Archive: News

Following the release of an updated study on the greenhouse gas effect of methane release from high-volume hydrofracturing from researchers at Cornell University , Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton (D/WF-125) sent a letter to a number of state officials outlining the study’s significance. DEC Commissioner Joseph Martens, Governor Cuomo and Lois New, Acting Director of the NYS Climate Change Office, all received the letter.

Leslie Danks Burke announced Wednesday that she will seek the Democratic nomination to represent New York’s 22nd district in the U.S. House of Representatives. A lawyer, community activist, civic leader and mother of two young daughters, Leslie is a dedicated advocate for the people of New York.

“I am fortunate to live, work and raise my children in this beautiful region where the Catskills meet the Finger Lakes, and the Southern Tier stretches into Western New York,” Leslie said. “I’m committed to seeing upstate New York rebound into an economically vibrant place for everyone who lives here. I work hard for my community, my clients and my family, and I will bring that same determination and passion to representing the people of New York.”

Shinagawa Elected Legislature Vice Chair
Legislator Nathan Shinagawa (D-District 4/City of Ithaca) will serve as Vice Chair of the Tompkins County Legislature for 2012.  With Legislators Frank Proto, Kathy Luz Hererra, Pam Mackesey, and Shinagawa nominated, Mr. Shinagawa was elected on the fifth ballot after four deadlocked votes, after Legislator Proto respectfully withdrew from consideration.  The final tally was 8 votes for Shinagawa, 2 for Luz Herrera, and 5 for Mackesey.  (Legislators Jim Dennis, Peter Stein, and Will Burbank, who had also been nominated for Vice Chair at the Legislature’s last meeting January 17, withdrew their nominations from consideration before tonight’s voting began.)

Senator Mike Nozzolio met Saturday with administrators and school board members from the Lansing Central School District in an effort to better understand their needs and concerns with the Governor's proposed New York State budget. Senator Nozzolio has been continuing his efforts to make sure that Upstate school districts receive their fair share of education funding.

Read more ...

Geneva - Continuing his efforts to ensure fair and equitable treatment for school districts in our region, State Senator Mike Nozzolio today hosted a forum on education where local school district leaders had the opportunity to discuss their budget concerns with the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Education, Senator John Flanagan. Nozzolio organized the summit with Senator Flanagan after numerous discussions over the past year with educators, parents,  and school administrators  throughout our region on important issues such as State aid for education and the need to remove unfunded mandates.

“This discussion will be tremendously useful to me over the coming weeks as my colleagues and I work to meet the challenges facing our local school districts,” said Nozzolio. “The exchange of information and the dialogue which took place was incredibly positive and will be extremely helpful and effective in meeting the needs of our students’ education. I thank Senator Flanagan for taking the time to visit our region and actively listening to our schools’ concerns before the State budget negotiations begin.”

The local coalition formed to fight the invasive aquatic plant hydrilla is urging aggressive State action to eradicate the infestation, and to fully fund the effort, beginning in the 2012-13 State budget.

Testifying yesterday before the Joint Legislative Public Hearing on the 2012-13 Executive Budget, Tompkins County Soil and Water Conservation District Manager Craig Schutt, representing his District, the City of Ithaca, and Tompkins County, and New York State Parks-Finger Lakes Region, warned that hydrilla, which first appeared here last fall, represents “a significant threat to our environment and economy,” and that State action is needed now to prevent its spread, before the window to eradicate it closes.

The Tompkins County Industrial Development Agency (IDA) sponsored a session Monday to provide information and respond to questions about the proposed amendment to the payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) agreement between the IDA and the AES Cayuga power plant in Lansing. The proposed PILOT will halve tax revenue from the plant for Lansing Schools over a four year period.  About a dozen people attended the hour-long session at the Lansing Town Hall.

The 20-year agreement, which involves a valuation and a tax, and is not a tax abatement, was initiated in 2009 to address the difficult challenge of determining the appropriate and fair valuation for the facility in the volatile electric generation market.  Under the PILOT, values were established every five years with the ability to revisit value after two years or for extraordinary circumstance.

After a contentious meeting last week, Village of Lansing residents and Village officials were in a more cooperative mood Monday when Village Trustees met to decide which consulting firm to hire to study traffic issues in the area of the village north of Route 13 and Dart Drive.  Residents presented the board with their own proposal, and gave input on which, if any, consulting proposal they liked best.

Mayor Donald Hartill began by asking residents for a more civil session than occurred at a joint Planning Board and Trustees meeting last week.  That set the tone for a productive discussion that resulted in a vote to choose a consultant.

Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit, Inc. today expressed its strong opposition for the provisions in House bill H.R. 3864, the federal American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Financing Act, which would eliminate dedicated federal fuels taxes for public transit and create long-term uncertainty for public transportation funding for the first time in three decades.

As TCAT looks to expand capacity during record ridership of nearly 4 million annual trips, this change will have dire consequences for the thousands of people in Tompkins County who rely on public transit.

After a valiant attempt to create a viable sewer project despite state rules and financial challenges, the Town of Lansing sewer project was killed in July of 2007.  Unless the DEC relaxed their stance requiring municipal shared sewage treatment it would be impossible to bring sewer to the town at an affordable price.  But Town officials and community leaders continued to view a sewer as key to the success of a new town center and to attracting new business to Lansing to help offset revenue losses from the struggling AES Cayuga power plant PILOT.

A lot has changed since 2007.  The key change is that the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is no longer insisting that Lansing send its sewage via a pipeline through the Village of Lansing to the Cayuga Heights Treatment Plant.  That makes it possible for the Town to build its own plant, reducing costs to residents and businesses within the proposed sewer district significantly.

As a result of the recently-approved deal between US Airways and Delta, the two airlines will swap significant numbers of operational slots in New York (LaGuardia) and Washington-National. The swap will give Delta a much bigger presence at LaGuardia while US Airways will increase its presence in Washington. The two airlines are currently re-working their schedules to reflect these changes.

While Delta is monitoring the New York market and is ready to respond to opportunities for additional routes, their initial plan does not include a continuation of US Airways’ service between Ithaca and LaGuardia. As a result, the non-stop service between Ithaca and LaGuardia will cease on March 24.

At the first of two public hearings, the County’s Independent Redistricting Commission put forth its recommended plan for reapportioning County legislative districts.  About ten people attended tonight’s hearing in Dryden, including several members of the County Legislature and two Town Supervisors.

The Commission’s currently favored proposal would reduce the number of County legislative districts from 15 to 14, keeping the boundaries of the Villages of Lansing and Cayuga Heights intact and decreasing the number of “sliver districts” in the Town of Ithaca.  Four legislative districts would be created within the City of Ithaca, none of which would extend into the Town.