Archive: News

July 6th, 2007 was the day the sewer died in the Town of Lansing.  The high annual cost per Equivalent Dwelling Unit (EDU) was the main factor that killed the controversial project.  But almost immediately a smaller, focused sewer project rose out of the ashes of the Town project.  Transonic Systems' Chief Operating Officer Bruce Kilmartin told the Town board that his company would be forced to leave Lansing along with its facility and 100 well paying jobs without sewer that would allow the company to expand its building and create new jobs.

"It's going to be very tough to grow and add to the building or more people, because we don't have a sewer," Kilmartin said last year.  "We're going to be stymied, so we're very interested in the progress of the sewer.  We're going to have to make a decision as to whether we will stay or move."

Soon after that a very different sewer project began that showed just how interested in staying in Lansing the company actually is.  The project will being sewer north along Warren Road from the Village of Lansing's sewer on Cherry Road up to and slightly beyond the Warren Road Business Park where Transonics is located.  Putting its money where its mouth is, the company agreed to pay about $10,000 for an engineering study to determine whether a project is feasible.  That study, now complete, outlines what will be included and the cost of the project, which Town Engineer David Herrick presented to the Lansing Town Board at their meeting last Wednesday.

"We've worked with landowners within the proposed sewer district," Herrick said.  "There have been many participants in the discussion on how to best provide sewer service to that neighborhood, principally for the benefit of commercial and institutional landowners."

The fact that all the stakeholders asked to be included seems to be the key to the project's success and the surprising speed in developing it.  As the project has developed the price per Equivalent Dwelling Unit (EDU) has ranged as high as $2,500.  Even at that price Transonics was willing to go ahead with the project.

The $2.553,900 project could bring sewer to the business park before the end of this year, and to all businesses and participating residences by 2009 according to Town Councilman Bud Shattuck.  Shattuck was the chairman of the now defunct project's sewer committee, and has continued to be an advocate of sewer in Lansing where it makes sense and is affordable.  This time around he is involved in a project that looks like a winner for everybody involved.

As more businesses, landowners, apartment owners, and individuals have asked to be included the price has gone down.  Lucentes Holdings, which owns many of the apartment buildings along Warren Road got on board, and the Springbrook Apartments, which has had significant problems with their septic system also recently signed on.


With so many residential units included, the project suddenly qualified for a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development loan, which has a lower interest rate than loans a Town-only project.  That more favorable loan will make a difference of almost $500 per year to people in the district.

A Town-only loan would have meant an annual cost per EDU of $1,514.  But with Rural Development's lower interest rates that cost comes down to $1,035.  To put all this in perspective, the now defunct Lansing Town sewer project was coming in around $854 per EDU as a worst case scenario, and the reason the project was killed was that it was too much money.    But even with the higher cost everyone in this projects wants the sewer.  And they are willing to pay for the benefits and opportunities it will bring.

"It ends up being a residential project," Shattuck says.  "And not only a residential project, but one of lower income people.  Apartment owners will no longer have to dedicate a whole field for septic.  They can take their septic system out and build another set of apartments there.  They can increase the density, which is also good for the Town.  So it's really a good project.  It not only fits in with the Town's comprehensive plan, but also with the County's comprehensive plan of increasing development."


The project includes the Warren Road business park, Cornell-owned properties off of Cherry Road, County-owned land that could be developed for commercial and/or industrial development, the Lucente properties including several apartment buildings, Springbrook Apartments just north of the business park, some vacant land that could be developed in the future, and some single-family homes.  Shattuck says that those who don't want to participate will be allowed to be 'cookie-cuttered' out of the district, with the option of opting in at some time in the future.

An important piece is that most of the proposed sewer district falls within a New York State Empire Zone, one of six in Tompkins County.  Empire Zones are designed to promote new business, expansion of business, and creation of good quality jobs.  They are supposed to have the infrastructure to attract and keep business before being formed, and this one was approved on the promise of the overall Town project.  When that failed, the new project became a way to get the zone up to specification.


That got Tompkins County Area Development's (TCAD) Empire Zone Coordinator Heather Filiberto involved, and she has been working with Kilmartin and all the stakeholders as an advocate for the project. 

"They said, 'The sewer is really important to us.'  That's where we got engaged with this," explains says TCAD Vice President and Director of Economic Development Planning Martha Armstrong.  "We said, 'The sewer is also very important to us and we'll try to work with you and the Town to keep the ball moving.  It turned out a lot of the Town legislators, particularly Bud Shattuck, were very interested in keeping it moving so that these businesses can stay here, provide good jobs, and expand as they need to.  If they can't expand as they need to they need to go somewhere else."

Armstrong says that the empty lots having access to a sewer will attract more new businesses.  "Incidental to the urgent need of Transonics and existing companies, getting access to sewer for a number of the undeveloped lots in the Empire Zone, whether is be privately owned properties or County properties.  Some of the County properties will be sewered and they are in the Empire Zone.  That's a double win for us."

Kilmartin and Filiberto came to Wednesday's Town Board meeting to monitor progress.  The final draft of the engineering study will be completed when a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is submitted to the Town by Village Mayor Donald Hartill.  "It's a done deal," Hartill says.  "It's just a question of the details.  What isn't fully decided is a maintenance agreement on our existing sewer lines.  That will be minor in terms of the cost per EDU."


The Warren Road project is in stark contrast to the town project that drew so much opposition before it was killed.  Everyone you talk to in the Town, Village, and County talks about the benefits, not only to the land and business owners, but to the Town itself.  Businesses paying property taxes lower the burden on residents, and new well-paying jobs will bring new residents that will be committed to the town as well as contributing to the existing tax base themselves.

"It's the smart thing to do," Hartill says.  "It's just a no-brainer in terms of what you should do."

NEXT WEEK: The Warren Road project is great for the people who live and work there, but what about the rest of the Town of Lansing?  We'll look at the issues the Town faces before sewer can come to the rest of us, and some surprising initiatives that may bring it to those who really need it sooner than we think.

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