Archive: News

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced Tuesday that the $10 million grant program to help protect New York's non-public schools and cultural centers, including religious-based institutions, against hate crimes is now accepting applications. Building upon the success of last year's first round which provided $14.8 million in grants, the program provides funding to help strengthen security measures and help prevent hate crimes or attacks against these facilities because of their ideology, beliefs or mission. Day care centers, including those that are housed in community centers, and non-profit cultural museums are also eligible to apply.

"Here in New York, our diversity of races, cultures, religions and beliefs has always been our greatest strength and we need to protect that legacy," Cuomo said. "Hate crimes have no place in New York and this funding will help those who are targeted due to their ideology, beliefs, or mission to take additional steps to increase the security of their facilities and keep our communities safe."

Senator Pam Helming announced the launch of the Farmland for a New Generation Program. The new program received $400,000 in funding through this year's New York State budget and is based on a successful model that American Farmland Trust created in the Hudson Valley in 2014. American Farmland Trust, in partnership with several agricultural organizations including regional land trusts and Cornell Cooperative Extension, will administer the statewide Farmland for a New Generation program in an effort to keep farmland in agricultural production.

"As the Senate Chair of the Legislative Commission on Rural Resources, I was proud to work with American Farmland Trust and my State Senate colleagues to secure the necessary funding for the Farmland for a New Generation Program. This program will help connect farmers looking for new land to either start farming or expand their operations with those seeking to sell, ultimately ensuring that farmland stays in agricultural production. This is a crucial service that will facilitate opportunities for land to pass on to the next generation of farmers and is especially important as the number of farmers seeking to retire continues to grow and more and more farmland is subsequently lost each year. The Resource Center and Regional Navigators will be great tools for farmers of all ages and experience levels, and I am excited about the program and how it will directly assist local farmers," Helming said.

Senator Pam Helming announced Wednesday that she has introduced legislation to create a toll-free hotline where callers can report information on prison contraband. The establishment of this hotline encourages prison inmates, corrections officers, and citizens to call anonymously to report the whereabouts of illicit weapons, drugs, and other harmful devices in our state prisons. The hotline would be available to accept calls 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Modeled after legislation in Pennsylvania, this bill is in response to the escalation in prison violence and the increased presence of contraband in facilities throughout New York State.

The Tompkins County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a fatal motor vehicle accident that occurred at 2500 block of State Route 79 in the Town of Enfield at approximately 4:57 AM, November 1, 2018.

The operator of the vehicle, travelling west on State Route 79, left the roadway and struck a nearby residence. The occupants of the residents were transported by Bangs Ambulance to a local medical facility for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries. The operator of the vehicle was pronounced dead at the scene and was the sole occupant of the vehicle. Identification of the driver will not be released at this time, as the investigation is still on going.

Developers and Planning Board members spent another two hours Tuesday trying to convince each other that a 105-unit rental small cottage proposal arranged in nine pocket neighborhoods would or would not benefit the Village of Lansing.  Lansing Village Cottages, proposed by Beer Properties, LLC, would be targeted at seniors who want to downsize and stay in the Village.  But Planning Board Chair Lisa Schleelein and other board members continued to question why a Planned development Area (PDA), essentially a special zone within an established zone, should be granted when she characterized the existing Medium Density Residential (MDR) zone as flexible.

"The first thing I look for is why would you not just look at our basic code?," Schleelein said. "Why is this so different and special that you have to ask for a PDA.  In the history of our village we've had two PDAs in 40-some odd years.  This is zoned Medium Density Residential (MDR).  What is allowed there?  Why should this be of interest to us as a village?  Why should we think that this is so special that we would allow for a PDA?"

Derek Osbourne is running for Sheriff on the Democratic Party line.  He grew up in Cortland, NY and began his career in law enforcement there, working six and a half years as a Cortland City policeman before becoming a Tompkins County Deputy Sheriff in 2001.  He retired from the Sheriff's Office in 2015 after working his way up from Deputy to Undersheriff. After that he worked with federal inmates in Syracuse.  He is currently Head of Security, Disaster Management and Business Continuity at CFCU, among other responsibilities there.  This week he announced that, if elected, he will appoint Jennifer 'Jenn' Olin as his undersheriff, which would make her the first woman to serve as undersheriff in Tompkins County.

