Results here not even close

Tompkins County gives Dems landslide wins; Tenney, Langworthy, and (maybe) Constantino weather national Blue Wave

by Robert Lynch; November 5, 2026

Tompkins County has become downright predictable when it comes to local elections. If you were betting Polymarket and predicted Democratic victory percentages here of 75-80 in Tuesday’s election, you’d be going home with money right now.

**Celebrating his Election Night win in Trumansburg; Democratic Congressman Josh Riley (photo courtesy Mayor Rordan Hart)**

Not one single upset occurred this past Tuesday in the elections for state or federal office that affect our area. Kathy Hochul won for Governor. Josh Riley secured his second term in Congress. State Senator Lea Webb and (uncontested) Assemblymember Anna Kelles were each returned to office. Democrats also won the smattering of municipal races locally within our county. If a Blue Wave impacted many other parts of our nation this Election Day, it didn’t just ripple here. One can safely say that for us, the Democratic-dominant storm waters simply kept rolling as they have for quite some time.

Still, just beyond Tompkins County’s borders, the waters of political change failed to capsize the ship of Republican incumbency. Trump-loyalist Claudia Tenney will return to Congress in the district that begins for us just north of Trumansburg and west of Buck Hill Road. The GOP’s Nick Langworthy will continue in the Southern Tier district that comes as close as Alpine and Odessa. And in the hard-fought North Country district where Republican Elise Stefanik has retired, another Republican, Anthony Constantino appears to have eked out an albeit narrow win to succeed her.

Riley’s Win: “The results tonight are a testament to the work we all, as a community, have done together over these two years, reelected Congressman Josh Riley said in his victory statement, reported by Spectrum News. “This has always been about bringing people together, rolling up our sleeves and getting stuff done for upstate New Yorkers.”

Riley celebrated his victory in Trumansburg election night.

Riley, a one-term, Ithaca-based Democratic incumbent, was expected to win his race over Republican State Senator Peter Oberacker. Months ago, the NY-19 District face-off between the two was seen as a bellwether race, a must-win priority for each party. But then Republicans pulled out their big money. It became a signal that Oberacker had little chance of winning.

**Now a state senator, but soon on the sidelines; Republican Peter Oberacker.**

Unofficial, district-wide returns, reported Wednesday evening, had Riley winning 166, 853 votes (56.4 percent) to Oberacker’s 124,343 votes (42.1 percent). [For this report, blank, voided, or write-in ballots often keep candidate totals from reaching 100%.]

New York’s 19^th District spans all or parts of eleven counties. It stretches east to the Massachusetts state line. And it comes as little surprise that deep-blue Tompkins gave Riley his largest voter percentage. About 78 percent of Tompkins County voters cast ballots for Riley (27,592), compared to just under 21 percent (7,311 votes) for Oberacker.

But NY-19 is not deep blue everywhere. Of the district’s eleven counties, Riley prevailed in only six of them. They included the vote-heavy county of Broome. 38,667, or 56.6 percent, of Broome County’s votes went for Riley. Oberacker prevailed in the other five counties.

Josh Riley won voter majorities in Broome, Columbia, Rensselaer, Sullivan, Tompkins and Ulster Counties. Oberacker took majorities in Chenango, southern Cortland, Delaware, Greene and Otsego Counties. In the rural southern Cortland County towns, Oberacker secured nearly 60 percent of the vote. He got 57.3 percent in Chenango County.

In his concession statement, Peter Oberacker said, “I’ll keep fighting for Upstate New York, and I hope Congressman Riley joins me.”

Right now, however, Oberacker has little place to fight. To enable his run for Congress, Oberacker gave up his opportunity to stay in the Senate. Before redistricting at the start of this decade, Oberacker had represented portions of eastern Tompkins County, including Dryden.

It’s the third time Josh Riley has fought to represent the submarine-shaped southern tier 19^th District. He lost narrowly to Marc Molinaro in 2022. Then he ousted Molinaro two years later. Now, he’s successfully defended his incumbency, an asset that gains value with each succeeding political cycle.

In declaring victory, Democrat Riley talked about working with his party’s newly-won majority to secure anti-corruption legislation. He said he’d like to eliminate corporate PAC s and impose term limits. Each objective faces its constitutional obstacles.

The reforms, Riley touted, “would ban members of Congress from owning or trading stocks because the focus in the work should be helping folks in the community, not lining your own pockets,” Spectrum News quoted the congressman.

State Legislature: More than three out of every four Tompkins County voters who participated in Tuesday’s election supported Democratic incumbent Lea Webb for a third term in the New York State Senate.

