Whereas, full transparency demands…

Enfield Board elaborates on Bostwick Road’s continued closure

by Councilperson Robert Lynch; September 23, 2026

At a special meeting Wednesday, September 23, one convened primarily to present the 2027 Tentative Town Budget, the Enfield Town Board adopted and released its first extended public statement on the sudden and unforeseen delayed reopening of Bostwick Road. The road was closed in early-July to facilitate the installation of a large, concrete culvert to carry Enfield Creek beneath it.

**Enfield Creek’s crossing before construction started, June 30.**

The culvert installation was supposed to be largely complete by now. Bostwick Road between South Applegate Road and NY Route 327 was to have reopened shortly thereafter. It won’t meet that deadline.

Acting on his own initiative, this Enfield Councilperson, Robert Lynch, drafted and submitted to the Town Board the Resolution detailed below. After given one amendment—a revision on which this Councilperson dissented—the resolution secured unanimous Town Board support.

The adopted Resolution and its attached Public Statement follow:

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Resolution authorizing a public statement regarding the Bostwick Road Culvert Replacement Project

Whereas, the Town of Enfield has commenced construction on replacement of a stream culvert under Bostwick Road in the Town, construction forcing a portion of that road’s temporary closure; and

Whereas, unforeseen circumstances have prompted the Town to continue Bostwick Road’s closure for an indefinite period, closure continuing until further notice; and

Whereas, full transparency demands this Town Board provide the public adequate information as to the project’s status; therefore be it

Resolved, that the Enfield Town Board hereby authorizes the following Statement regarding the status of the Bostwick Road Culvert Replacement Project; and be it further

Resolved, that the Clerk is directed to post this Statement on the Town website.

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Statement by the Enfield Town Board on the status of the Bostwick Road Culvert Replacement Project

September 23, 2026

For the past three years, the Town of Enfield has undertaken an effort to replace the aging and undersized culvert that carries Enfield Creek under Bostwick Road and improve the adjoining streambed. The project will allow for better stream flow during storm events and reduce risk to critical infrastructure and adjacent properties in the Cayuga Lake Watershed.

**Putting the culvert’s concrete sections into place, August 14.**

In February 2024, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) awarded the Town of Enfield a Water Quality Improvement Projects (WQIP) grant of $693,866. This grant money will finance the majority of the project’s cost. During the two years that followed, the Town commissioned engineering studies, purchased a replacement concrete box culvert, and awarded a construction contract for culvert installation and stream realignment of Enfield Creek adjacent to Bostwick Road.

Fisher Associates of Rochester and Ithaca, NY performed the culvert’s engineering design. Jefferson Concrete Corporation, Watertown, NY, supplied the concrete box culvert at a cost of $471,600. JB’s Excavation, Apalachin, NY, performed the installation and stream repair. Jefferson Concrete and JB’s Excavation were each low bidders for their respective products or services.

The Town of Enfield has been assisted in this project by staff from the Tompkins County Soil and Water Conservation District and a professional engineer with the Tioga County Soil and Water Conservation District, the latter serving as the Town’s engineering consultant.

A revised budget for this project carries a total cost of $1,100,696. In addition to funds from the WQIP grant, the Town of Enfield would provide $406,830, principally through in-kind services by its Highway Department. The Town Board has budgeted money for these expenses. Final cost totals remain subject to change.

On July 6, 2026, Bostwick Road between South Applegate Road and Enfield Main Road, New York State Route 327 was closed to enable the culvert’s replacement. Site work proceeded throughout the summer. On August 14, 2026, placement of the multi-section concrete culvert began. Its placement in the stream was completed shortly thereafter.

Initial schedules had contemplated that site work would proceed to enable substantial completion of the project by late-September of this year, with the reopening of Bostwick Road upon that completion.

On September 14, 2026, the Town of Enfield announced that “Due to unforeseen circumstances, Bostwick Rd between South Applegate Rd and NYS 327 will continue to be closed until further notice.” Accordingly, as of the date of this Statement, Bostwick Road in the affected area remains closed. A reopening date cannot be predicted at this time.

Continued closure and temporary cessation of construction operations comes at the recommendation of the Town of Enfield’s engineering consultant, in consultation with the Town Board and Enfield’s Highway Superintendent. At its meetings of September 9 and again this date, September 23, and acting upon its engineer’s recommendation, the Town Board retained the services of two firms: the project’s design engineer, Fisher Associates; and also ATL Engineering, P.C. Both firms will perform inspection services that the Town deems necessary to ensure the integrity of the culvert replacement project.

Further questions about this project and Bostwick Road’s closure should be directed to Enfield Highway Superintendent Barry “Buddy” Rollins at 607-272-6490.

The Town of Enfield and its Town Board will attempt to inform the public in a timely manner as best it can as to the continued status of this project. The Town pledges to reopen Bostwick Road to the public as soon as practicable. The Town apologizes for any inconvenience this continued closure may have caused.

The Enfield Town Board

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Addendum: The amendment on which this Councilperson dissented would have provided information that was publicly shared at the Town Board’s earlier meeting, September 9. The shared information had expressed the willingness of the project’s on-site installation contractor, JB’s Excavation, to install a temporary, alternating, one-way bypass road that would carry traffic across Enfield Creek at the crossing site for the closure’s duration. The Town’s consulting engineer had indicated September 9 that JB’s Excavation would install the bypass at little or no cost.

The paragraph’s deletion came September 23 as Enfield Highway Superintendent Barry Rollins, who holds authority to decide whether to accept or reject the bypass, expressed objections to the bypass amid concerns over safety, maintenance, and the potential for additional costs that might be borne by the town. The deleted paragraph would have invited public comment regarding the bypass option.

One closing note: During the past two weeks, multiple members of the Enfield Town Board have exerted withering pressure on this Councilperson to write or say nothing about the Bostwick Road extended closure other than to recite the terse, one-sentence closure announcement posted September 14 on the Town website. Even verbatim reporting from relevant portions of the Town Board’s September 9 meeting was deemed forbidden. (You can find them beginning at 52 minutes into the September 9 meeting’s Audio Minutes.)

Standing on principle works most times. In this instance, our collective best interests would not have been served by waging a First Amendment food fight. Sorry, they wouldn’t have.

