Archive: News

A lot was on Lansing's plate in the Village, Town, and School District including elections, especially for School Board and Town Supervisor, and two votes on whether Lansing wants a public library.  We saw yet another Superintendent of Schools go, and still another hired to begin next year.  Here is the run down on some of the top Lansing news stories of 2007:

Village of Lansing
Triphammer Road was the big story in the Village of Lansing, with a major makeover that brought seven lanes, bicycle lanes, and street lights to one of the county's premier shopping areas.  The Shops at Ithaca Mall made news last month when it presented plans for an outdoor shopping component that may include up to 42 apartments above the boutique-style shops.

Meanwhile the Village tried to put a deer population control plan, but was unable to come to terms with the owner of the one piece of land in the Village that is large enough to hold an effective hunt.  They made changes in Village law and put the program in place anyway, and plan to have a controlled hunt in next year's hunting season.

Both the Village and Town of Lansing have been struggling with state storm water mandates this year, using scarce resources to meet unfunded mandates.  The Town will barely meet the January 8th deadline for having both storm water and illicit discharge local laws on the books.  The Village is behind -- their storm water law should make the deadline, but they, like many small municipalities around the state, will be late crafting their illicit discharge law.

• Ribbon Cutting Celebrates Triphammer Revitalization

• Indoor/Outdoor Ithaca Mall
• Village Sketches Plan for Deer Control
• Water, Water Everywhere, and Local Taxpayers Pay
  

Town of Lansing
The big story here was the sewer, and even though Lansing's sewer initiative was officially killed on July 6th, it keeps coming back like... well a backed up sewer!  Suspicious residents see sewer behind every initiative including the State mandated illicit discharge law.  That probably cost Supervisor Steve Farkas his position when he lost by 23 votes to Scott Pinney in last month's election.

Less known is a Lansing sewer that is almost certain to happen, when a sewer is constructed from the Village of Lansing's system up to the Warren Road Industrial Park.  Part of an Empire Zone, the initial study was paid for by Transonic Systems, which needs the sewer to grow its business.

The Lansing Library was the comeback kid this year.  Voters agreed to fund the library in a 65 vote win a few weeks ago, after it was defeated by only 32 votes in May. 

One of the most read stories of this year was one we did when the Watchtower Society sent representatives to outline a potential plan for developing Kingdom Farm, a 500 acre plot they had targeted to house the manufacturing facility of Watchtower magazine.  After locating that elsewhere they now want to sell the land, proposing mixed development that could include large single-family lots in the north and smaller homes, business and retail space in the southern part.  In a town with a population of 10,500 at the last census that adds about 30 homes per year, the planning board was not enthusiastic about a development that could add 500+ residences.  Stay tuned.

• Down the Drain: Lansing Sewer Project Tabled
• Library Vote Challenged
  
• Warren Rd. Sewer Makes Progress
• Kingdom Farm Sale Could Reshape Lansing
  

School District
Lansing's school district suffered a year of woes ranging from losing another superintendent of schools to money problems, crumbling buildings, and a failed capital project.

On top of all that, the beginning of February say 188 students out sick from Lansing Middle School, close to half the student population.  With illnesses in the other schools as well and emergency closing day was declared for a long weekend to help students recover.

A controversial school board election yielded surprises when last-minute candidate Mike Cheatham unseated Christine Iacobucci in an intense one-week campaign.  But a week before the election Superintendent Mark Lewis announced he would be resigning effective August 31.  Not long after that Business Administrator Larry Lawrence announced he would be leaving at the same time.  And Director of Curriculum Deb Pichette resigned in June, leaving the top district positions vacant again after a half dozen years of a revolving door in the Superintendent's office.

New Superintendent Stephen Grimm will be starting on January 2nd.  Pichette's position was revamped, but because of a possible $300,000 overspending projection for this year hiring that position has been put on hold.  The Business Administrator slot had been filled, but the candidate did not accept the position, so the school board will be looking for new candidates again after New Year.

• Lansing Schools Get an F on Safety and Infrastructure
• Illness Closes Lansing Schools
• An Interview With Lansing's New Superintendent Stephen Grimm Part 1 Part 2
• Lansing Says No to School Improvements
• A Farewell Interview With Superintendent Mark Lewis
  

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The Board of Education was presented with a petition to rescind the library vote in Monday's Lansing school board meeting.  Resident Dan Pace presented the board with a 138 signature petition to invalidate the 686 to 621 vote that created a Lansing public library last week.  "We feel that democracy did not work, because we're finding that there were potentially voters that were not from the district," Pace told the board.  "We question the absentee ballots.  We also question that nobody verified all the voting to make sure that people actually voted in the community."

Pace blamed what he called a vote that 'does not pass the smell test' on the system the Lansing schools have been using for years. He said that anyone can sign the book without proving that they are eligible to vote in the district.  He called for a new system in which voters would not only sign, but verify their eligibility with valid identification that proves they are a registered voter in the district.

The Village of Lansing Trustees enacted five new laws that will affect sewer charges, zoning law, and storm water management in their regular Monday meeting.  While the most onerous law to homeowners may be the storm water law, more controversial was a law that would allow residential construction in commercial high traffic zones.  "This was precipitated by a plan that came to the the Planning Board with respect to the mall proposal that involves the concept of combining a residential use with commercial use," explained Village Attorney David Dubow.  "It was specifically a project that will have some buildings that will be retail on the first floor, and potential some residences on the top floor."

That project is a proposal by The Shops at Ithaca Mall to construct three new buildings near the Best Buy store that would feature smaller boutique-style shops with parking and walkways outdoors that form a kind of commons area.  In the initial proposal around 40 apartments were shown on the upper floors.  The mall's Eric Goetzmann explained last month that with changing shopping habits and needs that this approach would help the mall stay up to date and provide a different kind of shopping experience for customers, as well as providing a living environment in which residents could walk to where they shop. 