Webb’s Tompkins County victory margins were the highest of any in the three counties that the 52^nd District covers.

Lea Webb won reelection districtwide with 59.6 percent of the vote (63,853 votes in total). Republican Michael Bolles, a Broome County-based political newcomer, got 41,565 votes (38.8 percent) districtwide.

In Tompkins County, Lea Webb secured a 76.2 percent majority (26,644 votes) compared to Bolles’ 23.7 percent (8,267 votes).

Lea Webb won her home county of Broome with 52.9 percent of the vote, but lost Cortland County to Bolles. It was close. Bolles polled 49.98 percent of the Cortland County votes, Webb 48.6 percent.

“It is a great honor to represent the people of Broome, Cortland, and Tompkins Counties,” Webb said via an Instagram post, reported by The Ithacan. “I look forward to continuing this work and ensuring that everyone in our district has a voice in Albany,”

Michael Bolles, a retired Binghamton firefighter and a 22-year Army veteran, announced his candidacy last March. He never faced any opposition within his own party, but found it hard gaining traction in much of Tompkins County. His campaign signs could be spotted in Dryden and Groton, but were almost nowhere in places like Enfield. In an earlier failed attempt to unseat Webb two years ago, Lansing Republican Mike Sigler’s signs were then more visible.

**Our cherished little bastion of blue amidst a sea of Bruce Blakeman red; a color-coding of how counties went for New York Governor. (image courtesy ryansajdak.com)**

Lea Webb’s victory margin this year over Bolles was only a couple percentage points higher than that over Sigler in 2024.

The local contest for Tompkins County’s other state legislative office was uneventful. No one ran against three-term incumbent Democrat Anna Kelles this year. Accordingly, Kelles secured nearly every vote cast in the 125^th District.

Other Races: Tompkins County elected a new County Clerk this year, Rachel Graham succeeds the retiring fellow Democrat Maureen Reynolds. Graham ran unopposed.

In the contest for Tompkins County Sheriff, incumbent Democrat Derek Osborne, also unopposed, won a new term with 98.8 percent of the vote.

Reflecting the gradual, state-mandated slide of municipal voting to even-numbered years, a few town-wide elections took place in Tompkins County Tuesday. The only contested races were in Dryden, where incumbent Democrat Jason Leifer won another term as Supervisor. James Ravo won for Dryden Town Justice.

Next door to Enfield, Michelle Wright won a Town Councilperson’s seat; Richard Goldman was elected Councilperson in Ulysses. Each candidate ran unopposed.

Some say Ithaca and Tompkins County comprise a deeply-Democratic political island surrounded by reality. If so, that reality begins just beyond the county line. Three congressional districts touch Tompkins County on the west and north. And in two of those districts Tuesday, incumbent Republicans won.

**Claudia Tenney in the debate Oct. 20; she prevailed this week by a 20 point margin**.

Claudia Tenney, nationally known for her undying support of President Trump, will go back to Washington to help finish Trump’s final term.

Republican Tenney bested her Democratic challenger, Alissa Ellman, by 20 points in the GOP-heavy 24th Congressional District. It’s a gerrymandered creature that bypasses Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo, but otherwise slides along Lake Ontario’s shoreline and dips south to include Seneca County and also the Schuyler County Town of Hector.

“We have a lot of work to do as Republicans,” Tenney acknowledged in an election night victory post on Facebook, the Trump cheerleader fully aware that her party had lost its congressional majority.

“We have to regroup. We have to come back. We have to save this country. 250 years should not be the end of this country, though I’m a little worried,” the decidedly-conservative Tenney proclaimed, her partisan loyalties in full view.

Alissa Ellman, an army combat veteran who got cancer from the burn pits in Afghanistan, beat the disease back, only to then be downsized from her job at a VA hospital by DOGE, campaigned valiantly. She thought she had a chance at beating Tenney. Ellman fought hard in an October 20 debate.

But the 24^th is a difficult district for Democrats to flip. It’s designed that way. Tenney won the race 171,460 votes (59.5 percent) to Ellman’s 112,261 votes (38.9 percent).

The 24^th District includes all or parts of 14 counties. Tenney won all but one of them. And the one she lost, Ontario County, which includes the cities of Geneva and Canandaigua, she only lost by 92 votes.

In Seneca County, an Ithaca “exurb” to some extent, Tenney got 52.7 percent of the vote (6,220 votes), compared to Ellman’s 46.0 percent (5,433 votes).

