Archive: News

The Tompkins County Planning Department is hosting a series of public meetings the week of June 18th to present the Conservation Strategy and the Development Focus Areas Strategy. Together, the two strategies are intended to identify areas where the county will support efforts to protect important natural resources and areas where the county will support efforts to promote new development.

Seventy state legislators from both houses and both parties are calling on Governor Cuomo to resolve six critical issues before permitting Marcellus Shale horizontal hydraulic fracturing to begin in New York State.  These issues are not adequately addressed by the Revised Draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS) that the New York Department of Environmental Conservation is currently reviewing pursuant to Executive Order No. 41.

“It is clear that the SGEIS, as we have seen it, insufficiently addresses the effects that this heavy industry could have on New York families,” said Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton (D/WF 125), who authored and spearheaded the letter. “Until these critical issues are resolved, we must send the SGEIS back to the drawing board. This document may be our last line of defense from heavy industry in our backyards -- we only get one chance at this.”

Discord among board members was apparent at Monday's Lansing Board of Education meeting as they tussled over procedure in tenuring High School Principal Eric Hartz.  Board member Christine Iacobucci asked to have Hartz's tenure decision postponed until the June 25th board meeting to allow more time to consider community input from the meeting, including input they anticipated receiving in Monday's meeting.

Hartz was being considered for tenure along with seven teachers.  After controversy at a board meeting two weeks ago, the board received more public input including one anonymous letter.  Iacobucci also challenged a executive session scheduled in the middle of the meeting between community input and the tenure vote.  She said it would be unfair to make the teachers and community members wait, and that holding the session while they waited would put pressure on the board to make a hasty decision.

Perhaps the best news at Wednesday's Lansing Sewer Committee meeting was that the Town is in negotiations with two developers to build roads and infrastructure for two senior housing projects proposed for the town center land across the street from the town ballfields.  Until this week committee members feared that the cost to build two main roads and their accompanying infrastructure would be prohibitive, putting the sewer project in jeopardy.

Representatives from NRP Group and Better Housing For Tompkins County met with Town officials this week to talk about, among other things, how parts of these the roads could be constructed by NRP Group and Calimar Developers.

Tompkins Officials Among More Than 250 Across the State Urging Governor to Require More Study Before Hydrofracking Moratorium is Lifted

More than 280 municipal leaders from across New York State—including more than 50 from Tompkins County—have signed a non-partisan letter to Governor Cuomo, urging the Governor to  maintain the State’s current moratorium on hydrofracking until potential health, economic, and cumulative environmental impacts on local communities from such drilling are properly addressed.  Those signing the letter to the Governor include representatives of cities, towns, villages, and county governments, including 12 members of the Tompkins County Legislature.

Legislature Examines, Delays Action on Redistricting Report
The Legislature took a long and careful look at the issue of reapportioning County legislative districts, but delayed action on whether to accept the report of the County's Independent Redistricting Commission that recommends reducing the number of legislative districts by one, to a 14-member Legislature.

That report, as amended in April, recommends a 14-district configuration including four County districts within the City of Ithaca, with boundaries consistent with City ward boundaries that had been favored by the City's Redistricting Committee.  But after hearing that Ithaca's Common Council last night narrowed its favored ward configuration alternatives to twoâ¤"a five-ward option and a four-ward option, but not the one favored by the City Committee Legislators agreed to postpone consideration for two weeks, after it is expected that Council will have reached a decision on City ward boundaries.

The United States Department of Agriculture has officially issued Disaster Declarations for the Wayne-Finger Lakes Region and other Upstate agricultural regions impacted by recent unseasonable temperature extremes, State Senator Mike Nozzolio has announced.

Under the disaster declarations, farmers in the affected areas will be able to apply for federal assistance and special loans to offset the cost of their crop losses. The USDA issued the declarations for 32 Upstate counties, including Wayne, Seneca, Cayuga, Ontario, Monroe, Tompkins, Onondaga and Yates.

In a special meeting Wednesday the Lansing Town Board voted to hire Planner Jonathan Kantor to guide the town as it updates its comprehensive plan and land use ordinances.  Last month the Board voted to enact a one year moratorium on heavy industry, especially natural gas drilling, to allow time to update the comprehensive plan and land use ordinances.

"After talking with Jon it was really obvious that there are so many places where we can use his expertise going forward with all the projects that we have," said Supervisor Kathy Miller.  "We really need someone like this on board to help us do what we need to do."

The Lansing Sewer Committee is getting closer to presenting the a $9.75 million sewer project to the Town Planning Board, and then to the public.  In their Wednesday meeting they discussed a possible district extension that would potentially not cost the district more dollars, but add units that would share the cost, lowering the annual fees for all units within the district.  They also discussed progress on getting public support for the project.

Town officials are negotiating with the developers of Cayuga Farms, a 138 town house condominium project that is planned along Triphammer Road south of Asbury Road.  The developers have expressed an interest in bringing sewer down Triphammer Road from Peruville Road at their own expense.  If an agreement is reached that would also bring homes along the northern section of Triphammer Road into the district.  Lansing Supervisor Kathy Miller says she has recieved four calls from residents along that strip with aging septic systems who have expressed an interest in hooking up to sewer if it is available.

New York added more than 312,000 jobs in the past two years, nearly 95 percent of the jobs lost during the recession. Still, some regions continue to struggle and the unemployment rate in New York is rising again, according to a report released today by State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli.

“New York’s economy is slowly recovering, but challenges remain, including the European debt crisis and deficit cutting decisions in Washington,” DiNapoli said. “The national economy also appears to be slowing, which could impact New York’s recovery. We are not out of the woods yet.”

Dryden, NY – An oil and gas company is scheduled to file briefs today in its lawsuit against a small town in upstate New York fighting to preserve its way of life.

The brief is expected to outline why the privately-held Anschutz Exploration Corporation, owned by billionaire Phillip Anschutz (estimated net worth: $7.5 billion), thinks it should be allowed to overrule the zoning laws limiting industrial gas development in the Town of Dryden (population: 14,000).

The New York State Senate colleagues adopted the 2012 NEW JOBS-NY Job Creation Plan (S.7448) Wednesday. The Senate’s comprehensive plan will help create thousands of new private sector jobs by delivering tax relief to small businesses and manufacturers, reducing energy costs, and enacting major fiscal reforms to make New York State more economically competitive.

“For the first time in years, New York State is on the right track to become a job-friendly, competitive State once again,” said NY State Senator Nozzolio. “The tax cuts my colleagues and I enacted today build on this momentum by helping private sector job creators get more people back to work and making New York more attractive for businesses in other states to create new opportunities here.”