit just specifies that it is subject to restrictions that other permitted uses within the zone are not subject to."

	EXTRA: Final Results Pat Pryor has won by 7 votes: 743 Pryor, 736 Sigler

When election day was done last week Mike Sigler (R) was 23 votes behind Pat Pryor (D).  But with 95 possible absentee ballots and 10 military votes yet to count the jury was still out on who the Town of Lansing's representative on the Tompkins County Legislature will be over the next four years.  By this past Monday 82 absentee ballots had been received, so the candidates, their representatives, and Election Commissioners Elizabeth Cree (R) and Stephen M. DeWitt (D) gathered to count the votes, hoping for a decisive count.  But that was not to be.

By morning's end Pryor was still ahead, but officially only by eight votes, and by Sigler's count there was only a 5 vote difference.  With 13 absentee ballots and 10 military ballots still out that was not enough to declare a winner.  And while DeWitt says that not all absentee or military ballots that are requested are actually mailed, Lansing will have to wait another week to learn who its county legislator will be.

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First we thought we were going to have to cut over a million dollars.  Then we had over a million in reserves due, in part, to a federal stimulus infusion.  Now we could be faced with mid-year spending cuts.  The roller coaster ride the Lansing Central School District and districts across the state has been on is on a peak and ready to plummet down the state aid track.  How far down it will go is uncertain, but Lansing Superintendent Stephen Grimm gave the Lansing Board of Education a glimpse of how mid-year state aid cuts might negatively impact the district.

"We could potentially lose $750,000 and a mid-year cut of $500,000," Grimm said.  "That's a worst-case scenario.  That's over $1.2 million, which is more than our unappropriated fund balance, which we should retain moving into the next budget cycle anyway."

Voters in the City of Ithaca used an optical scan voting system for the first time for the November 3 General Election. On Friday November 6, the Board of Elections conducted an audit to see if the machines tabulated correctly, as per New York State election law.

After a random drawing, 5 of the 10 machines were selected to be audited. Two bipartisan teams manually counted the original paper ballots, and the results were compared to the machine’s totals. No discrepancies were found.

	EXTRA - 8 VOTE SPREAD Monday, November 9 - The spread is eight votes in favor of Pat Pryor after 79 absentee ballots were counted Monday morning.  With 23 ballots still out (13 absentee ballots must be in tomorrow's mail to count, and 10 military ballots must be received by October 16), the District 6 County Legislator seat is still up for grabs.  Pryor's lead was 23 votes before today's count.  Three absentee ballots were challenged by Pryor's camp.  They may or not be counted in the final talley next week.  As of today the count is 742 for Pryor and 734 for Mike Sigler.

1765 Lansing voters went to the polls Tuesday to cast their votes for two Town Board seats, County Legislator, Town Justice, and District Attorney.  Of the contested seats Robert Cree and Kathy Miller won the Town Board positions.  While Pat Pryor won incumbent Mike Sigler's County Legislator seat by 23 votes in the initial vote count, the winner has yet to be determined because there are more than 23 absentee ballots that have yet to be counted.

Elections Commissioner Elizabeth Cree says that the Board Of Elections received 80 absentee ballots that will affect the outcome of the Pryor/Sigler race.  Those votes will be counted Monday morning.  (Check back later -- the Lansing Star will publish the results as soon as possible.)

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