Archive: News

Lansing Community Library Center (LCLC) Chairwoman Marlaine Darfler was back at Monday's Board Of Education meeting to try to convince the board to allow a December 11th vote to take place in the library.  The vote will be a second try at getting taxpayers who live in the Lansing School District to turn what is currently a reading room of the Tompkins County Public Library (TCPL) into a full fledged public library.  "It will be disappointing if we have to hold the vote at the school," Darfler says.  "We really want our voters to come and see our library."

The question of chartering as a school district library was defeated in May by district voters by 34 votes.  But library officials have stated that confusion about the library's connection to the school district caused that defeat.  A school district library only has two actual connections to a school district.  First it shares the same tax base.  Second, the library is required to get permission for some votes from the school board including the initial vote to establish the taxing authority, and any subsequent votes that seek to change the tax rate for the library.

Legislature Hears Report on Homeless Youth
Housing, transportation, education and finding a job are the primary needs of the county's homeless youth. Those factors were among the information communicated to legislators, as participants in the 2007 Independent Living Survey Project concerning the needs of the county's homeless youth summarized the report's findings for legislators. The study, updating a similar project conducted four years ago, was carried out through a partnership involving the County's Youth Services Department, the Learning Web, the Family Life Development Center at Cornell University and young adult participants in the Learning Web's Youth Outreach Program. Currently and former homeless youth were involved as research partners, who collected survey data from more than 200 young people, participated in research design and helped to interpret results. Some of them were on hand tonight to tell legislators about the needs the study identified.

Project director Jane Levine Powers, of Cornell's Family Life Development Center, reported that the study finds great instability among the population, with many floating from one temporary housing situation to another, that conflict at home is a major theme, and drug use a common factor, both in the reasons that respondents identified for leaving home and within the population itself, with a common connection between boredom and drug use. A significant number also experienced parenting issues.

WASHINGTON, DC - U.S. Representative Michael A. Arcuri (D-Utica) voted today to reauthorize and expand critical Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) support programs which have helped small airports across Upstate New York upgrade infrastructure and safety operations, including $15.8 billion for the Airport Improvement Program (AIP) which funds the Military Airport Program (MAP) that has provided over $20 million in federal grants to the Griffiss Airfield in Rome since 2004.

"Local airports serve as critical points of growth and economic development throughout our region," said Arcuri, a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee which is responsible for FAA reauthorization. "This bill includes funding for key programs that have enabled the Griffiss Park in Rome to become a site of increasing economic potential, as well as safety and operations upgrades for Oneonta and Tompkins Regional airports. The funds in this bill will ensure local airports can update facilities, improve runways, and enhance safety measures to continue to provide quality service to our region. By investing in local airports we are investing in the local economy, expanding access to our pristine natural resources and top-notch businesses."

County officials tonight outlined Administrator Steve Whicher's proposed 2008 Tompkins County budget at a Community Budget Forum sponsored by the County Legislature.

Close to 30 people attended the forum, held at Ithaca's Boynton Junior High School, some of them representatives of County departments and agencies. Eleven citizens addressed legislators, nearly all of them calling for funding to be preserved for programs that provide valuable services, including the Tompkins County Public Library, Offender Aid and Restoration and the Drop In Children's Center. Several young people served by the Bridges Program for Youth and Families, operated by the County Youth Services Department, told legislators about how the program's Aggression Replacement Training has made a difference in their lives. An over-target request for an additional staff position for the Bridges program was not included in the administrator's budget.

Village of Lansing Trustees are going forward with paperwork that will make Village residents eligible to purchase flood insurance.  When resident Don Lein approached the Village last May Trustee John O'Neill began making calls to learn what the Village must do so that residents could qualify under the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).  "The regulations and programs that we have in place cover all the requirements," he told the board Monday, "except for reporting, but (Code Enforcement and Zoning Officer Ben Curtis)  says he can pull that out."

After months of scurrying to get a deer management program in place before bow hunting season begins on October 13th, Village of Lansing officials have canceled a planned Village-sanctioned hunt, at least for now.  The plan was to hold a controlled hunt on the Murray Estates property, also known as Sundown Farm, the largest undeveloped property in the Village.  But negotiations for this year broke down when the property owner expressed fears that there was insufficient time before bow hunting season begins  to iron out remaining problems.  "It's canceled this year, postponed until next year," says Village Trustee John O'Neill.  "The owner of Murray Estates said there was not enough time before hunting season to iron out the security issues and the liability issues."

