Archive: News

The Tompkins County Health Department’s (TCHD) seasonal flu vaccination clinics scheduled from September 29 through October 7 have been postponed due to a delay in distribution of seasonal flu vaccine.

As with other providers and local health departments in New York State, the Department received partial shipments and was able to provide some vaccinations. It is not unusual in any given year to receive partial shipments of seasonal flu vaccine over a period of weeks. The reason for the delay this year is that the federal government asked manufacturers to focus on production and distribution of the H1N1 vaccine. The same manufacturers produce both vaccines.

In response to last week’s tragedy at Cornell University, the Tompkins County American Red Cross urges all area residents to take precautions to help prevent the spread of the H1N1 pandemic flu virus.

In their fourth review session for the 2010 Tompkins County budget, Legislators acting as an Expanded Budget Committee spent much of their time tonight examining recommended budgets for Planning and Public Works—made up of the County Planning Department, Public Works Administration and the four public works divisions:  Highway, Facilities, Airport and Solid Waste.

State Senator Mike Nozzolio today announced that the Senate Committee on Investigations and Government Operations will hold a public hearing to look into Governor Paterson’s refusal to comply with the law enacted last year taxing cigarettes sold by Native Americans. The hearing is open to the general public and has been scheduled for October 27, 2009.  The exact time and location for the hearing will be announced shortly.

Village of Lansing Planning Board Chair Edward 'Ned' Hickey received the prestigious John O. Cross Award given to an outstanding planning board chair at the Annual NYPF (New York Planning Federation) Planning & Zoning Conference in Lake Placid on September 14th.  Hickey has been part of Village government since the Village formed in 1974, and has been on the Planning Board for 22 years.

"It's an honor," says Village Mayor Donald Hartill, "He is very deserving.  I've worked with him very closely on all of those aspects.  He has done a fantastic job."

Fire Commissioners met Tuesday to set the 2010 budget for the Lansing Fire District.  While the $1,340,696 2010 budget is slightly higher than this year's, the tax rate will be a penny less, going from 99 cents to 98 cents.  The rise in the budget is largely due to increases in insurance, planned apparatus purchases, and plans to turn old bunking space into offices after the new addition is completed.

Commissioners Robert Wagner, Jeff Walters, Alvin Parker, Larry Creighton, and Michael Day met with District Treasurer George Gesslein and Fire Chief Scott Purcell, going through each line item methodically.  Purcell brought a detailed breakdown of department budget requests, and Gesslein provided a 20 year financial plan and a 20 year capital plan.

New York State representatives today recognized Tompkins County for its achievements in ensuring fair property taxes for all property owners county-wide.  Tompkins County has achieved the distinction of having updated assessments annually for the past eleven years.  

	Click Here to see video

The 1791 North Log Cabin came another step closer to being restored yesterday (Thursday) when new hemlock logs were milled to replace original logs that have rotted.  Six 24' lengths and six 18' lengths were squared by Dierk Terlouw, whose Ithaca business, The Sawmill, specializes in milling wood.  He brought a 'Wood Mizer' to the site, a kind of portable sawmill that is what amounts to a large adjustable band saw on a track.

"We're going to try to use the original logs as much as possible," says contractor Al Roy, of Lindal Cedar Homes.  "We can take a 24 and make it an 18 depending on where the rot is in the log.  If there is a rotted 18 we can make an 8 from it we'll be able to use as much of the existing wood as possible."

Read more ...

Legislature Endorses Transport Truck Regulations

The Legislature, by a vote of 11-2, urged the Governor and State Department of Transportation to act without delay to implement state regulations that would limit traffic by large transport trucks on local highways. (Legislators Framk Proto and Mike Hattery voted no; Legislator Katshy Luz Herrera and Tyke Randall were absent.)

The pending regulations would limit truck traffic on Routes 96, 89 and 79 to local deliveries only, to address the issue of non-local transport trucks using local highways as an alternative to interstate highways, a practice blamed for disturbing rural residents, damaging pavement and threatening pedestrian and bicycle safety with an expected negative effect on the area’s tourism industry.

A crew of about ten men was on the scene at Myers Park yesterday to put in a concrete slab for Lansing's historical 1791 log cabin.  Contractor Al Roy was on hand to supervise workers that included volunteers from McCarthy Builders.  The crew arrived at 6:30am, and by 7:30 they were smoothing the surface.  The 24' x 18' log cabin will be erected beginning next week near the entrance to the park.

Purists have criticized the project because the cabin is not 100% original.  But Lansing Community Council President points out that the original roof has been long gone, and the concrete slab will help protect what is left of the original four walls for a long time to come.  Some of the logs have rotted and will be replaced with replica logs, but the majority of the four walls are original to the 218 year old cabin.

At the third 2010 budget review session for Legislators acting as an Expanded Budget Committee, much of the focus was again on human services programs and how they would be affected by the tentative County budget now under review.

Mental Health Services:

Commissioner Bob DeLuca, whose department this year absorbed a $120,000 state aid cut and reduced its budget for 2010 by more than a quarter million dollars to meet the County’s fiscal target guidelines, asked Legislators to approve over target spending of nearly $80,000 to preserve a contractual emergency outreach psychiatric social worker, supported for the last six years through multi-year funding.  The Commissioner called the emergency psychiatric outreach program a “critical community service.”  A nearly $39,000 over target request to continue partial support of a child psychiatrist has been included in the tentative budget.