Archive: News

The vote on whether to create a town-wide Lansing sewer district will probably be held as much as eight months later than originally hoped.  Officials had hoped to be ready for a vote on the $10.8 million project in September, but a new estimate based on a schedule for completing a Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS) pushes the vote to next April or May.

Sewer committee members Wednesday saw the longer time frame as an opportunity to provide information and answers to community members who eventually will vote on the proposal.  A poorly attended public information meeting last week prompted the committee to cancel another scheduled for June 12.  Committee members said they will concentrate on neighborhood meetings hosted in peoples' homes and reschedule the public information meeting.

Two weeks ago the Town Board voted to hire GHD, an engineering firm, to complete the GEIS and provide engineering services needed to complete it.  The firm provided a timeline for developing the document that includes public hearings as well as phases of review and submission of the document to state agencies.

Sewer Committee members discussed merging another document Town Attorney Guy Krogh provided, outlining all the steps needed to obtain sewer approval.  The merged document will be used to keep the project on track leading up to the vote.

With the resignation of Tom Jones and Ed LaVigne from the committee, members said they are concerned that there are not enough people on the committee to get necessary work done.  They said they would like to replace the two, with at least one new member who lives in or has a business in Tier 1, the proposed initial service area.

In recent weeks the committee has been critiquing their own presentation and working on a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document based on concerns citizens have raised since the April 23rd public information meeting that attracted over 150 people.

A poll conducted by the Lansing Central School District may have good news for sewer proponents.  At the school board election and budget vote about 25% of voters filled out an exit poll.  A question on the poll was, "The Board of Education has the ability to cast one vote in favor or against the town of Lansing sewer. If you were a BOE member today, how would you vote?"

School Business Administrator Mary June King told the Board Of Education Monday that an unofficial initial look at the results favors the sewer project.  If the numbers confirm her observation that could be good news for the Sewer Committee.  About 70% of voters approved the school budget.

"Generally I would say that people who voted for the budget said they would vote for sewer," King said.  "We will compile the hard core numbers for you, because it wasn't 100% in any direction.  About 25% of the 800 people who voted throughout the day filled out an exit survey."

Two of the school district's three large septic systems are failing, with the third expected to reach the end of its useful life next year.  King estimates it will take two million dollars to replace all three systems.  Because of state aid for public school construction projects the immediate cost to the schools would be about the same for new septic or hooking up to sewer, but over the long run sewer would save the district money.  If a septic system fails while the schools are waiting for sewer -- a real possibility -- it would have to be replaced immediately.

Town officials contacted King to ask how a delayed vote would impact the school district.  She says that she is worried about a septic system failing, which could mean replacing it immediately and then having to hook up to sewer if it passes.

"My reaction was that as long as the septic systems hold out it won't impact us at all," she said.  "I don't even like to talk about that possibility.  We need that decision as soon as possible because we really need to take care of our sewer and septic situation."

King promised the school board she will present them with the actual poll results and also share the information with the Town Board.

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