Archive: News

Six weeks after receiving County Administrator Joe Mareane’s recommendations, Legislators acting as an Expanded Budget Committee began to vote on recommended changes to the County’s 2010 tentative budget.  The package would decrease locally controlled spending to $73.1 million in locally controlled spending (a million-dollar decrease from the current year) and meets the Legislature’s goal of a no more than 3 percent tax levy increase for 2010.  Tonight’s session followed seven presentation meetings and was the first in as many as six more committee meetings scheduled to consider modifications to the proposed budget.

The Lansing Board of Education passed the District Code of Conduct 4 to one with one abstention Monday after much discussion.  In fact the vote had been delayed two weeks to allow the district attorney to review the policy after several community members and student athletes lobbied against the portion that deals with dress code, especially in athletics.  On Monday the board had a new draft.

"We sent the code to our lawyers, who reviewed it from top to bottom," said School Superintendent Stephen Grimm.  "They sent us back a red-lined version with comments and things we had to add or delete. "

Village of Lansing Mayor Donald Hartill may have felt that no good deed goes unpunished on September 21 when Richard Durst came to the Village Trustee meeting to complain about speeding on the beautifully repaved Cayuga Heights Road.  But the Mayor, who also lives on Cayuga Heights Road took Durst's complaint seriously, and Monday reported on measures the Village is taking to try to control speeding there.  He also had a warning for all residents who drive there.

"As a warning to my fellow Lansing residents, we're going to have random selective enforcement as soon as I have enough data to persuade the State Police and the County Sheriff's department to perform such random enforcement," he said.  "So be aware."

2010 Budget Hearing Scheduled

The Legislature, without dissent, scheduled the formal public hearing on the 2010 Tompkins County Tentative Budget and the 2010-2014 Capital Program. The hearing will take place Wednesday, November 4, 2009, beginning at 7:00 p.m. at County Legislative Chambers, 320 N. Tioga Street in Ithaca.  The Legislature will take public comment prior to the budget adoption vote, scheduled November 17.

New York State Senator Michael Nozzolio announced last Friday that he has called upon the Public Service Commission to deny any increase in rates for New York State Electric and Gas (NYSEG) and Rochester Gas and Electric (RG&E). Last week, NYSEG and RG&E requested the Public Service Commission to approve substantial rate increases that would become effective as early as August 2010.

Under the proposal, the average RG&E residential electricity bill would go up by $11.86 a month, or 16.1 percent, while the monthly gas bill would increase $21.03, or 15.2 percent.  NYSEG increases would be $12.39, or 18.6 percent, for electricity and $25.34, or 17.4 percent, for natural gas. “These rate increases are simply unacceptable,” said Nozzolio, “Our residents already pay some of the highest utility rates in the country and the Public Service Commission cannot possibly allow these companies to continue to increase their rates.”

The County Legislature on Tuesday considered adoption of task force recommendations on the future of indigent representation in Tompkins County.  Adoption of the Task Force Report on Indigent Representation in Tompkins County is recommended by both the Legislature’s Public Safety Committee and the County’s Advisory Board of Indigent Representation.

The Assigned Counsel/Public Defender Analysis and Review Task Force was created last November, charged with exploring benefits and costs of an recommending the most effective way to deliver legal services to county residents who cannot afford representation—including analysis of a public defender model, either replacing or being incorporated into the County’s current Assigned Counsel system.

This week the focus was on raising the roof of the 1791 North Log Cabin.  With the walls completed almost entirely of the original hemlock logs last week, construction on the rafters began Monday.  The rafters were completed Wednesday, and by the end of Thursday the roof was planked, covered with plywood, and ready for shingles to be applied next week.  (Click here to view the cabin construction gallery)

Nothing of the original roof still exists, nor has it for over 50 years, and possibly longer.  When the cabin was erected in Auburn in 1958 Professor Walter K. Long, Director of the Cayuga Museum at that time, researched affordable yet historically viable roof materials.  He settled on cedar shake shingles.  When the cabin was moved home to Lansing in 2007 that roof needed replacement, so no attempt was made to save it.  Lindal Homes Contractor Al Roy says the new roof will also be topped with cedar shake shingles.

Ithaca Mayor Carolyn Peterson presented a proclamation that declared that in honor of Dewitt Park being 'restored to it's former glory' that Saturday was officially declared 'Dewitt Park Restoration and Rededication Day'.  She presented the proclamation to Restoration Committee Chair Holly Hollingsworth, who led the effort to restore the park and monuments honoring Tompkins County armed service people who gave their lives for their country in the Civil War, both World Wars, The Korean War, and the Vietnam War.

But Peterson wasn't finished.  She read a second proclamation that ended,  "Wheras the City of Ithaca and Tompkins County owe Holly Hollingsworth a dept which only a big 'thanks can repay, additionally I Carolyn K. Peterson, Mayor of the City of Ithaca, do also proclaim today Holly Hollingsworth Day,'"  She presented it to honor his dream, commitment, and leadership that resulted in the restoration of the park.

Monday's Lansing Board Of Education meeting was dominated by a discussion of changes to the proposed Code Of Conduct , and especially the dress code as it pertains to athletics.  The high school library was packed with students and about a dozen students and parents spoke, prompting the board to expand the time normally allotted for public input.  Most spoke against the rule against boys and girls removing shirts in Physical Education class or athletic practices.

"We're not trying to be provocative in terms of sports bras or taking off our shirts at practice," said varsity cross country runner Luke Davis.  "We're just hot.  It's a matter of discomfort."

This week construction on the North Log Cabin began on the walls using the original 1791  hemlock logs and new hemlock logs that will replace old, rotted ones.  Contractor Al Roy and carpenters Dan Newton and Ed Roy assembled the logs on the concrete slab that was laid by contractors and volunteers last week.

Newton says reassembling the cabin is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle.  When it was disassembled at the Cayuga Museum in Auburn in 2007 the logs were tagged to make it clear how they should go together when they were reassembled in Lansing.  But over the two years they were exposed to weather in a pile near the Highway Department barn many of the tags faded or were washed away.

Chair Irene Stein presided over the Tompkins County Democratic Committee's 21st Annual 'Meet The Candidates' barbecue in Stewart Park Saturday.  Democrats from around the county filled the large pavilion to hear U.S. Congressman Maurice Hinchey, hear a letter from Congressman Michael Arcuri read, and speeches by New York Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton, and Tompkins County District Attorney Gwen Wilkinson.  Lansing Town Board candidate James Mason was on hand to meet with fellow Democrats.

Hinchey's speech concentrated on health care reform and responsible oil and natural gas drilling.  Hinchey said the United States has been surpassed by a number of countries on health care.

WASHINGTON, DC –U.S. Rep. Michael A. Arcuri (NY-24) testified in front of the House Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Health today in support of his legislation, H.R. 3441, which would automatically enroll veterans already eligible for free 5-year health care in the VA medical system within 45 days of leaving the Armed Services.  Arcuri authored the legislation after the idea was raised by members of his Veterans Advisory Committee during their regular meetings throughout the 24th Congressional District.