Archive: News

Ladoga Park is nested on Cayuga Lake just below Myers Park, with many of its homes right on the lakeshore.  Like most lakefront properties in Lansing, it is cut off from the rest of the town by the Norfolk Southern railroad tracks.  That is only a problem if a train is blocking the entries.  Last week residents complained that all three entries to the neighborhood have been blocked for unusually long periods of time.  "The train comes up roughly four times a week, whenever Cargill fills a string of railroad cars," said Ladoga Park resident Dave Heck.  "They back the train in to Cargill, hook it to a string of full cars, and then pull forward past the Ladoga Park crossing.  The train blocks that crossing."

While Town Board members were willing to do what they can, they seemed pessimistic about how much they can accomplish.  "I've had a conversation with the railroad already," Lansing Supervisor Scott Pinney said.  "It's a very difficult thing, dealing with the railroad system.  It's a big corporation.  I am certainly trying."

The Lansing Library Board of Trustees held a public meeting Wednesday to go over a draft of their long-term plan.  The board has been working on the transition since the library was approved in the vote  last December.  Since then trustees have been wading through the regulations that govern getting a chartered library on its feet.  The New York State Board of Regents officially granted the charter on March 18th, but the first installment of tax money won't arrive until October.  In the meantime trustees are planning how they will establish and maintain the library now that it is chartered.

Now that the board is an official municipal board, their meetings are held publicly just as they are in any municipality including the town, school and fire districts, village, and county.  And like most of those municipalities' meetings, this one was sparcely attended.  But the purpose was to get the work of the trustees done, and that is what they did.  "What we have here is what we consider a draft of the long range plan," said Board Chairman Dale Baker.  "There has been input by members of the Trustees into this."

2008 has been a year of turnaround changes for the Lansing School District.  Despite more than a million dollars of cuts to create a budget that still raises the tax levy above the cost of living rise, district residents and the school community are apparently pleased.  Nearly 1,000 voters turned out to pass the proposed $22,838,912 budget 626 to 365.  The mood was jovial among school board members and Superintendent Stephen Grimm when the results were announced Tuesday night.  "I am very excited to have a positive vote," said Grimm.  "It signifies that the community is pleased with the process and the product that we created during this time that we worked together.  It provides a foundation for how we can work together in the future to achieve our goals."

Registered Voting For the first time only registered voters were allowed to participate in the annual Lansing school district budget vote and school board election.  The polling place was also new with the spacious Lansing/Groton teacher center being commandeered for the day.

Village of Lansing Trustees enacted a flood damage prevention law in their a meeting last Monday that largely dealt with issues of storm water and flooding..  The law will enable Village residents to purchase flood insurance.  The law has been exactly a year in coming since resident Don Lein approached the board to ask them to do what is necessary so that residents can get the insurance.  Lein had tried to buy a policy only to be told by his agent that he could not get it because the Village wasn't registered with the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).

Part of the holdup was that Village officials have had a hard time getting the right information from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).  Once officials finally learned what they needed to do, it took some time for Village Attorney David Dubow to review and amend a 29 page model law provided by the New York Department of Environmental Concervation (DEC) to make it consistent with existing Village law.  Having a flood damage prevention law on the books is a requirement before a municipality can register.

County Returns to Annual Assessment Cycle
Tompkins County will return to an annual assessment cycle for the next assessment year beginning July 1st, ending the three-year assessment system used since 2006. By unanimous vote of those present, the County Legislature directed that all properties in the county "be valued at a uniform percentage of fair market value and reviewed by the professional appraisal staff of the Department of Assessment at one-year time intervals," rescinding the resolution adopted in 2006 which authorized full-value assessment every three years.

(Legislators Will Burbank, Mike Sigler and Kathy Luz Herrera were absent.) Assessment Director Valeria Coggin has called annual reassessment the County's "most logical choice" in terms of equity, transparency and as the form of assessment most understandable for property owners, and legislators agreed - even those who had voted for the triennial system when it was approved two years ago. Legislator Martha Robertson recalled that back in 2006 she had characterized the triennial system as "an experiment," and was one of many who described the three-year program as confusing. Dooley Kiefer expressed relief at return to the annual reassessment, saying, "We know it works; it's what the County was known for doing for a long time, and I'm glad we're back."