Councilperson Robert Lynch

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Taking A Stand, a tab on the top menu, provides my take on various issues of community concern in Enfield; commentary on our Town’s Current Events. I hope my words will prompt robust debate.

Highlights :

May 2024: Priority One: Our Boeing Problem; (Addressing poor academic performance in Enfield Elementary School and elsewhere in light of the district’s current budget controversy.)

November 2023: Flycars, Fund Balances, and “Flat-Broke” Towns; (Addressing a committee of the Tompkins County Legislature on the merits of cost-sharing for a Rapid Medical Response Service.)

September 2023: Think Before You Act (They Didn’t); (Addressing the Tompkins County Legislature to urge delay in proceeding with a Center of Government.)

August 2023: Democracy, Clinging by a Thread; (Addressing the Enfield Town Board on the controversy surrounding its appointment of Enfield’s initial Board of Fire Commissioners.)

July 2023: I am Impatient. They are Hungry. (Addressing the Tompkins County Council of Governments regarding the Tompkins County Food System Plan’s “Roadmap” and how it needs improvement.)

Prior postings and statements, (2019-2022) are now included in the Commentary Archives.

(Sept. 20): Tried to park in downtown Ithaca lately? Good luck.

With the closing in April of Ithaca’s Seneca Street parking ramp due to alleged structural decay—I choose my words with precision—streetside parking peripheral to downtown has proven increasingly difficult.

The return of students tipped it over the edge. The radius moves outward. You park on more distant streets and walk even farther.

Yet City Hall doesn’t care. Multiple media outlets tell us Common Council September 2 set in motion plans for the Ithaca Urban Renewal Agency to buy the Seneca Street garage, tear it down, and sell it to a private developer for “mixed use.” That’s code for housing.

At the meeting, City leaders never gave serious talk to rebuilding the garage as a garage.

“I do not think a municipal garage is an appropriate utilization of taxpayer funding just given our fiscal constraints,” The Ithaca Times reports Mayor Robert Cantelmo told Common Council.

Assisted suicide is now legal in New York. And obviously that includes Ithaca politicians aiding the death of downtown commerce. We in rural areas cannot walk or bike to stores on The Commons. And when we stop coming, Ithaca dies.

And where will patrons to those many proliferating hotels park? And what about the planned Downtown Center of Government?

Ithaca politics feeds on dysfunction, naiveté, and misguided utopianism. Meanwhile, the rest of us stay away. / RL

(Sept. 19): A pre-COVID fixture of nearly every Enfield Harvest Festival—and for various reasons put on hiatus for all too many years—the aerial ping-pong ball drop returned to this year’s festival Saturday, September 19. Only this time it came with a new twist.

At past festivals, pilots dropped the balls from low-flying airplanes. It’s hard to find anyone to do that anymore. So this year, Enfield Highway Superintendent “Buddy” Rollins climbed aboard the Highway Department’s aerial lift and emptied a bag of balls from way-up-there.

Once the balls were dropped, kids scrambled about the grounds to retrieve them for prizes.

(By the way, Rollins recently told the Enfield Town Board he would do the honors because nobody else on his crew dares climb aboard the contraption.)

The ball drop at the Enfield Community Council (ECC)-sponsored event is one of those hokey, hometown traditions that glues the Enfield community together. We’re glad it’s back.

For some strange reason, despite near-excellent weather—our summer transitioning to fall—Harvest Festival attendance was down this year.

If you were among those who thought about attending, yet didn’t, let the ECC know why. Is there something we should add or improve for next year? We can always polish what many find near perfect.

Senator Lea Webb

(Sept. 19): Less than seven weeks before Election Day, State Senator Lea Webb faces another financial question, this one involving a sibling’s entanglement with her campaign.

The Albany Times-Union reported September 17 that Webb’s sister, Andrea, who resides with the senator in Broome County, received payments totaling as much as $13,300 for serving as treasurer of Webb’s reelection campaign from February 2025 through June of this year.

There’s no allegation that the payments were illegal, or for that matter, unethical. Yet they could serve as campaign fodder for Republican Mike Bolles in his quest to unseat the incumbent Democrat in November’s election.

The Webb campaign’s regular payments to Andrea commenced the same month last year that Lea Webb’s first mortgage installment on her new residence was due, the paper reports, Webb later defaulted on that mortgage,

Hiring relatives as campaign treasurers is common practice, The Times-Union acknowledges. Yet Rachael Fauss, a senior policy adviser at state government watchdog Reinvent Albany, is quoted as saying Lea Webb’s hiring of her sister raises questions about whether the family’s financial struggles may have influenced Webb’s decision to put her sister on the campaign’s payroll.

State law prohibits use of campaign funds to pay personal expenses.

In March, The Ithaca Voice reported that Webb, who earns $142,000 annually as a senator, utilized a legal aid service intended for the indigent to defend her in the foreclosure action. Again, no known laws were broken. But the optics looked bad.

(Sept. 15): Two weeks earlier, the Enfield Board of Fire Commissioners had adopted a Preliminary 2027 Fire District Budget that—it had thought—contained the tax levy increase to just under the state’s two percent tax cap. Not so.

At the follow-up meeting, September 15, Deputy Fire District Treasurer Drew Braman revealed that now-corrected calculations peg the tax levy increase at 2.26 percent, more of a psychological burden than an impactful one. The difference would spread only a few thousand dollars over the entire Enfield tax base.

Commissioners had voted in July to override the tax cap. So state compliance posed no problem. Nevertheless, the board toyed Tuesday with trimming the Preliminary Budget just enough to again stay within the two percent cap.

Braman found places to cut and earnings projections to raise. Commissioner Robyn Wishna introduced the changes not once, but twice. Yet she found little support and quickly withdrew her motions.

As it stands, the $653,078 Enfield Fire Budget, when it faces a Public Hearing October 20, would keep its tax increase above two percent.

Yet once the hearing is over, commissioners could revisit the budget and bring the tax hike down. Board Vice-Chair Alan Teeter, who ran Tuesday’s meeting, signaled they may do that.

Congressman Josh Riley

(Sept. 4): Congressman Josh Riley, Tompkins County’s generally progressive voice in the House, reaffirmed Thursday his one position that many Democrats would rather he not take. It’s his support for Israel.

The 19^th District Congressman was one of only 33 Democrats who joined most Republicans in backing the “Protect Economic and Academic Freedom Act,” a measure, that if approved by the Senate and signed into law by President Trump, would cut off federal education aid to any college and university that boycotts Israel.

