Archive: News

After a defeat by only 34 votes in May, the Lansing Community Library Center will ask the community once more whether it will fund its own library.  Library Chairwoman Marlaine Darfler asked the Board of Education to approve a vote to be held on December 11, one of only two dates that voting machines are available in the near future.  "Tonight what the Friends of the Lansing Community Library are asking the Board Of Education is for permission to hold a special election on this issue at the library."

Darfler noted that the time frame is extremely tight, and expressed her appreciation to Interim Superintendent Tom Helmer and District Clerk Jodie Rusaw for helping to move the process forward during a time when the district is facing so many challenges of its own.  "It is not a date we picked," she explained.  "It's a date the voting machines were available."

Jack French has served as Lansing's Highway Superintendent for six years. After serving his first two-year term the position was changed to a four-year term. This Fall he is running unopposed for his third term. A Lansing Native, he is married to School District Treasurer Sue French.

French's daughter is an artist who lives in Philadelphia. One stepdaughter graduated from Oneonta State last year and is now working in Oneonta. His other stepdaughter graduated from New Paltz and got her master's from Fredonia.

French has worked at Lansing's Highway Department since he graduated from SUNY Morrisville 30 years ago. He worked under Highway Superintendent Lloyd Sharpstein, Harold Groat, and finally Pete Larson. When Larson retired French ran for and won the position. We met in the Highway Department lunch room to talk about his candidacy for a third term.

Albany - New York State Senator Michael F. Nozzolio today called on Governor Eliot Spitzer to enforce New York State law and begin collecting sales taxes on cigarettes sold by Native American retailers.

Under current law, cigarettes sold by Indians to non-Indians must include sales taxes. However, Indian businesses continue to refuse to pay the sales tax, causing an unfair advantage over competing retailers.

The Lansing Board of Education picked community members to participate on the 22-member committee that will help board members choose the next Superintendent of schools in their Monday meeting this week.  Notice went out that two groups of six would be included, along with two representatives from district constituencies such as the teacher's union.  "We're selecting six community members and six parent volunteers," explained School Board President Tom Keane.  "People were asked to nominate themselves for these two committees."

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Representative Michael A. Arcuri (D-Utica) voted for legislation Wednesday to extend federal assistance for private terrorism insurance - continuing a critical program through which the federal government coordinates with insurers to provide financial compensation for losses from acts of terrorism.

"Protecting the safety and security of Americans is, without question, our top priority in Congress. The horrible terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001, had a devastating effect on so many people in this country," said Arcuri, who managed the floor debate on the resolution providing for consideration of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Revision and Extension Act. "This is an issue that has a direct impact on our local economy. In the year that followed the September 11th attacks, Utica First saw the volume of the policies they were writing in the New York City area increase 27 percent, as other companies ceased offering coverage. Small companies like this, that continued to offer coverage, are to be commended for taking on greater risk exposure in order to provide this necessary coverage. I am proud to stand here today watching out for the interest of our nation's business community by providing much-needed stability in the terrorism risk insurance market."

Legislature Authorizes Bonding for Health Department Building, TC3 Improvements
The Legislature, by a split vote and after considerable discussion, authorized the County to issue $3.5 million in serial bonds to support costs related to acquisition of property at 55 Brown Road, in the Cornell University Business and Technology Park, for the county's new Health Department headquarters. The action authorizes the County Finance Director to take the necessary steps to proceed to bonding, once an acquisition agreement is finalized with the current owner, Cornell University Real Estate. The bonds would support purchase and related design services.

The vote was 10-5, with Legislators Frank Proto, Kathy Luz Herrera, Tyke Randall and Greg Stevenson voting no. Proto, who chairs the Legislature's Health Department Building Committee, maintained the action is premature, and should be delayed indefinitely, at least until his committee completes its review of building information prepared by consultants and staff, as well as the acquisition agreement under development by legal staff. Proto's motion to table failed by a vote of 4-11, with Proto, Luz Herrera, Greg Stevenson and Leslyn McBean-Clairborne voting in favor of delay. Luz Herrera described the health department site decision as "based on poor procedural grounds" and said the County should take the time necessary now to review the available information.

