Archive: News

The Town and Village of Lansing boards held a joint meeting at the Village of Lansing Office last night to consider areas where the two municipalities can cooperate, and to discuss a controversial rise in the amount the Town proposes to charge the Village for snow removal.  "There are a lot of things that we need to work together on," said Town Supervisor Scott Pinney.  "If we share things there will be a cost savings for everybody."

Village Mayor Donald Hartill noted that it was the first joint meeting of the full boards since the Village was formed.  He said that while the two governments were at odds when the Village incorporated, they have gradually grown a cooperative relationship that has been beneficial to both.  "We're starting to do more of that with the Warren Road sewer district, our snow plowing enterprise, and things like that," he said.  "I think there are opportunities for other kinds of shared activities."

More than $2 million in federal stimulus funds, administered by the State Department of Transportation, have been set aside to enable Tompkins County to purchase six transit buses for Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit, Inc. (TCAT).

Tompkins County and TCAT have been advised by the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) that the agency has reserved $2,175,000 in Federal Transit Administration Section 5311 rural funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for Tompkins County to purchase six clean-diesel 40-foot buses for TCAT.  As of two weeks ago, NYSDOT had been prepared to allocate about half that amount ($1.2 million) to purchase six lower-cost commuter buses, but since then TCAT General Manager Joe Turcotte and Tompkins County Chief Transportation Planner Dwight Mengel convinced NYSDOT to allocate the larger amount to underwrite the purchase of regular transit buses instead, so that the vehicles can be integrated efficiently into TCAT’s service and maintenance programs.

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Rep. Michael A. Arcuri (NY-24) today announced over $7 million for local communities to improve public housing facilities through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Bill).

“Recovery funding for local housing authorities will increase and improve affordable housing for local families, and at the same time create construction jobs through new projects,” Arcuri said. “These funds will enable local housing authorities to address long-standing improvements to housing units, and in the process create jobs and increase energy efficiency. This is one more example of the Recovery Bill investing resources in Upstate New York.”

New signs will restrict parking on five Village of Lansing roads now that Village Trustees passed a new traffic law Monday.  Previously parking was restricted on Bush Lane and in Shannon Park, a neighborhood behind the Ithaca Mall.  The new law lifts the restriction on Shannon Park, but adds four new locations including the 500 feet of Burdick Hill Road leading to its intersection with Triphammer Road, and the full lengths of Cinema, Sheraton, and Uptown Drives. 

The three latter were restricted for safety reasons to do with a higher anticipated volume of Sunday parking when the Vineyard Church moves into the old Bishop's Hardware Store space in the Small Mall.  Burdick Hill Road was added because of potential high parking volume near Temple Tikun V'or too close to the Triphammer Road intersection. 

Legislative Pay Not Yet Decided
 There will be more discussion and deliberation before the Tompkins County Legislature establishes Legislator salaries for the next legislative term.  Legislators wrestled with the salary issue during an hour of thoughtful debate, but despite considering five alternate proposals in a series of votes, failed to achieve the eight votes required to resolve the issue.  That means the matter will return to committee before the issue comes to the Legislature again.  All 15 legislature seats are up for election this year for four-year terms beginning January 1, 2010.

Reducing retiree health benefit costs were on the docket at Wednesday's Town Board meeting.  But while Town Board members agreed on what to do, they split along party lines on how to do it.  Republicans wanted to consider all the changes as a comprehensive package so they can tell retirees all the changes at once and how they will affect their coverage and costs.  Democrats chose to consider individual elements over the course of three or four months, passing each piece separately.

"I'm not prepared to move this at all," said Councilman Bud Shattuck.  "We're talking about comprehensive changes to their health care.  I want to get that comprehensive piece together, make those decisions on what we're going to do, and make that decision all at once.  When you look at four or five different things that affect four or five levels of both our current employees and our future employees and retirees it's easier to lay out what the costs will be to our municipality and the individuals."

The Lansing Town Planning Board approved a site plan for an addition to the Lansing Fire District's Central Station Monday night.  The 7,200 square foot, single storey expansion will add a parking bay for an emergency response vehicle, some equipment storage, bunking areas to attract college students to live in the station, and a small private kitchen area plus men's and women's bathroom facilities for those bunkers, a decontamination room, and a secure room for filling air bottles that are needed for emergency responses.

"They are proposing the same kind of construction that will blend right in with the existing structure," said Lansing Engineering and Planning Coordinator Jeff Overstrom.  "The current water service is owned by the fire department, and they will have to relocate that.  "

Considering the level of neighborhood concern about a proposed 138 unit development it was surprising that so few attended Monday's public hearing.  Lansing's planning board held the hearing to get public comments on the Cayuga Farms Town Homes project that could be built on North Triphammer Road between Michaleen's Florist and Asbury Road.  But Town officials raised their own concerns about unanswered questions that could determine whether the project is built at all.

"I really think there are a lot of questions to be answered before you approve the preliminary site plan," said Lansing Deputy Supervisor Connie Wilcox.  "I just think there are way too many unknowns to grant preliminary approval of this subdivision."

Noting that economic conditions have declined rapidly since the County passed its 2009 budget late last year, County Administrator Joe Mareane is advancing a suggested “budget framework” for 2009, to enable Tompkins County to adapt to this rapidly changing fiscal environment

In a report presented yesterday to the Legislature’s Budget, Capital and Finance Committee, and also shared with other legislators and department leadership, the administrator recommends that 2009 be considered a transition year to bridge the environment that existed when the 2009 budget was developed and the environment the County confronts today.

	Editor's Note: This is Tompkins County's road reconstruction project, not the Town's Warren Road sewer project.  That project was also submitted for stimulous package consideration, but has not yet been chosen.  It was recently approved to go ahead by the New York State Comptroller's office.

Tompkins County has been awarded the first local federal stimulus dollars under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan.

The County has received word from the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) that $5.5 million in federal stimulus funding has been awarded for the reconstruction of three miles of Warren Road in the Town and Village of Lansing.

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