Syracuse-area Democratic Congressman John Mannion also backed the bill.

Additionally, the Riley-supported measure would restrict federal aid to universities that limit academic collaborations with Israel. Cornell University maintains such collaboration.

Riley’s continuing support for the Jewish state has proven a sore spot with local progressives—including Cornell student activists—who’d rather the university sever academic ties and have Riley fall into line with left-leaning party colleagues more critical of Israel.

A search of Josh Riley’s Congressional website Friday showed no statement concerning the bill.

Riley’s Southern Tier 19^th is one of those toss-up districts this election cycle. Republican Peter Oberacker runs to Riley’s right. And presumably political expediency dictates a need to avoid antagonizing pro-Israel factions. Liberals must either suck it up or stay home. / RL

Supervisor Rod Howe

(Sept. 3): In the lowest of low-key announcements, Ithaca Town Supervisor Rod Howe Thursday announced his planned resignation. Upon stepping down, effective September 18, Howe will conclude his four-year term 15 months early.

Asked why he’s leaving, the 27-year servant in Ithaca Town Government said succinctly, “It is time.”

Councilperson Eric Levine will finish out Howe’s Supervisor’s term through December 2027.

Any reporter who’d bother to cover the Ithaca Town Board’s August 24 meeting would have known of Howe’s resignation and the succession plan. But reviewing the meeting’s replay demonstrates how Sheffield Road might as well be the Atlantic Ocean as to how Ithaca and Enfield do things differently.

Recall the debate—and dissention—when Enfield elevated its current Supervisor, Stephanie Redmond, in 2021. Put politely, Enfield takes its democracy seriously.

But in Ithaca August 24, Howe’s resignation, Eric Levine’s appointment—as well as Michelle Wright’s appointment to succeed Levine—were packaged as “revised committee assignments.” Levine, acting as Deputy Supervisor, offered the appointments as a foregone conclusion. The Town Board approved them routinely without discussion. It was all over in 90 seconds.

By Rod Howe having delayed his departure until September, Levine avoids having to ask voters to affirm the board’s selection of him until next year.

(Sept. 3): “Can we get an update on the rats at the library?” legislator Greg Mezey asked, seemingly out of the blue, at the Tompkins County Legislature’s September 1 meeting.

Rats? Where did that problem come from?

Well, apparently it’s been an issue for some time; a problem confined to the committee and the over-the-coffee-cup level. Yet it’s never, as they say, hit the papers.

Mezey’s question prompted several minutes of back-and forth between lawmakers and County Administration.

The dirty rodents, it seems, have built a nest under the library’s utility box. County employees can’t venture there for safety reasons. NYSEG needs to get involved. And NYSEG—well—is NYSEG.

Legislator Judith Hubbard quoted Library Director Emerson DeMeester-Lane as saying the matter “is in progress,” but that one proposed eradication method—some sort of dry ice—is not “the recommended approach” everyone agrees on. You know, bureaucracy.

County Administrator Korsah Akumfi, who spent much of that night’s meeting discussing how to plug a multi-million dollar next year’s budget gap, said, appropriately, that he’s working with an animal control expert on the rat issue, but that “they haven’t been able to close the hole.”

(Sept. 2): At the final moments, it became a budget built for a price.

Tuesday, Sept 1, the Enfield Board of Fire Commissioners finalized and then adopted the Fire District’s Preliminary 2027 budget. The proposed $657,078 next year’s plan would increase spending by 1.98 percent, just under the two percent threshold commissioners set as a target.

The two percent number holds little significance other than psychological. The board had already voted in a prior meeting to override the New York State tax cap.

Tacked on in the final minutes of deliberations Tuesday was Commissioner Barry Rollins’ amendment to raise the budget’s “Apparatus Repair and Replacement” reserve fund from its earlier-planned $92,449 to $100,000 even.

Commissioners then juggled other budget lines to keep within a two percent overall increase.

“Someday we’ll have to buy more apparatus,” Board Chair Greg Stevenson agreed. “The more you set aside, the less you have to borrow.”

A few spending items remain unresolved; including next year’s rent for the Enfield fire station. A pay raise request from the Board Secretary also remains undecided.

The Board of Commissioners granted the preliminary budget unanimous approval. It won’t become a final budget until after a mid-October public hearing.

(Sept 2): No votes were taken. What got handed up was just a first attempt. And Enfield Planning Board Chair Dan Walker admits it needs more work.

That said, Walker presented town planners Wednesday a three-page draft “Sign Law.” Most notably, it would define “Billboards” as an off-premise “free standing sign” exceeding 48 square feet “that advertises business conducted.” It would then prohibit such signs.

The draft law would also prohibit off-premise signs of any size.

Walker’s submission follows a February request from the Enfield Town Board, some of whose members last winter feared the imminent intrusion of new billboards. In May, Enfield put a six-month billboard moratorium in place.

“I don’t think it’s a big problem in Enfield right now,” Walker said at one point in Wednesday’s meeting, concerning sign proliferation.

“This is kind of nickel and diming it to me,” Planning Board Alternate Rosie Carpenter—sitting September 2 as a voting member—remarked.

Walker signaled it will be at least October before the Planning Board will finalize a sign law sufficiently for submission to the town board. Meanwhile, no new billboard applications have come in.

(Aug. 29): Fueled by excellent weather, the two-day BBQ VIII at Stone Bend Farm in Enfield drew the crowds expected and the parking challenges neighbors had feared.

By late Saturday afternoon, better than half way into the multi-band music festival, cars had jammed the shoulder of Porter Hill and Hines Roads along Stone Bend’s own property, but were being purged from roadsides elsewhere, places where upset neighbors had posted “No Parking” signs, many having strung yellow tape for added measure.

A patrolling security staffer was riding the road on ATV. He advised that the few cars that had parked where they shouldn’t ran the risk of being towed.

That same staffer reported no major incidents—and no accidents—so far. He said police were only called once; on Friday night, for a rowdy patron.

But music played into the wee hours—until 2:30 Saturday morning by one account—prompting that neighbor’s concern.

BBQ VIII sold 350 tickets. Attendance was restricted so as to fall under the threshold that would have triggered Enfield’s Mass Gatherings Law.