The Village, and O'Neill in particular, has been scurrying for months to put a deer management program in place before bow hunting season begins.  Last month it appeared that the pieces were falling into place, including coordinating with the New York Department of Environmental Concervation (DEC)'s Deer Management Assistance Program (DMAP), making arrangements with the Murray Estates owner, getting proper insurance, and putting regulations and procedures together that would insure safety for residents and security.

Lansing's Girls Swimming and Diving team scored another win last week when they beat Dryden 110 to 76.  Taking first place in 11 out of 12 events, Lansing excelled in swimming.

In the first event Lexi Payton, Alex Conte, Kelsy Quigley and Anna Mapes sped to first place, completing the 200 Yard Medley Relay in 2:07.59.  Ashley McDonald sped to first in the Girls 200 Yard Freestyle finishing in 2:11.21.  in the third event Lansing's Alex Conte finished first in 2:36.47, followed closely by Lexi Payton.  Kali Dean was true to form, finishing the 50 Yard Freestyle in first place a full two minutes before her closest competitor.

Lansing has two Town Justices, and one of those four-year terms is up this year. Judge John Howell is running unopposed for his fifth term on the Lansing bench. He has lived in Lansing all his life, and he and his wife Carol have a sons who lives in Syracuse, and a daughter at Cornell School of Veterinary Medicine.

Howell has been a facilities manager for some of the biology departments at Cornell for 25 years. With both a biology and a construction background, he says it's a perfect fit. Carol has her own home decoration business, called ‘Creations by Carol.'  Howell was inspired to become a judge by the two judges who preceded him, Fred Spry and Floyd Ferris, family friends who sat on the Lansing bench for about 30 years. He was appointed to finish Spry's term when the judge passed away, and has been there ever since.

The Lansing Star spoke to Judge Howell in the Town courtroom last week, where he talked about why he is running for another term, and his approach to and philosophy of presiding over a courtroom.

County legislators, acting as an expanded budget committee, tonight heard from leaders of a dozen more County departments and agencies, in the second of three presentation sessions concerning the County’s 2008 tentative budget. Three-quarters of tonight’s presentations related to either human services programs or public safety, as the legislators continued to gather information, before recommending revisions to the $72 million proposal presented by County Administrator Steve Whicher.

Sheriff Peter Meskill asked legislators to consider funding a criminal investigator’s position and a deputy sheriff for the Sheriff’s Office, at a total cost of nearly $200,000, and an additional corrections officer for the Jail, at a cost of nearly $67,000. None of the positions were recommended by Administrator Whicher, who indicated that he could not consider target funding in light of the Legislature’s 2 percent tax levy goal. The administrator also indicated that the corrections position, which the Sheriff proposed to enable the department to deal with additional in-house programming such as the community reentry program, could not be justified by target funding until objective program measurements are developed and achieved.

Democratic candidate for State Senate Paloma Capanna finsished a 150 mile walk in Myers Park yesterday to kick off her challenge to Michael F. Nozzolio, who is running for his ninth term in Albany. 

A small gathering greeted Paloma with applause and a cake as she walked to her final destination, a pavilion decorated with red, white, and blue bunting.  "I'm running because I want a better future than the one we have on our present course." Capanna says.  "We need certain issues to be addressed and addressed now.  They should have been worked on across the last three decades -- they weren't.  This is not what I want to pass on to my step-son."

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Rep. Michael A. Arcuri (D-Utica) introduced legislation to help communities in Upstate New York combat gang violence and reduce violent crime through federal grants to hire additional prosecutors and upgrade crime fighting technology.

"As Oneida County District Attorney for 13 years, I worked with community members to fight gang violence and crime to keep our community safe, and I know first hand how important legislation of this kind is to taking and keeping violent crime off the street," said Arcuri, who introduced legislation to provide grants to state and local prosecutors to fight gang violence. "It would have helped my office, and our community, to have more federal resources and support in our struggle against violent crime. Crime is cyclical - simply because we have managed to contain it and reduce it for the present does not mean it goes away forever. My bill creates a new grant program to provide state and local prosecutors the resources they need to end gang violence and violent crime. These grants could be used to hire additional prosecutors or purchase new technology - tools I know will help local counties fight crime and protect our neighborhoods."