Osbourne lives in Lansing with his fiancé Erin -- soon to be wife -- and have three daughters.  She is a member of Lansing's Conlon family, who grew up in Trumansburg.  Their wedding was delayed for the campaign, so perhaps his most important campaign promise is to Erin, that the wedding will take place soon after election day no matter which way the election goes.  But for voters Osbourne is running on a platform of improving community engagement, promoting diversity, compassionate approaches toward enforcing the opioid epidemic, fiscal responsibility, improved crime response, and working with criminals in the jail to prevent future victimization.

Maura Kennedy-Smith is a local attorney running for Lansing Town Justice on the Democratic Party line.  She is a Lansing native, but her family moved to Ithaca when she was a small child.  She graduated Cornell University and went to NYU Law School.  After a few years working in New York City she moved back to Ulysses, and back to Lansing with her husband Bill and two children (ages 9 and 7) five and a half years ago.  Her parents have lived in Lansing for 20 years.

Kennedy-Smith is principal court attorney for County Court Judge Joseph Cassidy, who also serves as an acting Supreme Court judge, which gives Kennedy-Smith the opportunity to work on the full spectrum of cases, principally felonies, family court cases, wills, guardianship, and property disputes among others.  Kennedy-Smith says there would be no problem with working and acting as Town Justice, because the Office of Court Administration is flexible about when Town Justices can hold court and notes that many town justices have full time jobs.  She has spent many hours in Lansing Town Court when she was a practicing attorney, both representing clients there and observing while waiting for her cases to be called.

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced six victim assistance programs in the Finger Lakes region will receive approximately $1.7 million in grants to hire attorneys who will assist crime victims with civil legal matters resulting from their victimization. These programs are among 61 statewide that will receive nearly $16 million in federally funded grants, administered by the state Office of Victim Services, to provide free legal services to crime victims in civil matters, such as matrimonial, custody, immigration and financial issues.

"Crime victims shouldn't be left to navigate the legal system without proper representation, just because they lack financial resources," Cuomo said. "This grant funding will help ensure all victims of domestic violence and other crimes in the Finger Lakes and beyond have equal access to the resources they need to find competent and compassionate legal assistance."

Dick Costello is running for Town Justice on the Republican Party line.  He has lived in Lansing 46 years, where he resides with his wife Sharyn.  Born and raised in Waverly, NY, Costello served his PGA (Professional Golfers' Association) apprenticeship at Shepherd Hills, a private country club in Waverly before enlisting in the Navy.  After completing his service he resumed his golf career.  Costello was recruited by Cornell University in 1973 to teach golf.  In 2010 he was inducted in the PGA Hall of Fame. Additionally, Cornell named the second hole for him. In 2000 he retired as the Director of Golf Operations and the men's golf coach. After that he taught golf for a couple of seasons for the City of Boca Raton, FL.

Costello says that the people and counseling skills he developed over nearly half a century of working with and coaching young golfers.  In preparation for being elected he has been spending what he characterizes as 'many, many hours' observing town court in Lansing under Judge David Banfield, who is stepping down from the bench at the end of this year, and Judge John Howell, and Dryden under Judge Christopher Clauson.

Ken Lansing is running for his third term as Sheriff on the Independence Party line.  A native of Philmont, NY, Lansing went to Gennesee Community College in Batavia before moving to Cortland, where he became a security officer at the SUNY campus.  A year and a half later he was hired by the Cayuga Heights Police Department, where he worked full time.  During that time he also worked part time for the Dryden Police Department, and then worked part time for the Trumansburg PD for 25 years.  At the same time he his way up through the ranks to 1998 when he became Police Chief.

He and his wife Michelle moved to Tompkins County in 1973, and have lived in Dryden and Ithaca, and finally settled in Trumansburg.  They have seven grown children.  Lansing says he wants another term because it a bad time to change, with several initiatives already in progress, and says he really loves the work.

Josh Brokaw is running for Sheriff on the Truthsayers party line.  Originally from Anderson, IN, his family moved to Pottstown, PA when he was a child.  Brokaw went to college at the University of Chicago.  He then lived in Williamsport, PA, where he wrote for the Williamsport Sun-Gazette before moving to Ithaca at the beginning of 2015 to write for the Ithaca Times. 

Truthsayers is also a local news Website he founded after leaving the Ithaca Times.  This is his first run for elected office.  Brokaw says that as a journalist he hasn't gotten 'specific' answers from law enforcement officers, so he was inspired to run to get better answers whether he wins or loses.