The Lansing Democratic Committee announced this week its endorsement of the reelection of Congressman Michael Arcuri, 24th Congressional District, by a unanimous vote of the committee at its meeting on May 15, 2008.

Born and raised in Utica, NY, Congressman Arcuri is a former District Attorney of Oneida County.  As a Freshman Congressman, he was able to secure appointments to the powerful House Rules Committee, and to the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, a committee of critical importance to his upstate New York State constituents.

The hottest issue at Wednesday's Town Board meeting wasn't even on the agenda.  But after Planning Board members went public with objections to a draft of proposed zoning ordinance changes in an Ithaca Journal article, nearly every seat in the meeting room was filled.  Town Supervisor Scott Pinney started the meeting with a prepared statement in which he chastised Planning Board members for disseminating inaccurate information and bypassing a professional process of developing the ordinance.  "Unfortunately these efforts were mistimed and misplaced and the information so conveyed is simply wrong," Pinney said.

About a dozen people came to meet the Lansing Board Of Education candidates at an event sponsored by the Lansing PTSO Monday night.  Glenn Swanson is running for a second term, while Bonita Lindberg and Tom Keane are vacating their school board seats.  Richard Thayler and Glenn Cobb are running for those positions. Thayler was unable to attend because of a prior commitment, but he sent Richard Prybyl to stand in for him, reading prepared statements and attempting to answer questions as best he could.


PTSO President Kay Thomas moderated the event, giving each candidate three minutes for statements and answers to questions from the public.   While not many district residents attended the event, attendance was actually good, especially considering that the election is uncontested.  That raises a red flag for Superintendent Stephen Grimm, who worries that an uncontested school board race will mean lower attendance at the polls next Tuesday, which could make passing the proposed budget difficult.  He stressed the importance of voting even when school board seats are uncontested.

After careful consideration Sheriff Peter Meskill announced Monday that he has promoted Tompkins County Sheriff's Office Investigator Richard "Rick" Tubbs to the position of Undersheriff of Tompkins County.

Undersheriff Tubbs has been in law enforcement since 1990 starting with the Tioga County Sheriff's Office.  In 1998 Sheriff Emery Guest promoted Tubbs to the position of Sergeant.  In 1999 Tubbs was promoted to the position of Criminal Investigator.

Aurora, New York – In keeping with its commitment to the liberal arts and in recognition of the need for leaders in scientific and environmental studies initiatives, Wells College and the Cayuga Lake Watershed Network are collaborating in new ways. Wells President Lisa Marsh Ryerson recently announced that the Watershed Network will move its offices into Zabriskie Hall this summer. The three-story building on the College’s campus will provide the Network and its staff with office space and a central location with ready access to Cayuga Lake.

 “This is an exciting time in the history of our relationship with the Cayuga Lake Watershed Network,” said President Ryerson. “Wells has been actively involved with the Network for a number of years, and we are delighted that they will bring their headquarters to Aurora. I look forward to welcoming my Network friends and colleagues to the Wells campus, and am excited about continuing our collaboration as we seek ways to protect one of our most valuable regional assets – Cayuga Lake.”

The Budget and Capital Committee of the Tompkins County Legislature, by a split 3-2, vote today recommended that the County Health Department discontinue sponsorship of the federal Women/Infants/Children (WIC) Nutrition Program.  The measure, proposed by the Health Department and endorsed by the County’s Board of Health, would authorize the department not to seek renewal of the WIC program, by not responding to the Request for Applications (RFA), to be issued by the State.  Department officials maintain that increased workload and limited reimbursement for overhead costs make continued program administration difficult.

The vote came only days after the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee failed to advance the recommendation for legislative consideration.  While some members of that committee had expressed concern about how program service and clients would be affected by transition to another sponsoring agency, Health Department Patient Services Director Sigrid Connors today stressed that the State Health Department would be fully responsible for the transition and would the program at both sites until a transition was complete.

The Government Operations Committee of the County Legislature today recommended that the county return to an annual property valuation cycle for the upcoming assessment year.

By a vote of 4-1, with Legislator Mike Sigler dissenting, the committee recommended that the Legislature rescind the resolution adopted in 2006 that approved full-value assessment every three years and direct that all properties “be valued at a uniform percentage of fair market value and reviewed by the professional appraisal staff of the Department of Assessment at one-year time intervals.”