**Fighting hard, but coming up short; Alissa Ellman, debating Oct. 20.**

For many of us, New York’s 23^rd District can be imagined as Congressman Tom Reed’s old western Southern Tier stomping ground, only with Tompkins County now lopped off. It’s ruby-red, redder than even when Tompkins stood as part of it. Nick Langworthy is its Republican congressman now. Langworthy won another term in this week’s election. The Republican incumbent beat Democratic challenger Aaron Gies, 181,807 votes (59.4 percent) to Gies’ 119,749 votes (39.15 percent).

Langworthy handily won Chemung County, with its included City of Elmira; and Steuben County, where Corning is a part.

If there was an upstate House district that Democrats hung their hopes on this year it was Elise Stefanik’s North Country 21^st. Democrats came close, but Republicans appear to have pulled off a victory this week.

Businessman Anthony Constantino, who made no apologies for his dogged loyalty to Donald Trump, secured a arrow, two-point victory over the Democrat, farmer Blake Gendebien. Unofficial tallies Wednesday, with all districts reporting, counted 140,119 votes for Constantino (49.86 percent) and 134,390 votes (47.82 percent) for Gendebien. The NY-21 race remained uncalled as of Wednesday evening. Gendebien had not conceded.

As some consolation for Democrats, one of the three districts that border Tompkins County did remain blue. John Mannion in the Syracuse-based 22^nd district, which includes southern Cayuga County and much of Cortland County, held off a challenge from Republican Kailee Buller. Mannion’s victory margin was wide.

Tompkins County, as one would suspect, gave the victorious Democratic candidates for statewide office the predictable three-out-of-four margins of victory. Governor Kathy Hochul found support with 75.9 percent of Tompkins County’s electorate; Attorney General Letitia James also got 75.9 percent; and Comptroller Tom DiNapoli polled 78.9 percent.

By late Thursday, the Tompkins County Board of Elections had not posted town-by-town breakdowns of the countywide returns for Congress, State Legislature, or other offices.

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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.

(Oct 30): I will say or write little more about the Cornell fraternity incident that has inflicted so much pain of late and plunged my alma mater into disrepute. Social media twists my words into meanings never intended and hurtles reasoned discourse down rocky paths toward dark places.

But the sad, sickening saga draws me to a singular conclusion: Cornell University must ban all fraternities and sororities from its campus and do so as soon as practicable.

To save itself from itself and to protect its attendees, Cornell should transform each of the fraternity and sorority buildings under its ownership and control into strictly-supervised group quarters. Each could hold a specific academic focus. No more parties. No more self-oversight. Students come here to learn, not play.

What recent events prove so openly is that men in their fraternities—and women in their sororities—cannot responsibly police themselves to safeguard their fellow students or even their own members.

If some who might otherwise attend here eschew Cornell because of this radical reform, more deserving students will certainly take their place.

The Greek Culture at Cornell has run its course. The “Animal House” environment that destroys those it touches must vanish. / RL

At first on Floral Ave.

(Oct. 30): When is a “state route” not really one? When it’s in the City of Ithaca.

Friday, Ithaca’s Department of Public Works clarified exceptions to the new, city-wide lowered speed limit of 25 MPH.

State rules prevent the city from cutting speed limits below 30 on “streets owned and maintained by New York State.” But no driver holds a maintenance log. We’d assume a route nameplate suffices.

Not so, says City Hall. Its statement identifies only Green and Seneca Streets, carrying Route 79; and Fulton and Meadow Streets, funneling Route 13, as “state owned and maintained.” (What about Elmira Road past McDonald’s?)

“We recognize that this has caused confusion.” the release concedes.

Sign changes have been haphazard. And as many west end drivers have observed, contractors had initially—and wrongly—lowered Floral Avenue’s limit to 25 south of the city line. As of this writing, the northbound signs had been corrected; but the southbound ones not.

Like year-round Daylight Saving Time (remember the 1970’s experiment?), dropping to a snail’s crawl of 25 sounds better in theory than in practice.

But then, again, wrote one social media commenter, “Rarely can you go above 30 anyway. It seems like a solution looking for a problem.”

(Oct. 30): Town government subsidies to the Enfield Community Council (ECC) would increase—and do so faster—under a new, five-year contract discussed by the Enfield Town Board October 28 and scheduled for a vote November 11.

For each of the past five years, town support for the ECC has risen by two percent. The new contract proposes three percent annual increases, plus a one-time infusion of $2,000 extra in the first of those years. Subsequent yearly increases would flow from that heightened first-year baseline.

The extra $2,000 is to compensate for “all the little community things that we don’t charge for,” ECC President Cortney Bailey told the council’s Board of Directors October 22.