At least two nearby residents said that before any next year’s repeat visit, they’d want tighter regulation on parking and noise.

Ithaca’s Board of Education, meeting Aug. 25

(Aug. 25): Resolving a snap controversy that arose at its last meeting, the Ithaca Board of Education voted Tuesday to continue representation by the same large law firm that’s handled its legal business for years.

But not without dissent. In a continuation of the split that’s divided the board since it reorganized in July, a trio of members—Garrick Blalock, Karen Yearwood, and Erin Croyle—voted against re-designating Syracuse-based Bond, Schoeneck & King as counsel.

Then, in a second, six-three vote, the board rejected Yearwood’s motion that would have had the Superintendent contract with an “independent third party” to conduct an investigation of the process that led to Bond’s selection. Blalock and Croyle joined Yearwood in supporting the independent probe. No one else did.

Three firms had filed proposals to represent the school system. It’s an annual retainer valued at about a Quarter Million Dollars.

“It’s not time to vote on it yet,” Croyle asserted. Blalock argued the same point. At least one of the firms—perhaps all—had been interviewed in closed session just minutes before the public vote.

Attempts to choose a law firm dead-ended August 11 and led to heated exchanges. It was worsened by Bond’s having jumped the gun and sent a written thanks for its selection before it had been.

The two losing law firms have not yet been identified, but they likely will be soon.

At least it’s not 29.6%; T.C. Administrator Akumfi

(Aug. 20): This early in the process, consider Tompkins County tax increases to be written in erasable ink. Take no one prediction too seriously. History proves that.

At a budget retreat back in May, County Administrator Korsah Akumfi forecast “about a 17 percent proposed tax levy increase above the 2026 adopted levy to fund service at the current level,” Legislators that night tied on whether to raise next year’s tax levy above or below five percent. Impasse.

Then over the summer, departmental requests rolled in. Akumfi warned they were higher than expected. And his new brand of budgeting called for gathering requests in first, then winnowing them out later.

This is later. Somewhere along this perilous course, a 29 percent tax increase got tossed around. No longer.

Tuesday, August 18, before the Tompkins County Legislature, Akumfi had sliced the increase from 29.6 percent to 12.47 percent. It’s still high.

“We continue to work to review the numbers,” Akumfi said, “and make several changes as they come our way.”

There was a “Tax Stabilization Fund” created in 2024. Already, $1 Million would be drawn from it. But if a second million were tapped, Akumfi said, the increase could drop to nine percent.

Yet, again, the numbers keep shifting; nothing to latch onto. The Administration’s budget recommendation—a real document—goes public September 1.

D.A. Van Houten; in support

(Aug. 20): Broome County has had one for about seven years. It’s worked well, we’re told. Now Tompkins County will likely soon establish its own Animal Abuse Registry.

The Tompkins County Legislature on August 18 took the first step by setting a Public Hearing for its next meeting, September 1, on a Local Law to create the registry. The law, sponsors admit, still needs refinement.

“There are people who are for no morally good reason cruel to animals” District Attorney Matthew Van Houten acknowledged as he lent his full support to the measure. “People that abuse animals are also more likely to do other things that would fall under my radar,” the DA added.

Legislator Iris Packman raised the point: If there’s a registry, would—or should—the SPCA consult it in authorizing adoptions?

Christy Bianconi, sponsor of the registry law, offered a surprising response.

With the SPCA, “they cite evidence that registries don’t deter animal cruelty,” Bianconi said. “It’s very mixed evidence. They have their own methods that they use.”

Packman urged that local officials encourage the shelter to consult the registry.

(Aug. 19): It’s much responsibility to put on one man’s shoulders, some might argue too much.

In a decision never explained in any detail, the Tompkins County Legislature Tuesday voted to temporarily assign the duties of Director of Finance to County Administrator Korsah Akumfi until legislators can hire someone to fill the finance position permanently.

Finance Director Darrel Tuttle’s last day is August 20. Finance Director has become a revolving door in recent years, with three permanent appointees having served since 2022.

When the two prior vacancies arose, legislators tapped a deputy director of finance to pitch-in, but not this time.

“It has been determined that our County Administrator has the background and experience to stand in as Interim Finance Director,” Legislator Deborah Dawson told colleagues in her briefest of explanations August 18.

County Administrator and Finance Director are each charter-mandated positions. Each office reports directly to the Legislature. That fact puts Akumfi in an odd position of doing double-duty.

Word has it that resignations have left the finance office short-staffed, with those remaining squeezed into cramped quarters, some in the Old Jail’s basement. And it often takes months—many months—to locate a top-tier appointee. And it’s budget season too.

Amanda Walrad

(Aug. 18): While neither the Tompkins County Legislature nor the Enfield Town Board has formally begun to build its respective next year’s budgets, the Enfield Board of Fire Commissioners’ work stands nearly finished.

August 18, for the second time in two weeks, fire commissioners labored—this time for nearly an hour—to construct a 2027 spending plan line by line.

No surprises arose Tuesday. But one mildly worded complaint did surface. Fire District Secretary Amanda Walrad asked why the district’s two appointed co-treasurers, Andrea Sutton and Drew Braman, collectively earn more money than she does.

“It’s not fair to pay the Treasurer $7,500 and pay me $5,000,” Walrad politely informed the board.

Actually, because Sutton and Braman split the $7,500, they individually earn somewhat less than Walrad does.

When commissioners wrote their 2026 budget one year ago, they’d allotted $7,500 each for Treasurer and Secretary. Yet Walrad claims they never raised her pay to match the budget line.

Commissioners indicated any decision on salary would happen only after a closed executive session. And although the 2027 budget stands nearly finished, preliminary totals were not released.

(Aug. 16): Years in the planning, crews began placement Friday of an oversized concrete box culvert that’ll carry Enfield Creek under Bostwick Road for hopefully longer than any of us are alive.

Laying of the 12-section, concrete base August 14 will be follow with similar placement of the culvert’s top portion, scheduled for the following Monday.

In January, the Enfield Town Board accepted a Watertown-based company, Jefferson Concrete’s low bid of $471,600 for the culvert’s manufacture and delivery, a price that was still higher than expected.

Then in March, the board awarded an Apalachin company’s low bid of $351,300 for culvert installation and related stream work.

A state-funded $693,866 Water Quality Improvement grant will cover most the cost—but not all. Enfield Highway Department “in-kind” services will pay for some of the overrun.

