Archive: News

The way was paved to build a Kinneys Drug Store at the Triphammer Mall Tuesday, when the Village of Lansing Planning Board approved a special permit and environmental review.  Kinneys will be the first store as you enter the complex, where the former Home Works furniture store was located.

Most of the discussion revolved around changes to the Triphammer Road entrance to the mall.  A traffic island will route shoppers to the main parking area.  "The reconfiguration of the driveway will be an improvement over the existing conditions," said Village Engineer Brent Cross.

With health care and the economy at crisis proportions, Ithaca Oral Surgeon Scott Noren has decided to do something about it.  Next year he will challenge U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand in the Democratic primary leading up to the 2012 election.  Noren's top issues are fixing health care and campaign finance reform, which he says are inextricably linked.

"Health care is one of the top issues, but it's married intimately with campaign finance reform," he says.  "The insurance lobby has its clutches on the Congress and Senate.  Nothing meaningful will happen until you get rid of lobby money."

WASHINGTON, DC –U.S. Rep. Michael Arcuri (NY-24) announced that the federal Income Based Repayment (IBR) program began as of yesterday, July 1, 2009 to help borrowers pay back their loans in an affordable and fair way.

“Our regions students should not be over-burdened by loan payments that do not fairly reflect their income,” Arcuri said, “The Income Based Repayment Program levels the playing field and allows borrowers to make loan payments that they can afford.  I am hopeful that this program will also encourage students who were not considering college because of the high cost of loans to reconsider because of this program.”

A request to establish a building permit for decks in the Town of Lansing got a luke-warm reception by the Town Board Wednesday.  Engineering and Planning Coordinator Jeff Overstrom requested the new permit to address safety and liability issues that may arise from uneven authority to enforce New York state building code in the town.

"We're not looking to burden the public," Overstrom says.  "We're just looking out for their safety."

On April 23 police searched Lansing Middle School for drugs.  That led to their finding a high school freshman with cocaine.  The search moved to the high school.  Six students were arrested with a variety of drugs, including marijuana, and their suspension followed their arrest.  Or was it nine students?

Except it wasn't true.  None of it.  School officials guess that the rumor started because there had been a few drug suspensions around that time, and on that day a couple of police vehicles were seen directing traffic near the schools.  Parents and students inundated the high school office with calls, and e-mails and text messages were flying.  As the story sped from student to student the numbers escalated.  "I was OK with the rumor sitting out there," says High School Principal Michelle Brantner.  "Sometimes it creates a dynamic that is helpful."

In a special meeting today, the Legislature endorsed pending state legislation that would authorize Tompkins County to increase its telephone access line surcharge to support the cost of maintaining and operating the county’s Public Safety Communications System.  With nine members present, the vote was 8-1, with Legislators Dooley Kiefer, Pam Mackesey, Martha Robertson, Will Burbank, Carol Chock, Jim Dennis, Leslyn McBean-Clairborne and Chair Mike Koplinka-Loehr voting in favor and Frank Proto voting no.

The action builds upon a memorializing resolution passed by the County Legislature earlier this year, which asked the State Legislature to permit the County to increase its landline surcharge from the current 35 cents to as much as $1.00, under provisions of state home rule law.  This action indicates the County Legislature’s support for specific bills in the Assembly and State Senate, scheduled to be considered before the State Legislature adjourns tomorrow.  The bill language is consistent with a similar authorization measure for Onondaga County, currently before the State Legislature and incorporates a ten-year sunset clause for the authorization.

	Click Here for the full text of the committee's report.

Last January The Town of Lansing Planning Board presented more than 100 proposed changes to the existing zoning ordinances.  Many of the changes met opposition by the Planning Board and others who felt a loosening of the zoning ordinance would take away rights from current property owners who have an expectation that the zoning that applied when they bought their homes would still apply.  Consideration of the '100 Item List' was shifted to a Zoning Ordinance Review Committee made up of citizens representative of the Town.

A joint meeting of the Lansing Town Board, Planning Board, and Zoning Board of Appeals met Monday to consider that committee's report.  "I'm very happy with the report that they provided all of us," said Town Supervisor Scott Pinney.  "The Town board has already set up a Town Center committee, one of the recommendations from this committee.  We had our first meeting this past Saturday, so that's one worthy thing that's already come about from that."

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County Commits to Join Health Insurance Consortium

More than two years after study began toward establishing a more cost-effective way for county municipalities to support employee health benefits, the Legislature committed the County to participate in a countywide inter-municipal coalition which would make those plans reality.  The Legislature, by a vote of 12-2, authorized the County to enter into an inter-municipal agreement, with the Greater Tompkins County Health Insurance Consortium, effective January 1, 2010. (Legislators Greg Stevenson and Kathy Luz Herrera voted no; Legislator Jim Dennis was absent.)  The opportunity to explore the consortium arrangement and to build a plan structure was supported through a more than quarter-million-dollar New York State Shared Municipal Services Incentive program grant, awarded to Tompkins County in 2007 on behalf of the Tompkins County Council of Governments (TCCOG).

(Ithaca, NY) Sixteen free concerts are scheduled in the 2009 M and T Bank Downtown Ithaca Summer Concert Series. The series kicks off this Thursday evening at 7:00 p.m. at the Bernie Milton Pavilion on the Ithaca Commons, with the Ithaca Concert Band.

All of the concerts are free and open to the public, and will be held on Thursday nights at either the Bernie Milton Pavilion or the Aurora Street Pavilion. It is important to note that except for the Ithaca Concert Band performances, all of the concerts will begin at 6:00 p.m. Ithaca Concert Band performances will begin at 7:00 p.m.

Tompkins County Public Library patrons will now be able to access state and federal laws at the Library thanks to the recent acquisition of Loislaw’s Primary Law National Law database.

Loislaw is a comprehensive, easy-to-use, online legal research service, which offers complete access to up-to-date cases, statutes and other primary law at the federal level and for all fifty states and Washington, D.C.  Patrons can search Federal and State laws, including Federal Rules and Regulations, Federal Court Rules, Federal and State Statutes & Acts, and Case Law databases.