Tompkins County Administrator Steve Whicher has delivered to the County Legislature a 2008 Tentative Budget that meets the Legislature’s goal of a tax levy increase of no more than 2 percent. This year’s proposed budget, he says, is one that he can recommend.

“I recommend this budget in full, if the Legislature believes that the 2 percent goal given to me is in the best interest of the County,” Mr. Whicher states in a cover letter to the budget document. “I anticipate, however, that your review will result in changes in both spending and tax levy, since the Legislature may decide to replace one-time funding in several areas, and because I have not provided target funding for new initiatives or positions. In addition, the capital program could be strengthened through the addition of target funding.”

Tompkins County’s countywide property revaluation next year, increasing values to 100 percent of fair market value, is projected to produce an increase in the local municipal tax base.   Assessment officials maintain, however, that the revaluation will not be responsible for tax rate increases for local taxpayers.

Tompkins County Director of Assessment Valeria Coggin states that, while the revaluation in the third year of the County’s triennial revaluation cycle is projected to produce an increase in the tax base for local jurisdictions in the range of 10 to 15 percent, that does not mean that  taxpayers will see their tax bills rise by that amount.  Absent a taxing jurisdiction increase in spending as part of its budget, the increase in tax base would offset an increase in tax rate.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Rep. Michael A. Arcuri (D-Utica) issued the following statement today regarding U.S. military involvement in Iraq following testimony by General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker before a joint House Armed Services and Foreign Affairs Committee hearing:

"I respect General Petraeus as an honorable man who serves our nation. Unfortunately, General Petraeus' report to Congress was more of the same rhetoric, which we have heard all too many times from this Administration. I was truly taken back by his continued defense of the Administration's misguided and ill-conceived war, which has cost this country far too many lives.

Steve Farkas has been Lansing Town Supervisor for eight years, and is currently running for a fourth term (his first two terms were two-year terms before the position was changed to a four-year term).  Born and raised in Lansing, he attended first grade in the brick schoolhouse that he later served in as a town councilman for a year and a half, and then as Supervisor.  (The building is now the Lansing Community Library Center.)  The Republican incumbent is now running for a fourth term.
 
Farkas lives in Lansing with his wife Alice. The couple has a son and a daughter, both of whom work for the State Child and Family Services office, and three grandchildren. Daughter Kathleen has worked at the Lansing Residential Center for 19 years.

Originally a teacher, the bulk of his career was with the State, working with at-risk children for 33 years. The last administrative position he held before he retired was Director of the Louis Gossett Center in Lansing. Farkas met with the Lansing Star in his office at the Town Hall this week to talk about.

During the week-long traffic initiative "Taking action against Driver Distraction", the Tompkins County Sheriff's Office reports the following enforcement activity.

Dedicated patrols patrolled all townships within Tompkins County. Deputies issued the following traffic summons:

• 81 traffic summons issued for use of a cellular telephone while driving.

• 13 traffic summons issued for not wearing seat belts

If you watch television news you'd think that the next election isn't for another 14 months!  But the fact is that on November 6th there will be an election for several offices, including many local elected positions, including Town Supervisor, Council people, Highway Superintendent, Clerk, State Senator, and more.  Democrats chose their candidates by caucus at Lansing Community Center last month, while Republicans submitted petitions to the Tompkins County Board of Elections.  There will be no primaries this year, but some seats are likely to be hotly contested in the general election.
{styleboxjp width=400px,float=center}The Lansing Star begins its election coverage this week with an interview with Town Supervisor Steve Farkas.  We do our best to interview all local candidates, asking the same questions to those running for the same office.  After we run these interviews we keep them live on the Elections page so that voters can re-read them as the election grows near and compare what the candidates have to say.{/styleboxjp}