Enfield officials, including Highway Superintendent Barry Rollins, had urged culvert replacement for fear of flooding and streambank erosion. State rules require work finish by September.

Lansing’s prop. Data Center

(Aug. 13): Put two lawyers in a room and they’re bound to disagree. And because Enfield’s town counsel believes another town’s lawyer did less than perfect work, a proposed one-year moratorium on data processing centers in Enfield has been delayed by at least a month.

In July, this Enfield Councilperson, Robert Lynch, brought to the Town Board a draft Local Law that would enact a one-year data center permitting moratorium, that despite this Councilperson’s prediction that such a center has next to no chance of coming to Enfield.

The initial, three-page document closely paralleled a moratorium law the Town of Newfield had quickly considered and adopted July 9.

But Enfield’s counsel, Guy Krogh, saw gaping holes. Before the Enfield Board’s August 12 meeting, and at Krogh’s direction, Enfield’s initial draft went through two rewrites and grew from three to as many as eight pages.

Then during the Board’s meeting, Councilperson Jude Lemke—who’s also an attorney—said she’d just spoken with Krogh and he wanted more changes.

Needing further guidance and drafting tweaks, the Town Board postponed setting a September public hearing, making October the new likely target for a hearing and adoption.

Lemke has for months urged a permanent ban on data centers. But Lynch made it clear Wednesday he’d oppose a ban. A ban ties Enfield’s hands, he said, and it invites litigation.

Tower site behind the barn; 217 Van Dorn Road N.

(Aug 5): Admitting that lax regulation tied its hands, the Enfield Town Planning Board Wednesday granted Verizon Communications and its agents permission to build a new cell tower off Van Dorn Road; its only purpose being to save Verizon money.

The approved 170-foot tall, self-supporting structure would stand just two-tenths mile from an existing tower the carrier now occupies, but seeks to vacate because the rent is too high.

Approval August 5 followed a public hearing where two people—including this Enfield Councilperson—objected. Neighbor Kathleen Smith argued the tower would diminish her property’s value, impose health risks, and emit annoying noises like the current tower does.

“Why do we need two right next to each other?” Smith pleaded. “I highly object,” she said.

Planning Board members acknowledged that current standards need tightening. A board policy expects a tower’s owner to provide adequate land to contain a tower’s straight fall to its own property—the new Verizon tower wouldn’t. But the policy isn’t actually codified into law.

“I don’t think it’s great being on a small piece of property,” Planning Board member Rich Teeter admitted. But the laws are such that we can’t do much else, he said, “without putting ourselves in a legal predicament.”

Nugent: “Significant impact”

(Aug. 5): This is big news. And no, it’s not good.

New York State, for reasons really unexplained, has cut Tompkins County’s wintertime housing assistance for the homeless by more than half. And the impact will likely extend to next year’s county budget.

Deputy County Administrator Bridgette Nugent reported to the County Legislature Tuesday night the just-received 2026-27 allocation for the state-mandated “Code Blue” program. The program provides overnight shelter for the unhoused when temperatures drop below 32 degrees.

The $841,000 a state agency assigned Tompkins County, Nugent said, represents a nearly $1.2 Million reduction from last winter’s funding.

“It will have a significant impact on what we’re able to do for the coming Code Blue season,” Nugent warned.

The notification, Nugent advised, “was a basic form letter that indicates that they calculate the allocation based on prior year expenditures.”

But Tompkins spent $2.1 Million last winter.

“You think they made an error?” legislator Greg Mezey asked. Nugent couldn’t say.

“It just seems like for all the talk about housing and homeless and the priority that our elected officials at the state level are making, it seems like a pretty dramatic cut,” Mezey observed.

The County Administrator has sought clarification. State lawmakers will be contacted too.

Too costly to fix; Tanker 621 one year ago

(Aug.5): As the Enfield Board of Fire Commissioners began August 4 drafting its 2027 Fire District Budget, leaders acknowledged that spending central to the budget they’d written a year ago will likely never get spent.

Commissioners had set aside $10,000 in the 2026 Budget for repainting the rear portion of a 2009 tanker truck to remedy a manufacturing defect. But the work’s never been done.

“At this point, we’ll let it slide,” Enfield Volunteer Fire Company President Dennis Hubbell acknowledged after Tuesday’s meeting. “We’ll patch it up,” he said, with red touch-up paint or something else.

The problem is cost. The fire service got an estimate. “It didn’t even come close” to the budgeted amount, Hubbell revealed. Truck 621’s equipment would need to be taken off, the entire shell stripped down, and painting begun anew.

It won’t rust, because it’s stainless steel, the company president said. It just looks bad.

Fire commissioners will likely redirect their earlier-budgeted $10,000 into a reserve account, and add to that account an equal amount for 2027.

The tanker would likely be traded in seven years from now anyway, Hubbell remarked. He’d contacted the manufacturer’s salesman, Hubbell said. While first sounding supportive, the man never got back to him.

(July 26): The Enfield Volunteer Fire Company (EVFC) held its annual summer picnic Saturday. An invited guest, I arrived to find a parking lot full of cars, but sparse attendance at the tables. I soon learned why.

There’s been a fire. Enfield responded late afternoon to provide mutual aid to fight a house fire on Craft Road, Ulysses. Word was, Enfield got there before home-district Trumansburg did. Enfield supplied both water and firefighters. I was told the house sustained significant damage.

By the time Enfield’s trucks began rolling back in, it was nearly sundown. Many of the rest of us had already left. Some line officers I never saw. I trust food was saved for them. (It was good.)

Fire calls can occur at the most inopportune times. This one did. Thanks, EVFC volunteers, for your dedication and your sacrifice. You always put first things first. / RL

(July 24): Colorful, intricate, tasteful, and a celebration of our rural self, Enfield’s first Public Sculpture was hoisted into place Friday. Celebrants marked the occasion—with more than a little help from Enfield’s Highway Department.

Crafted by Hammondsport sculptors Gwen Quigley and Tony Moretti, partners in Crow’s Nest Artists, the 12-15 foot high sculpture of steel stands adjacent to the bus shelter on our small developing town park formerly known as Enfield SkateGarden.

The Community Arts Partnership of Tompkins County oversaw the project. The Tompkins County Tourism Program providing funding.

