Archive: News

The Lansing Town Planning Board tweaked a draft of a proposed Solar and Wind law Monday, preparing it for a final draft to be enacted into law by the Town Board.  The Planning Board focused on three issues: security fencing, allowing large scale commercial wind farms, and he amount of contiguous prime soil farmland that should be allowed for large solar arrays.  Lansing Director of Planning C.J. Randall said the intent of the law is largely to support green-energy producing installations while still protecting prime farmland and topsoil.

Planning Board members haggled over the height of fencing they think should be required, weighing the pros and cos of 6 foot tall fences vs. 8 feet tall.  They seemed to settle on 8 feet, partly because it is harder to climb over, and partly to conform with the Town's existing cell tower law.  They also debated whether fencing the entire solar array should be required, vs. just fencing infrastructure.

Village of Lansing Mayor Donald Hartill argued again Monday that a local push to rely on solely on electricity-powered home heating is unwise, especially in light of an unreliable electric grid.  He cited many recent power outages in the Town and Village of Lansing, saying that lifting New York State Electric & Gas's (NYSEG) natural gas moratorium would provide an alternate source of power, at least until electricity delivery becomes more stable.  Hartill was among local officials who met with New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) Clean Heating and Cooling Group Program Manager Scott Smith and Lansing Outreach Coordinator Lisa Marshall, Monday about challenges to converting Lansing residents from oil and gas heat to electric powered heat pumps.

"Our discussion today was how we get from here to there given the circumstances that we operate under, namely a great enthusiasm for various sorts of heat pumps and things like that," Hartill said at a Village Trustees meeting Monday.  "Great enthusiasm for doing the right thing.  But I would characterize it as not any real understanding the path forward, of how we get from here to there.  In particular anything that gets to be quasi-carbon-neutral has to face up to the fact that our electricity in New York State, 35% comes from non-carbon sources.  20% is water power.  15% is nukes."

The bad news is that NYSEG imposed a moratorium on new natural gas customers for the Town and Village of Lansing.  The good news is that New York State has special incentives for Lansing residents who choose to convert to heat pumps this year.  HeatSmart Board Chair Brian Eden joined HeatSmart Tompkins Program Director  Jonathan Comstock and HeatSmart Lansing Coordinator Lisa Marshall to host a launch party for this year's initiative that has a special focus on Lansing.  All eyes are on Lansing and Westchester County, which is also subject to a natural gas moratorium, to see how successful the communities will be at embracing the cleaner heat pump technology, and their ability to attract businesses despite natural gas being largely off the table.  At the same time the Tompkins County HeatSmart initiative is serving as a model to expand the grass roots approach to promoting clean energy all over New York State.

"We saw the example that HeatSmart Tompkins initiatied a few years ago," said New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) Clean Heating and Cooling Group Program Manager Scott Smith. "It was my idea to replicate it around New York State. As of a week ago we have 15 communities in New York, including Tompkins County, that are doing HeatSmart campaigns.  We're very grateful to the HeatSmart team, to Brian and Jonathan for getting it all started.  I'm here at the HeatSmart Lansing launch today because as increased funding is part of the clean energy action planNYSERDA doubled down on its investment in HeatSmart Tompkins specifically to focus on the Lansing area because of the gas moratorium."

Legislature Chair’s Statement Decries Nation’s Ongoing Mass Shootings
The Tompkins County Legislature began its meeting mourning of the lives lost in this year's U.S. mass shootings, including the most recent, two that occurred only hours apart, in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio. Before asking that all observe a moment of silence, Legislature Chair Martha Robertson offered the following statement:

Today is the 218th day of 2019. So far there have been 253 mass shootings in our nation this year, more than one a day, according to Gun Violence Archive. This number does not count incidents with fewer than four people, including the murders of Chantel Grant and Andrea Stoudemire, who were part of a group called Mothers Against Senseless Killings. They were gunned down on Friday in Chicago on the corner where moms have been gathering for five years to try to curb gun violence.

The Legislature considered, but failed to support, moving ahead with an in-depth feasibility study to gather more information on the potential to establish a joint City-County public safety facility. The proposed study would have delved deeper into findings of a preliminary study by Kingsbury Architecture on what could be involved if the County Sheriff's Office (Road Patrol and Civil Division, and possibly the Jail) were to be co-located with the Ithaca Police Department at a location within the City of Ithaca.

The City's Common Council has already supported moving ahead—asking staff to develop a scope of work for a detailed architectural and engineering analysis to evaluate potential costs and benefits, as well as an operational analysis to analyze the potential use of shared facilities. But after considerable discussion, the Legislature declined to follow suit, with the proposal rejected by a 5-8 vote; Legislators Rich John, Leslyn McBean-Clairborne, Anna Kelles, Dan Klein, and Chair Martha Robertson voted in favor. (Legislature Mike Sigler was excused.)

