Archive: News

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo signed legislation (S.5054/A.7053) Wednesday authorizing firefighters and other emergency medical responders to remove animals in unattended motor vehicles under conditions that endanger their health or well-being. This legislation will help reduce wait times when calls are made to 911 that a pet is in danger, especially in areas and at times when law enforcement or animal control availability is limited. The bill goes into effect immediately.

"Leaving a pet in a stifling hot or freezing cold car is inhumane and potentially dangerous, and emergency responders should have the ability to remove them if necessary," Cuomo said. "As a dog owner myself, I am proud to sign this measure into law to help ensure the safety and wellbeing of animals."

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced Wednesday that the New York Power Authority is launching a 15-year modernization and digitization program to significantly extend the operating life of the Niagara Power Project, the largest source of clean electricity in New York State and one of the country's largest hydroelectric projects. The life extension and modernization program, called "Next Generation Niagara," centers on the Robert Moses Niagara Power Plant, the Niagara project's main generating facility. NYPA plans to invest $1.1 billion in the project, making it one of the most ambitious recent infrastructure endeavors in the state. Next Generation Niagara will help realize Cuomo's aggressive clean energy goals for transitioning the state to 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2040 and serve as a grounding force for the forward-looking provisions in the landmark Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, which Cuomo recently signed into law.
 
"The Niagara Power Project is New York's largest source of clean electricity and this modernization project will allow it to continue operating for another 50 years," Cuomo said. "This extraordinary investment is a crucial part of our nation-leading plan to decarbonize New York's electric power system by 2040 and will continue supplying job-producing companies across the state with clean, low-cost energy."
 

Town of Lansing Director of planning C.J. Randall conducted the first of two scheduled informational meetings Monday to fill in residents on a proposed Solar and Wind Energy local law.  Randall says the law, which has been circulating since last year, is crafted to encourage solar farms, while protecting farmland in the town.  In addition to wind and solar, the law covers large scale battery energy storage systems and their impact.

"Our goal is to offer some regulatory certainty for companies that want to come in to do this, and also offer landowners piece of mind that the projects will be held to a certain standard," Randall says. "The Planning Board has a lot of discretion to support or deny the siting of a large scale solar array.  The Planning Board and the Town Board would like to see the large scale arrays be OK here, but you also have this competing interest from some folks about how that will impact actively farmed land."

Congressman Tom Reed announced Wednesday that a $720,447 grant to provide Tompkins County with funding to purchase snow removal equipment for the Ithaca Tompkins Regional Airport.

“We care about ensuring our friends and neighbors have fair access to reliable transportation,” Reed said. “This grant enables the Ithaca Airport to acquire snow removal equipment to help handle snowy New York winters. It is important that we invest in our airports and we are pleased this grant will allow the Ithaca Tompkins Regional Airport to continue their high quality of service to the people of the Finger Lakes and Southern Tier.”

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo signed legislation (S.2680A/A.1108B) Wednesday to allow state and local candidates to use campaign funds to pay for child care expenses, enabling more parents to run for public office.

"Women face too many barriers when it comes to running for office and frankly child care expenses shouldn't be one of them," Cuomo said. "By signing this measure into law, we will build on the historic progress we've made toward gender equality and empower more parents - and mothers in particular - to seek public office to ensure the decision makers in Albany reflect the people they are elected to represent."

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo signed legislation (S.5444/A.7515) yesterday allowing victims of sexual offenses, stalking and human trafficking to participate in the Department of State's Address Confidentiality Program. The program allows victims to keep their address hidden from their perpetrators by using a substitute address provided by the Department of State in lieu of their actual home, school or work address. The bill will take effect 90 days after becoming law.

"Victims of heinous crimes like sexual assault and human trafficking should not have to live in constant fear that their assailant could find and potentially hurt them again," Cuomo said. "By signing this legislation into law we will help protect survivors from further abuse by shielding their address from public view and hopefully provide a measure of comfort as they move forward with their lives."

The New York Power Authority (NYPA) approved a 10 megawatt hydropower allotment Tuesday to the Somerset Operating Company, LLC, a subsidiary of Heorot Power Holdings, which also owns Cayuga Operating Company.  Heorot Power has applied for allotments for both the Somerset and Cayuga power plant sites, to convert those businesses to the Empire State Data Center, cloud data centers at both locations.  While the allotment is only 10% of what Somerset asked for, company officials see it as an encouraging first step for eventually procuring additional allotments.