Most prominent, of course, are those three giant sunflowers. But also observe the metal stalks of corn. The theme is food security and community choice. The design celebrates the “three sisters” garden, prominent in Native American culture.

Planning and execution has consumed the better part of two years. Youth at the Enfield Community Council offered input. Artists invited comments at community meetings. The Town Board approved the design last November.

Artistry remains a work in progress. The design calls for a turtle-faced mosaic at the sculpture’s base.

(July 23): Just two weeks after deciding not to decide, the Enfield Board of Fire Commissioners Tuesday revised its “Standard Operating Guidelines” to no longer require that volunteer firefighters and EMS personnel possess high school diplomas and valid driver’s licenses.

Commissioners had debated the proposed deletions on and off since March. At their most recent prior meeting, July 7, Chairman Greg Stevenson moved to put the revisions to a vote, and no one offered a second. The motion died.

Ironically, when the policy returned for a vote July 23, Stevenson was the only commissioner to vote against the changes.

Stevenson grudgingly accepted removal of the education requirement, but insisted the driving requirement should remain.

“A member wouldn’t be able to flourish without a driver’s license,” Stevenson said after Tuesday’s meeting.

Other commissioners, particularly Donald Gunning and Barry Rollins, have argued diplomas and licenses have little to do with the ability to fight fires.

But Stevenson counters that a volunteer would need driving privileges to reach the fire house or get to a fire, as well as commuting to training classes. He’s warned a waiver could also conceal past drunken driving convictions.

Zac Snyder, representing Enfield line officers that night, agreed a driver’s license “would be beneficial.”

Leaving; Finance Dir. Tuttle

(July 23): Tompkins County Finance Director Darrel Tuttle announced his resignation before the County Legislature Tuesday night.

Tuttle’s low-key disclosure July 21 came at the end of a routine monthly sales tax report. He’ll depart effective August 20 and promised a “smooth transition.” He did not reveal his next professional stop.

Tuttle’s held the top finance post for little more than a year, having taken over as his predecessor, Lorrie Scarrott, quietly retired. She’d been Finance Director for two years.

Since Korsah Akumfi moved in as Tompkins County Administrator in January 2025, here’s the turnover:

Whole Health Commissioner Frank Kruppa left for a job at Cayuga Health. Social Services Commissioner Kit Kephart and Highway Director Jeff Smith each retired. Chief Equity and Diversity Officer Charlene Holmes resigned in October.

Director of Human Rights Dr. Kenneth Clarke had exited just before Akumfi arrived, and Clarke’s position still isn’t filled. A Director of Communications had to be hired on Akumfi’s watch. And Library Director Leslie Tabor’s resignation wrote a story all its own.

County Clerk Maureen Reynolds retires at year’s end.

Most of the vacancies have been filled—yet not all of them.

As songwriter Carole King wrote: “So far away. Doesn’t anybody stay in one place, anymore?”

Darrel Tuttle is just the latest.

ICSD Bd. Member Todd Fox

(July 20): Flexing newfound political muscle, a majority of the Ithaca Board of Education Monday directed that administrators impose stricter limits on student smartphone access this coming school year, denying them the devices bell-to-bell.

All five of those adopting the district directive July 20 were members who’d elevated Adam Krantweiss to Board President and Jacob Shiffrin to Vice President three days earlier. A sixth supporter of the two, Emily Workman, abstained in Monday’s vote.

In part, the adopted motion, “direct(s) the Superintendent to revise the practice of the Ithaca City School District to require that students’ phones are inaccessible during the school day.”

Last school year, to comply with Governor Hochul’s bell-to-bell no-phones mandate, the ICSD supplied students signal-canceling Velcro pouches. But many pupils still pulled out their phones. Punishment was lax. And instructors wasted class time policing the ban.

During Monday’s nearly two-hour discussion preceding the resolution’s passage, board member Todd Fox proposed the tightest limits. He’d have students secure their phones in “digital lockers” all day. Fox’s proposal never reached a vote.

Jacob Shiffrin equated cell phone addition to alcohol abuse. “You’re less likely to drink alcohol if you don’t have it on you,” he remarked.

Urging action: Ithaca Teachers Assn. Pres. Kathryn Cernera

(July 18): After two years of trying, local school districts and towns are closer than ever to earning a seat on the Tompkins County Industrial Development Agency (TCIDA).

In the flurry of action before adjournment last month, the New York State Senate granted unanimous, final legislative approval to a Home Rule bill that would expand seating on the TCIDA from seven members to nine.

The state Assembly, where the relatively routine legislation died last year, passed the resubmitted bill, 140 votes to one, on April 27.

Local school boards and the teachers they employ have lobbied locals for TCIDA expansion on grounds schools need a voice in agency-granted tax abatements. They’re lucrative to developers, yet cost schools tax revenue.

The Enfield Town Board endorsed agency expansion in January 2025. Enfield urged Tompkins County to add a rural municipal leader to the agency as well as a schools’ representative.

Governor Kathy Hochul must still sign the bill authorizing the Tompkins County Legislature to expand membership.

And expect much talk about tax abatements in coming days. The current, seven-member agency will take public testimony July 29 on a $17.5 Million abatement request by developers for new housing adjacent to the former Morse Chain factory on South Hill.

Board member Todd Fox

(July 17): At an Annual Organizational Meeting that saw Adam Krantweiss elevated to Board President on a split vote, the Ithaca Board of Education Friday called for a snap, special meeting on Monday, July 20 to re-examine the Ithaca City School District’s (ICSD’s) year-old ban on student cell phones in the classroom.

The newly-empaneled school board will consider toughening current policy. Board member Todd Fox, a critic of the policy, would have students sequester their phones in lockers from their arrival at school through dismissal.

To comply with state-imposed restrictions, the ICSD last year provided students Velcro pouches and relied largely upon the honor system for students to keep them there. Reports have found the policy often abused with little resulting punishment.

“I don’t want our teachers to police the kids,” Fox told the July 17 meeting, “Get the phones out” of the classroom, Fox said.

“I’d like the resolution to be done properly,” colleague Karen Yearwood countered. Yearwood saw a Monday meeting as “too soon.”

Scheduling the special session fell on a six-three vote. By the same margin—and with the same players in each faction—board members chose Krantweiss as Board President over Garrick Blalock.

Members elected Jacob Shiffrin as Vice-President. Yet the three who dissented on Krantweiss, also abstained on Shiffrin’s selection.