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo signed legislation (S.3828/A.216) Thursday to increase health and safety standards in animal care for all pet dealers. The enhancements set clear guidelines for sanitary living enclosures and food receptacles, annual veterinary examinations, regular grooming, diurnal light cycles, and separate spaces for pregnant dogs which provide sufficient room to nurse and care for a litter.

"If pet dealers are going to profit from the sale of living animals, they should at the very least adhere to basic standards of decency and care," Cuomo said. "These new rules will create safer, more sanitary and more humane conditions for animals while they wait for a new permanent home."

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo signed legislation (S.5685/A.4853.A) - or Brianna's Law - Tuesday to phase in requirements that all operators of motorized watercraft must complete a state-approved boating safety course. Brianna's Law is named after Brianna Lieneck, an 11-year-old Long Island girl who was killed in a 2005 boating accident. The Governor also directed State Parks to launch a boating safety promotional campaign to remind boaters of the new requirement to take a safety course.

"Boating has become much more popular and our rules and our laws really have not kept pace with it," Cuomo said. "There should be a basic level of knowledge that you have before you're given the permission to go out there and operate a boat, and making a safety course mandatory is common sense. It protects the operator of the boat and everyone that operator could come into contact with, and it will make our waters safer. It took a horrific accident to make this situation real for people, but through this law Brianna is saving lives and her love lives on."

Congressman Tom Reed called on Governor Cuomo to end the political dispute with the Seneca nation and repair the I-90 Thruway and other roadways running through the Seneca Nation.

Reed, citing dangerous conditions and the possibility of injury to motorists and damage to vehicles, served the governor and other DOT officials with a formal letter of defective conditions holdingNew York State liable "for any and all injury, loss of life, and or damage or total loss personal property resulting from the road conditions of the above-mentioned federal interstate."

Through the NYS Department of Health Statewide Health Care Facility Transformation Program, Alcohol & Drug Council of Tompkins County has secured $6,961,000 in funding to add a 40-bed medically supervised withdrawal (detox) and residential services program to their currently existing Open Access Center, which opened at 2353 North Triphammer Road in February of this year. Additional funding to support this project was awarded by NYS Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS). This collaboration between the Department of Health and OASAS has been foundational to ensuring that the full continuum of care vision will be realized for the people in our region.

"Our community has long needed this level of care, and we have been working very hard to bring these vital healthcare services to our area," says Alcohol & Drug Council Executive Director, Angela Sullivan. "We're deeply grateful to our state and county government leaders and the many human service partners who have helped us to reach this point."

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.  That is what developers Steven and David Beer did Tuesday as they discussed the third version of Lansing Village Cottages with the Village of Lansing planning Board.  After their first project was rejected by the board after eight months of discussion, and a second project nixed in February, the Beers came back in June with a new project that maintains a semblance of the pocket neighborhood idea with cluster housing, but is allowed by current zoning provided they trade 20% of the property for the right to build the units closer together.

"The cluster subdivision provision allows for smaller lots, but you set aside forever wild land," says David Beer. "That allows for somewhat more efficient infrastructure development, because things are more compacted.  So that's the trade-off."

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo signed legislation Wednesday limiting an educational institution's ability to authorize any person who is not primarily employed as a school resource officer, law enforcement officer or security guard to carry a firearm on school grounds (S.101/A.1715), and directing State Police to establish statewide regulations aimed at strengthening existing gun buyback programs and create new programs for the safe removal of illegal, unsecured, abandoned or unwanted firearms (S.2449/A.2685). This legislation builds on New York's strongest in the nation gun laws, including the Red Flag Bill signed in February that prevents individuals who show signs of being a threat to themselves or others from purchasing or possessing a firearm, legislation Cuomo signed July 29 extending the background check waiting period and banning bump stocks and legislation signed yesterday banning undetectable guns and expanding firearm safe storage laws to protection children.

"The answer to the gun violence epidemic plaguing this country has never been and never will be more guns, and today we're expanding New York's nation-leading gun safety laws to further protect our children," Cuomo said. "These measures will help slow the proliferation of guns by keeping unneeded firearms out of school zones and helping to ensure unwanted or illegal guns don't fall into dangerous hands."

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo signed legislation (S.6579A/A.8420) Monday further decriminalizing marijuana use in New York State. New York's existing marijuana laws disproportionately affect African American and Latino communities, and this legislation will address those racial and ethnic disparities by reducing the penalty for unlawful possession of marijuana to a violation punishable by a fine, and by creating a process for individuals who have been convicted for possessing small amounts of marijuana to have their records expunged. The Governor first proposed the further decriminalization of marijuana in 2013, and again in the FY 2020 Budget. The bill will take effect 30 days after becoming law.

"Communities of color have been disproportionately impacted by laws governing marijuana for far too long, and today we are ending this injustice once and for all," Cuomo said. "By providing individuals who have suffered the consequences of an unfair marijuana conviction with a path to have their records expunged and by reducing draconian penalties, we are taking a critical step forward in addressing a broken and discriminatory criminal justice process."