Tim Joseph Chairs Final Legislature Meeting
Tim Joseph, who has served seven years as Chair of the County Legislature, thanked his "legislative colleagues, past and present" for their support and "all County staff who did their jobs efficiently and productively" as he gave his final report as Chair of the Tompkins County Legislature. Mr. Joseph, who has said he is stepping down from his leadership position as of the end of this term, said that it is the work of County staff that has earned Tompkins County its reputation as one of the best run municipalities, both in this area and throughout New York State.

Administrator Steve Whicher, speaking on behalf of the County's department heads, praised Joseph for his "fairness, insight and balance" as Chair, as well as the ability to be stern, when it was needed.

State Agriculture & Markets Commissioner Patrick Hooker was in Homer yesterday to announce a record $35 million in funding has been allocated to buy up the development rights from New York farmers to insure that farmland is protected throughout the state.  Bensvue Farm in Lansingville was slated to receive $1.3 million from the program, and now will receive an additional $252,788 supplemental award.  "This round of farmland protection money is the largest amount of money for the greatest amount of acres that this program has ever put forward in its 11 year history," Hooker told an audience that packed into a milking barn at McMahon's E-Z Acres.  "$28 million came from the partnership that the Governor and the legislature have on the Environmental Protection Fund.  $7 million dollars are added today from projects that did not go forward that were announced in years past."

Lansing Town Supervisor recommended continuing to use the SPCA for dog control in the Town, at least for another year.  Municipalities throughout the county have been struggling with the problem of dog control providers since the SPCA announced that they would be doubling their rates next year.  "It's been gong round and round," Farkas says.  "At this point the SPCA has agreed to raise their rate 50% to about $1,600 per month, which they said they would hold to for the whole year.  The problem is that there is really nobody else out there to do the job."

Farkas says a 'benevolent benefactor' has contributed to the SPCA so they can continue to offer the service at a price the towns and villages can live with, giving the municipalities a year to decide what they want to do.  Many looked for alternatives, but with the exception of Groton, none were able to find individuals or businesses that could or would take on the dog control role.  Some elected officials felt their municipalities were being held up, because fees were to be doubled with no detailed explanation.

By 9pm library and school board officials were nervously gathered in the Lansing Middle School as election inspectors adjourned to count the vote.  Lansing voters had come out Tuesday for a second time to determine whether the town will have its own public library.  In May the proposition was voted down by only 32 votes.  With confusion and school district issues intertwined with the library vote library officials felt the close vote was unclear.  Tuesday night there were hugs and smiles when the results were announced.  The library had won with 686 taxpayers voting yes and 621 no.

"I think part of it was realizing the library would close," said Marlaine Darfler, Chairwoman of the volunteer library board that ushered the library through the seven years as a reading room of the Tompkins County Public Library (TCPL).  "The library was going to be a gift that was going away.  The finality of it pushed the yes people to really come out and vote.  And the people who think it's not something they could put there taxes toward -- I don't think we could change their minds.  We just needed to take the people who are using the library, who have made it part of their life, to come out and vote yes."

"This is what the Mayor would call..." said Village of Lansing Trustee Lynn Leopold.  And all the other trustees intoned in unison, "an unfunded mandate!"

They were talking about the storm water control and enforcement requirements that they and many municipalities around New york State have been struggling with for over a year.  As the January 8, 2008 deadline for implementing local laws regulating storm water and erosion control, and storm water illicit discharges approaches, many municipalities are about to fall out of compliance with State regulations.  That is likely to be the case for the Village, because they are just about to pass the first law, but have yet to move on the second.  The Town of Lansing is in better shape, having passed its storm water law last year, and squeaking in just under the wire at next week's Town Board meeting with a public hearing on an illicit discharge law.

Albany - New York State Senator Michael F. Nozzolio will be convening the Senate Crime Victims, Crime and Corrections Committee to conduct a legislative oversight hearing to examine the increase in parole release rates for violent felons in the New York correctional system.

Denise O'Donnell, Director of the Division of Criminal Justice Services; George Alexander, Chairman of the New York State Parole Board; and Brian Fischer, Commissioner of the Department of Correctional Services, are expected to testify before the Committee to address the increased release rates.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced today that payments under the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Compensated Work Therapy (CWT) program are no longer taxable and disabled veterans who paid tax on these benefits in the past three years can now claim refunds.

"This will serve as much-needed relief for local disabled veterans," Arcuri said. "These brave men and women have already given so much for our country and through this program they are learning new skills and becoming part of the workforce. I urge local veterans who paid taxes on CWT program benefits to claim their much-deserved refunds."

Lansing's Board Of Education (BOE) was dealt another blow at their Monday meeting when Interim Business Administrator Dave Klemm told them that if spending isn't reversed the district could overspend the 2007-2008 budget by almost $300,000.  A $22.1 million budget was approved by taxpayers in May.  But Klemm says that current estimates show that while revenues will be on target, expenditures may reach $22,389,869 if measures aren't taken to reduce spending now.  "I believe I am giving you the worst case scenario," Klemm said.  "As the year goes on those numbers become firmer and firmer."

Klem noted that about $130,000 budgeted revenue is not going to be realized.  He said the BOE could use reserves to make up that shortfall, but he didn't recommend doing so.  The district's reserves have been depleted over the past several years to raise budgets without raising taxes too much, a strategy that has only been partially successful with negative consequences to the reserves.

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All proceeds are designated towards housing needs for the poor at the Rural Mission on John's Island, SC
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