"The Empire State Data Hub project was designed to lead New York’s transition to a better energy future by leveraging the skilled, local workforce in Niagara County and valuable existing infrastructure at the site to enable a large, power-intensive data center with onsite solar," said Heorot Power Holdings Managing Director Michael Enright. "We believe NYPA’s 10 MW award of hydropower is a positive first step for the Data Hub project to become viable. We look forward to continuing to work with the Cuomo Administration and NYPA in the days ahead to procure additional energy to support the creation of new jobs and make the project a vital component of the state’s burgeoning green economy.”

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo signed legislation Thursday to protect New Yorkers against security breaches. The Governor signed the Stop Hacks and Improve Electronic Data Security - or SHIELD - Act (S.5575B/A.5635), which imposes stronger obligations on businesses handling private data to provide proper notification to affected consumers when there is a security breach. The Governor also signed legislation (A.2374/S.3582) requiring consumer credit reporting agencies to offer identity theft prevention and mitigation services to consumers who have been affected by a security breach of the agency's system.

"As technology seeps into practically every aspect of our daily lives, it is increasingly critical that we do everything we can to ensure the information that companies are trusted with is secure," Cuomo said. "The stark reality is security breaches are becoming more frequent and with this legislation New York is taking steps to increase protections for consumers and holding these companies accountable when they mishandle sensitive data."

Architect and engineer Larry Fabroni asked the Lansing Town Planning Board Monday to recommend that the Town Board grant a waiver to the Village Solars, LLC Planned Development Area (PDA) that will allow them to postpone the construction of a community building for one year, pushing the completion date to the end of 2021.  Meanwhile the company would continue building apartment buildings.  It seemed like a simple request, but it sparked hours of debate both by the Planning Board and at the Town Board meeting last week.

"My problem is that this will be the third extension that we've given you," said Planning Board member Larry Sharpsteen. "That could cause the credibility of the Planning Board and the Town of Lansing to suffer, somewhat, with other developers, and also with your tenants and other residents of the Town.  You may legitimately have a reason for your request but it doesn't send a very good message to developers and residents of the town: just come to the Planning Board and ask for it and they'll all roll over and waive their legs in the air and you're good.  I think we want to see more of a commitment to having that community building underway."

The Legislature's Downtown Facilities Committee today continued its analysis of Tompkins County's downtown facilities options, centered around the County's acquisition of properties in the 400 block of North Tioga Street, the expected site for a new County office building.

The committee was advised that a November 30th closing date is now anticipated, so that the County can take title to the property without tenants. Director of Assessment Jay Franklin (who has been the point of contact on purchase contract matters) reported that the dental practice's lease terminates as of that date, while all other building space and parking leases run on a month-to-month basis. Some decades-old title issues are also being worked through by legal counsel, he said.

Governor Cuomo signed into law S.1719C/ A.5981 Tuesday, criminalizing the publication of 'revenge porn', or the non-consensual sharing or publication of an intimate image. This new law subjects abusers to criminal penalties of up to a year in jail, plus civil damages, and empowers victims to seek a court order to remove these images online.

"Our laws have not kept pace with technology and how abusers can use it to harass, intimidate and humiliate intimate partners," Governor Cuomo said. "By criminalizing the publication of revenge porn, we are empowering victims of this heinous act to take action against their abusers and showing them a path to justice."

Washington, DC - Congressmen Tom Reed (NY-23) and Derek Kilmer (WA-06) introduced the bipartisan Teacher Education for Computer Science Act (the 'Teach CS Act') last Friday to help build a robust pipeline for computer science education to ensure today’s students can be successful and innovative in the workforce. The bill would establish “Centers of Excellence” for teacher education programs in computer science at graduate schools for higher education.

“There is no doubt jobs are changing, and computer science skills are in high demand in every field,” said Reed. “We care about ensuring America has the workforce to compete in the world in order to give both American businesses and workers a fair shot at succeeding. By ensuring additional computer science training in schools, we can ensure our kids are prepared for the jobs of the future.”