Gov. Hochul signing the Executive Order, July 14

(July 14): Half a loaf may be better than no loaf at all. But to some, a full loaf would be better.

Amid much fanfare, Governor Kathy Hochul July 14 signed a first-in-the-nation executive order that places a one-year moratorium on the permitting of the largest of data processing centers. It imposes the pause “in order to build a nation-leading regulatory framework that protects ratepayers, the environment, the energy grid and communities,” the Governor’s press office said in a statement.

“As data center development threatens to hike up utility bills, deplete our natural resources, and create uncertainty for New Yorkers, it’s my responsibility to take action and lead,” the Governor said.

The moratorium would temporarily halt conversion of the former Milliken Station power plant in Lansing into a major data center.

But what many reports overlook is that Hochul’s order would only impact so-called “Hyper-Scale Centers,” those using 50 megawatts of power or more. A bill passed by the State Legislature in early-June, its key Assembly sponsor, Ithaca’s Anna Kelles, would have imposed a one-year moratorium on data centers as small as 20 megawatts.

Hochul has not stated whether she’ll sign or veto the Kelles bill, itself a compromise. (Kelles had wanted a three-year moratorium.)

Meanwhile, the Enfield Town Board proceeds with its own moratorium, likely to reach a vote in September. Newfield adopted its moratorium July 9.

(July 10): With no discussion among Board members and following only brief comment at a public hearing, the Newfield Town Board July 9 approved a one-year moratorium on the permitting of new data processing centers within the town.

Unanimous Board adoption came even though no such centers have been proposed for Newfield.

“The Town Board finds and determines that any Data Processing, if approved without amendment to the (Town’s) Comprehensive Plan and adoption of appropriate local laws, could have a harmful effect on the health, safety and welfare of any existing or future residents of the Town,” the three-page moratorium law states.

“This is a farming community,” Joe Pellegrino, one of the few attendees, told the hearing. “If they dumped it in the middle of open land, I don’t see how this is going to benefit us in the community,” he said.

Board members had discussed the moratorium more extensively at their June 11 session. They agreed that a moratorium would allow time for boards and committees to update the Comprehensive Plan and write other laws to address data center development.

Local concern has grown since TeraWulf disclosed plans for a data center in Lansing.

One night before Newfield’s vote, the Enfield Town Board began writing its own, nearly identical moratorium law. Enfield’s could reach adoption by September.

(July 9): Town of Enfield budget numbers for 2027 won’t surface until September. And Supervisor Stephanie Redmond claims New York State has yet to tell her what Enfield’s tax cap will be.

Nevertheless, following a brief public hearing Wednesday, the Enfield Town Board voted to override that (unknown) cap with its property tax levy. The vote July 8 was 4-1. Councilperson Robert Lynch cast the lone dissent.

“We do this even if we don’t expect to go over the cap,” Supervisor Redmond explained. Recent Enfield budgets have routinely exceeded the cap.

We vote an override “just to be safe,” Councilperson Jude Lemke stated.

Several persons, including recent Town Board candidate Rosie Carpenter and former Supervisor Gary Fisher, opposed the override during the hearing.

“You don’t know what you’re doing,” Fisher stated. “This is just CYA.”

Councilperson Lynch (this writer) said he might vote to override in October, but not this early. He quoted Tompkins County legislator Greg Mezey, who’d opposed a County Budget override June 16.

“I think the cap is a discipline mechanism, and I think the moment we override it we lose the discipline in the budget process,” Lynch quoted Mezey.

Redmond questioned Lynch whether he thought members of the board, other than him, lacked that discipline. Lynch answered it could become a collective failure.

(July 9): In a vote that left heads scratched, the Enfield Board of Fire Commissioners July 7 failed to advance changes that would have removed the long-standing requirements that adult members who join the Enfield Volunteer Fire Company (EVFC) hold both a high school diploma or its equivalent and a valid driver’s license.

Commissioners’ Chair Greg Stevenson moved the deletions at Tuesday’s meeting. His motion received no second, and the commissioners did nothing more.

What’s baffling is that others at Tuesday’s meeting voiced more support for lifting the mandates, particularly the driver’s license rule, than did Stevenson.

“I was just trying to put it in the table,” Stevenson later explained why he’d advanced what he did. “This is still a dynamic process,” he added.

The chairman would have retained the licensing requirement, yet allowed the commissioners to grant waivers. To Stevenson, “religious beliefs,”—like being Amish—might qualify for waiver, but “my seven DUI’s,” in his words, “that’s different to me.”

“I don’t think it’s our business to tell people that they have to have a license,” Commissioner Donald Gunning rebutted.

Another commissioner, Barry Rollins, has argued for months to lift the diploma requirement.

Confusion could have infected Tuesday’s non-decision. A re-vote may come later.

Administrator Akumfi

(July 3): In a virtual meeting with municipal leaders July 2, Tompkins County Administrator Korsah Akumfi predicted a recommended tax levy increase of between six and eight percent in next year’s budget, the administrator revealing that department requests have come in “beyond what we initially projected.”

“We don’t have a specific number that we’re looking at, but I am hoping that I will be able to put before the Legislature a recommended budget that does not exceed anything between six and eight percent tax levy increase,” Akumfi informed a small group of town board members and village mayors.

The levy increases the administrator forecasts would far exceed the 2.7 percent preliminary state tax cap that Akumfi has calculated. Legislators have already voted to override that cap, if necessary.

But the prediction also exceeds legislative sentiments expressed at an informal “budget retreat” lawmakers held May 12. At the retreat, legislators split 7-7 on whether to raise the levy above or below five percent.

What’s changed since then are departmental requests. Most have now come in, and Akumfi advised the Thursday conference that if all were granted, the levy would rise “six or seven times” the revised increase he now predicts.

In a break from recent years, Akumfi indicated that no second budget retreat in July will likely occur. It means that firmer numbers may not reach legislators until early-September.

(July 2): The lush, foliage-shrouded shoulders of Bostwick Road where it crosses Enfield Creek as you’ve driven it for years won’t last for long.

Beginning Monday, July 6, Bostwick Road between Applegate Road and Enfield Main Road (NY Rt. 327) will close for two months. Crews will dig up the old stream culvert, reroute the stream in part to stem erosion, and then put in place a new concrete box culvert to pass the creek under the road.

