Archive: Around Town

There isn't much heavy industry in Lansing, and industry doesn't get much heavier than a salt mine.  But the Lansing Cargill facility isn't just about mining.  When you are big you can just pay your taxes and set yourself aside from the community at large.  That is not the path Cargill has chosen.  The company has built a reputation for investing and participating in the Lansing community through a variety of activities.

"Our philanthropy is based around things that are of interest to our employees," says Mine Manager Russ Givens.  "A lot of people are involved in things and they either don't have the time to give or they don't have the money.  That's where we can step in.  It's something we can do for our employees' engagement, but also for community engagement."

Cargill has been generous in supporting worthy local causes.  They provide cash for local celebrations as well as charitable causes such as Relay For Life, local food pantries, the teaching kitchen, the Franziska Racker Centers, and three or four scholarships per year.  Each year the local mine donates to between 25 and 30 local organizations, and the Minnesota-based corporation also gives money to local projects as they did when they donate $45,000 over three years for the Lansing schools' Project Lead The Way.


In 2009 Cargill wanted to give $100,000 to the Lansing Food Pantry.  Pantry Director Nancy Myers asked them to make the donation instead to the Tompkins County Food Distribution Network instead, which serves 16 local food pantries around the county including Lansing.  Cargill was happy to comply.  This year, as in the past, Cargill was a major contributor to the two large Lansing community celebrations: the fireworks and the Lansing Harbor Festival.  Originally the company wanted to entirely fund the fireworks, but in conversations with Lansing Community Council representatives who host the events, Cargill agreed to let the Council distribute the money among the two events.

Those are only two illustrations of how the company engages in the community.  Rather than dictate where their contributions are to go they are willing to learn where the money is needed to do the most good.

And the company doesn't just donate money.  During the years the Lansing Volunteer Fire Department held its annual carnival at Central Station Cargill donated the use of its field across Ridge Road for parking.

The company takes a lot of pride in its safety record, as well.  While accidents are inevitable, the Lansing mine counts the intervals between serious accidents in years, not months or days. 

"We've not had a debilitating injury here where somebody lost work-time in 150 days.  But that last injury was carpal tunnel syndrome," Givens says.  "Prior to that our last debilitating injury was March of 2010."

That was an above-ground fatal accident in which a salt bin collapsed on a dump truck, killing the driver and injuring the bin operator.  That was the first fatal accident since the early 1980s.  Signs along Portland Point Road and Ridge Road display the number of accident-free days.

Givens notes that according to statistics the mine is ten times safer than Ithaca College, and on a safety par with Borg-Warner, which also has a good safety record.


"When you look at the metrics we're one of the safer businesses in this county," he says.  "That forces you to be on your game a little bit more."

In a few weeks the Lansing mine will receive an award naming it one of the safest operations in the United States.  The award recognizes the mine had an accident free year of at least 200,000 man-hours.  The company also has a wall of trophies won by their two mine rescue teams in regional or national competitions.  This year the Lansing teams won all but two trophies in the regional competition.

Cargill is a mining operation -- the company is not in the business of giving tours.  But occasionally a few lucky people get to go 2300 feet below ground to see how road salt is mined and produced.  Every three or four years employees are invited to bring one guest on a tour to see what the miners' everyday work life is like, learn about the mining process, and to see first hand why the Lansing mine has a stellar safety record.  The only other way to get to see the mine is to bid on it at a charitable event. 


Each year a mine tour is donated to the Corporate Development Committee (CDC) auction to raise money for technology and equipment for the Lansing school district.  The tour typically raises six to eight hundred dollars.  Recently the company donated fifty mine tours to local Franziska Racker Centers after it had donated $100,000 in cash.  The tours were donated on the condition that they be sold for $1,000 or more.  All fifty sold out within three weeks.

Cargill donates employee time and the use of loaders to help set up local events like the veterans' Watchfire and the Harbor festival.  Employee salaries are eligible to be paid for up to 24 hours per year for time they spend working on community development or charitable activity.  That means volunteer fire fighters can be paid for up to 24 hours, as well as others who volunteer at 'Adopt A Highway' cleanups, the SPCA, and a myriad of other activities.

The company also maintains a good relationship with the Town of Lansing government.  Cargill is planning to donate land to the Town for a sewage treatment plant, if the sewer district is successfully formed.

"There are 110 acres of land around our inbound roadway," Givens explains.  "We're only using 20 or 30 acres of it.  There is a lot of wooded area there, a great big quarry high wall... it's all land that I don't envision a use for.  I've left the door open to talk about whatever they need, whether it's one or two acres or ten acres."

The relationship swings both ways.  When town officials recently passed a one year moratorium on heavy industry it was a way to keep hydrofracking out of Lansing while the town updates it comprehensive plan and ordinances to protect the town from possible consequences of gas drilling.  The law was made broader to include all heavy industry on the grounds that it would be more defensible in court than a law that only prohibited one specific industry.  While formulating the law Lansing council members were careful to craft the law in a way that would not penalize Cargill.

Givens says he is very concerned about the impact of the law, not because of what it says now, but because of what it could evolve into.  He has attended town meetings on the issue, and is carefully monitoring ways in which new local laws could affect Cargill.  He says that so far the moratorium has met the council's goal and has not negatively impacted Cargill.

Cargill has also tried to reduce the impact of their operations on the Town as much as possible.  They expanded the number of truck scales, reducing the time a truck stops to be weighed by two thirds.  That reduces the lines of trucks and keeps them on Cargill property where they won't disturb the neighbors.

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