Archive: News

Fire Commissioner Jeff Walters questioned the Lansing Fire District's voting plans at the commissioners' monthly meeting Tuesday night.  Normally elections are held in Central Station on Ridge Road, as well as Station 5 on Oakcrest Road in the Village of Lansing.  With low voter turnout for generally uncontested elections, Walters says the expense of maintaining two polling places is not justified.  "I'm not opposed to doing it the way we do it, but I don't see why we can't do it at one location," he said.  "I think it's a lot of money to spend in the Village."

Last year about 50 residents voted, with about 37 of those votes at Central Station.  Commissioner Kimberly Spencer ran uncontested to fill a seat being vacated by Dennis Griffin in that election, though there were some write-in votes.  In 2005, when Walters ran uncontested, there were only about 30 votes altogether, with the vast majority being cast at Central Station.  Fire Commissioner's Chairman Robert Wagner says that voter turnout has been miniscule for many years.  "The last time I remember a big turnout was when Dennis (Griffin) and I ran against each other in the '90s," he says, noting that about 400 voters turned out that year.

Superintendent Mark Lewis introduced his interim replacement at Monday's Lansing Board Of Education meeting.  Thomas Helmer will be filling the post starting September 1st until a new permanent superintendent can be hired.  Helmer is a retired educator with 18 years experience as a school superintendent.  He taught high school mathematics for 16 years, and held other administrative positions in his 38 year career.  After retiring two years ago he recently served as Interim Executive High School Principal in Liverpool, and will start in Lansing on August 20th.  " I see it as a leadership role," Helmer says.  "It appears to me that there are some things to be done to make the Lansing School District even better than it is, and I would like to help the Board of Education and the community find a way to address some of those issues."

Helmer grew up on a dairy farm in the Little Falls area.  He attended Utica College and Syracuse University, and earned a Master's degree at Syracuse University.  He began teaching in the Madison Central School district, later moving to Vernon-Verona-Sherrill High School.  He did his administrative internship at Cazenovia High School, then got his first administrative appointment in the Remsen Central School District, where he was  elementary principal, high school disciplinarian, and supervisor of buildings and grounds and transportation.  " It was what they called a very steep learning curve," he says.  "But it gave me some tremendous experiences for the positions I would find myself in over the next few years.  Actually my second year at Remsen I was given the title of assistant superintendent.  My duties changed slightly, and I then took on the administrative responsibilities for both the elementary school and the high school."

Election season has started, and the November slate for Town seats took a major step toward being finalized Wednesday when the Lansing Democrats held their caucus to nominate candidates.  18 Democrats participated in the caucus, and not all of the heat could be attributed to the weather as candidates were challenged to defend their Democratic beliefs.  While a caucus doesn't have to be concluded until September 25th, Lansing Democratic Committee Chairman Greg Lawrence explained there are practical reasons for holding it early.  "We have Harbor Festival coming up," he said.  "It's a good opportunity for our candidates to meet the public.  The more delay the less time we have for the Lansing Democratic Committee  to help the candidates campaign."

You used to be able to pick up a telephone and have confidence that you would be able to make a reliable call with good sound quality that would stay connected until you hung up.  In 1984 AT&T was broken into seven companies, and the result has been a wide array of choices or services, equipment, and technology that didn't exist before.  But with these choices we have paid a price -- the technology isn't nearly as reliable, and the quality of a basic telephone call is generally poorer.

If you think a dropped cellular call is annoying, imagine the hurdles an emergency response system is facing.  With aging infrastructures, outdated technology, and shrinking budgets and manpower in fire and police departments, the demands on 911 systems are growing, not shrinking.  "We don't have that many more incidences today than we did ten years ago," notes Tompkins County Emergency Response Director Lee Shurtleff.  "But now everybody has access to phones.  If we have an accident on Route 13 it used to be that somebody would run to the nearest house and call it in.  Now we'll get 15, 20, 25, 30 phone calls saying there is an accident on Route 13."

WASHINGTON, DC

Albany