Archive: News

New York State Senator Michael Nozzolio and Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Dean Kathryn J. Boor today jointly announced the establishment of the Institute for Food Safety at Cornell, to be located on the campus of Cornell's New York State Agricultural Experiment Station (NYSAES) in Geneva.

The Institute for Food Safety at Cornell is made possible by a $2 million grant advocated by Nozzolio, and will be established to assist in ensuring New York food growers, companies, suppliers and processors from farm to table comply with the new regulations and compliance standards of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). The Institute will also support food safety research, education, training, compliance and technical innovation.

Lansing Planning Consultant Michael Long presented a years-end summary Wednesday that shows nearly 200 new housing units in the works, including single family homes, duplexes and town houses.  Long told the Town Board that the Planning Board has processed 20 new and ongoing residential and business projects, most spread around the south portion of the Town, including a preliminary plan for a Dollar General store not far from the Lansing Post Office.

"We had a few smaller projects, Village Solars and Village Circle that are PDA revisions," Long said.  "Advanced Design submitted a site plan for a 3,000 square foot addition.  Global Phoenix submitted a new parking lot.  There are a lot of smaller subdivisions and things of that nature."

Wednesday was Kathy Miller's final Town Board meeting as Lansing Supervisor.  Miller received the thanks of many colleagues throughout the meeting, including Councilmen Doug Dake, Ed LaVigne and Robert Cree, Town Attorney Guy Krogh, Tompkins County Legislator Mike Sigler, and Lansing residents.

"It's been a pleasure to serve as Supervisor.  The biggest pleasure has been meeting with residents and helping where I can, if not just being an ear to listen to what was going on," Miller said.  "Sometimes you can help, and sometimes you can't.  I certainly have learned an awful lot about Lansing and its residents.  I've learned about the people who really care about Lansing.  It really has been a pleasure."

Tom Reed supported a bill which he says aims to increase security requirements for international travelers.

"I care about keeping America secure. We are working together to ensure that ISIS does not exploit our security loopholes to engage in terror attacks on our homeland," said Reed. "It's only right that we put the security of the American people first and take every precaution to ensure our safety and that means tightening security around the world."

Village of Lansing Trustees accepted the latest revision of the Comprehensive Plan Monday in a unanimous vote.  According to Mayor Donald Hartill the plan does not reflect significant changes in direction for the Village, though it does reflect more than two years of work for Village Trustees, Planning Board members and citizen volunteers.  Despite accusations three and four years ago that the Village was complacent about making changes to the plan in the face of demographic population changes, Hartill says that there is no compelling reason to make major changes in the direction the Village will take over the next ten years.

"My view is that our past behavior has done us very well," Hartill said.  "I see no reason to modify that.  It's useful for me to look back and see what we have accomplished during that period of time.  We've been careful about what we spent.  Our infrastructure now is in rather good shape.  The decision moving forward is basically a conscientious maintenance program."

The Tompkins County Department of Assessment will be mailing renewal exemption applications on March 1 for all exemptions that must be applied for on a yearly basis.  A partial listing is: Applications are due by March 1.    Low Income Senior / Enhanced STAR Low Income Disability Clergy Living Quarters for Parent/Grandparent Partial Not-for-profit exemptions

While the application is due back by March 1, any supporting documentation including income tax information can be taken at any point up until April 15th so long as the exemption application is filed by March 1.  We highly suggest to all applicants that they simply fill out the exemption application and mail it back to my office as soon as they receive the application so that it is not forgotten.  Once the income tax information is completed, we will gladly match that to their already filed application.

The Tompkins County Legislature will have at least two recommended alternatives to consider, as it seeks to determine the leadership structure for the County's Mental Health Department.

Meeting jointly for more than three hours, two committees of the Legislature deliberated on whether shared leadership of the Mental Health and Health Departments by Public Health Director Frank Kruppa should continue on an interim basis, as it has been for the past eight months, or whether to authorize a renewed search for a Commissioner of Mental Health.

Village of Lansing Mayor Donald Hartill told the Village Trustees Monday that the minimum charge by the Southern Cayuga Lake Intermunicipal Water Commission (Bolton Point) will be halved, from 10,000 gallons to 5,000.  Hartill is a long-time Water Commissioner who has long argued for a lesser minimum charge, which he said subsidized large water users at the expense of water customers with low or fixed incomes.

"Small users have been subsidizing the big users by 15%," Hartill said.  "This gets it down to about 5%.  Some of us well see some savings.  Some of the big users will see modest increases in the rate per thousand gallons in the current plan for this year is $4.08.  With this new lower rate it will be $0.444 once you have exceeded the minimum."

The Tompkins County Legislature has called upon Governor Cuomo and the State Legislature to raised the State's minimum wage to $15 per hour, supporting a plan that would phase in the new rate by 2021.  The vote was 13-1, with Legislator Mike Sigler voting no.  Noting that wages paid by a variety of health and human services providers are often limited by State-established cost reimbursement formulas, the measure also asks the State to increase assistance to County governments to support a $15 per hour wage floor in local human services contracts.

In introducing the resolution, Government Operations Committee Chair Dan Klein said that, while there has been one idea advanced to seek State permission to set a Tompkins County minimum wage at the local Living Wage level, this measure supports the phased-in minimum wage increase for all of New York State.  Mr. Klein said he believes Tompkins County is the first municipality in New York State to have taken this position.

 

	TCAT (Tompkins County Area Transit) has closely followed the Transportation Bill debate because it stood to lose lose more than $200,000 a year or $1.2 million over six years in federal funding if an earlier draft had been passed.

U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer announced Tuesday that the joint House and Senate Transportation Conference Committee has agreed to include the full restoration funding to the critical 5340 High Density States Program in the final transportation bill set to be voted on later this week. Schumer explained that, as a part of the proposed transportation bill passed by the House a few weeks ago, a late amendment was agreed to that completely eliminated the 5340 Program. The elimination of this program would have cost New York State transit agencies roughly $100 million a year. Schumer, who was both chosen as transportation bill conferee, made restoring this program, and reversing the proposed cut, a top priority for the conference committee. Schumer announced today that, following his push, the final transportation bill will fully restore the 5340 program and, as a result, Upstate and Downstate transit agencies will no longer face devastating cuts. On top of that, the program will see an increase of roughly $18.5 million over the next five years.

"As a conferee, we were able to not only restore, but even increase, the funding the critical 5340 program receives. This is great news for Upstate and Downstate NY and a major victory for our regional transit agencies – because it means we have protected millions in critical transportation funding our agencies were set to receive over the next six years. With this funding, agencies like the NFTA, RGRTA and CDTA will be able to continue operating and keeping passengers safe," said Senator Schumer. "Our regional transit agencies have been lifelines for our communities and major drivers the New York State economy for a generation. This deal will ensure they can continue humming as that collective economic engine for Upstate New York in the years to come."

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State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli has launched a new Academy for New York State Local Officials that will provide an enhanced training program to help local administrators and employees become more effective in the day-to-day operations of their government.

The Academy, operated by the Comptroller's Division of Local Government and School Accountability, increases the number of classroom training sessions and web-based seminars offered on a wide range of topics, including governmental accounting, fiscal responsibilities, board oversight, cybersecurity and policy development.

Tom Reed voted to pass the American Security Against Foreign Enemies Act of 2015, which would require new security screenings for those seeking refugee status from Syria and Iraq.

"I care about keeping Americans safe. The sentiment from the people around our region and across the country was clear. The American people expect their leaders to put them first and protect them," said Reed.