It’s going to look like they “threw a whole bunch of grenades and blew the whole thing up,” project Engineer Brian Reaser warned Town officials back in January as to what the site may look like this summer. There’ll be a “massive adjustment of what the scenery looks like,” he warned.

The twin concerns of environmental protection and road preservation drive the expensive project. A nearly $700,000 state grant, awarded two years ago, funds the majority of the cost. But bids came in high for the culvert. It, alone, cost $471,600. Installation work, bid separately, added another $351,300.

Town officials could have opted for a slightly less expensive design, but declined to do so last winter.

Behind those buildings it would be; 217 Van Dorn N.

(July 1); With comments cautiously supportive, not critical, the Enfield Town Planning Board Wednesday set its next meeting, August 5, for a public hearing on a proposed new cell tower off Van Dorn Road, just north of Hayts.

Mustering only three of its members, a bare quorum, planners raised few questions among themselves and had little to ask the cell carrier’s site developers.

First advanced in mid-winter, Verizon would move antennas from an existing tower a fraction of a mile away to a new, 170-foot structure near the rear of a residential lot at 217 Van Dorn Road North. An earlier proposal, since revised, would have located the tower closer to the road. The old tower would remain.

“I personally don’t think it’s going to be a huge impact,” Planning Board Char Dan Walker told the meeting.

“What would be our response if we had a half a dozen people saying I don’t want to see that tower?” board member Henry Hansteen asked.

Walker said public reaction would guide his response.

And there could be many attendees. A newly-revised town law requires every property owner within a half-mile radius of the tower to be notified. “That’s a lot of people,” Walker observed.

(June 30): An essential and time-sensitive component of repairing Ithaca’s flood-damaged Cayuga Heights Elementary School (CHES) won approval from Ithaca’s Board of Education Tuesday.

In its final meeting of the academic year, the board gave unanimous consent to a more than $118,000 contract to abate asbestos-laden flooring from the mid-20^th Century school. It’s time-sensitive work because it can only be done when students are away.

Water cascading down a rear hillside during heavy rains March 31 flooded floors and soaked walls on the Heights School’s first floor. Instruction moved to upper levels, and the building stayed open.

Board members discussed the abatement very little Tuesday. They approved a Waterville firm’s contract as part of a 21-item consent agenda.

But after the meeting, Project Manager Travis Randall stated that remediation may start during the third week of July and finish by August 15. Because of the critical timing, normal bidding was circumvented. MJ’s Contracting submitted the lower of two offers. Randall said normally more would seek the work, but many already had other contracts lined up.

In April, the board set aside $1.5 Million for repairs at CHES. Randall cautions other aspects of the work will continue for another full year, with crews having to relocate classrooms from time to time to fix what’s damaged.

(June 25): Before planning details for this year’s September 19 Harvest Festival, the Enfield Community Council (ECC) Board of Directors Thursday discussed capital needs, immediate and long-term.

Pending mortgage approval, the ECC will re-roof its Community Center later this year.

But beyond that—and it would require grant funding, yet to be secured—the council would replace its boiler with heat pumps.

Board member Debbie Teeter shared estimates: $67,000 for the heat pumps, $60,000 to upgrade electrical capacity and purchase a generator, and perhaps $120,000 to install solar panels atop the roof.

“We absolutely have to have solar,” Teeter stated, figuring that the sun’s rays would defray higher utility costs.

The ECC has hopes that its center can become an emergency shelter. And air conditioning, among other upgrades, would be needed to earn that designation.

(June 25): Enfield’s Board of Fire Commissioners stood poised at its last meeting to scrap a pair of volunteer requirements that may have outlived their time. One requires Enfield Volunteer Fire Company volunteers to hold a High School diploma or the equivalent. The other demands a valid Driver’s License.

But Commissioners stopped short of the policy change at the June 16 meeting. The driver’s license mandate might seem the more needless of the two. Not necessarily.

Enfield Fire Company President Dennis Hubbell said he’s known of a few who lack licenses, yet drive to the station anyway.

“So what happens if they drive over someone and they kill them?” Hubbell raised the hypothetical question. “You, the fire company, are responsible if something happens,” Hubbell answered himself.

The company president admitted that volunteer applicants without licenses are rare. Still, Commissioners Chair Greg Stevenson remarked that unlike in the past, “Many kids today are well into their twenties and could care less about getting a driver’s license.”

Commissioners will check with their insurance carrier before waiving the mandates.

Legislator Robert Carroll

(June 25): The two political parties—especially the Democrats—wield tremendous power in New York State. That’s why an election reform advanced by a downstate Assemblymember is not likely to happen anytime soon.

Robert Carroll’s bill gained brief media attention in the wake of New York’s June 23 Primary. The Brooklyn progressive would open New York’s primaries to all registered voters, including Independents. It would also establish rank-choice voting in every primary election except that for President.

“The best way for New York to increase voter participation and foster competitive elections is to have primary elections where all voters can participate,” Carroll’s bill gives as justification.

“This system will fundamentally change the competitiveness and quality of New York’s November general elections and therefore create far more incentive for voters to turn out to vote,” Carroll’s reasoning continues.

Not only would the change permit the non-aligned registrant to vote. He or she could also run as a primary candidate. Under the so-called “Jungle Primary,” as practiced in California, the top two finishers would advance to the general election, regardless of affiliation.

In places like Tompkins County, where Democrats dominate, the change could place two Democrats on the November ballot.

Problem is, Carroll’s initiative has no State Senate sponsor. It died in an Assembly committee this term. And it’s been advanced unsuccessfully twice before.

From the Enfield Civility Resolution, adopted by the Town Board, Sept. 13, 2017:

RESOLVED to exhibit and encourage the kinds of personal qualities that are typical in a civil society—gratitude, humility, openness, passion for service to others, propriety, kindness, caring, sense of duty, and a commitment to doing what is right in the Enfield community. All Enfield board members, committee members and staff shall strive to:

Treat everyone courteously
Listen to others respectfully
Give open minded consideration to all viewpoints
Focus on the issues and avoid personalizing debate
Embrace respectful disagreement and dissent as democratic rights that are inherent components of an inclusive public process and tools for forging sound decisions and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that Enfield board members, committees and staff shall strive to promote the use of and adherence to these guidelines in all Enfield community activities.