Town subsidies to the ECC fund town-wide youth programs, including, but not limited to, summer camp.

Under the current contract, the town is paying the community council $55,667 in 2026. Next year’s adjusted subsidy would rise to $58,468. The town would pay the ECC just over $315,000 during the life of the contract.

The Town Board’s majority expressed no objection to the heightened subsidies during its late-October discussions. Some noted the agency is strapped financially.

(Oct. 28): With just one person—a familiar one—commenting at the Public Hearing, the Enfield Town Board Wednesday approved a nearly $2.95 Million 2027 Budget. All four attending board members voted their approval.

This fall’s Enfield budget deliberations have proven tame. Members made no changes in the preliminary spending plan on the night of the final vote.

Other than to grant rank-and-file Highway Department employees a slightly higher salary increase (five percent, compared to three percent raises for others), nothing much was changed from Supervisor Stephanie Redmond’s mid-September submission.

“People are very, very upset about the taxes,” Rosie Carpenter, last year’s Town Board candidate and the October 28 hearing’s only speaker, told the board. “People don’t bother to come to these meetings,” Carpenter added, because even if they speak out, “it’s all going to go your way.”

The adopted Enfield budget would raise appropriations by 6.29 percent and the tax levy by 6.7 percent. That’s about twice the state tax cap. The Highway Department budgeted for a $90,000 tractor and a $341,000 truck, the 10-wheeler previously authorized.

“Highway is the elite,” Carpenter criticized. “You don’t need something new every three months.”

Supervisor Redmond defended the procurements, crediting the highway superintendent with finding bargains.

Amanda Kirchgessner

(Oct. 27): Tompkins County’s Tentative 2027 Budget carries the highest tax increase in years, 7.69 percent. Yet judging from comments at the budget’s Public Hearing Tuesday night, taxpayers either don’t much care or conclude that complaining wouldn’t do much good.

Only three people spoke at the October 27 hearing. It lasted just ten minutes. No one complained about the tax hike. In fact one commenter, promoting the long-proposed New York Health Act, was extremely off-topic. Single-payer health care has no direct link to what the budget would spend.

Amanda Kirchgessner, a frequent speaker at the Legislature’s meetings, addressed the hearing.

“I’m asking the Legislature to fully fund the public safety budget, particularly our emergency response infrastructure,” Kirchgessner said. She urged support for the county’s unarmed response program, transitional housing, and youth services. But she called for reductions in airport subsidies and a “pause” in Center of Government building development.

Lacking any groundswell of support for an underfunded program or any public resistance to the tax hike, there was little legislators could grab onto to make changes. Any amendments would precede the budget’s final approval, set for November 17.

(Oct. 26): In the days since I began writing words of support for our District Attorney, the saddening, sickening events at the Chi Phi fraternity and Cornell University’s handling of them have kidnapped my conscience:. I can’t let it go.

There are no heroes in this story, only victims.

On an October night two years ago, a young woman, a person whose name we may never learn, made one terribly wrong decision. That decision will scar her soul for life. Several young men, in turn, made their own terribly wrong decisions. For one or more of them, their choices may lead them to the penitentiary.

Meanwhile, a university, an institution representing to protect them all, escapes accountability and punishment.

We should pray for each of the human victims in this story. The university, on the other hand, warrants our scrutiny, our anger, and even our condemnation.

As a Cornell alum and as a community resident, I will repurpose a retired professor’s critical remark made at a recent public meeting. Her words: “I’m ashamed to be in Ithaca.” Because friends, as I see it, we deserve a far better neighbor looking down on us from East Hill. / RL

(Oct. 20): For the first time in its fledgling, three-year history, the Enfield Fire District saw no resident comment Tuesday when it put its proposed 2027 budget to public hearing.

After the open-and-shut hearing, the Board of Fire Commissioners adopted the budget package of slightly over $651,000. All four commissioners present October 20 supported it. (Robyn Wishna was excused.)

Last-minute adjustments made a difference, though.

When the preliminary budget was drafted in early-September, the board thought it had complied with the state’s two percent tax cap. Corrections announced two weeks later pushed the year-to-year tax levy increase just above the threshold.

By adjusting two expense accounts and projecting $1,000 more in investment earnings, the board Tuesday made the budget tax-compliant again, reducing the yearly increase to 1.95 percent.

Commissioners at a prior meeting had already agreed to override the cap.

For use of the fire station, commissioners kept the annual lease payment to the Enfield Volunteer Fire Company the same next year as for 2026; $99,639. The district will not buy any new trucks. And a hefty $350,000 capital improvement project, suggested in September by the fire company president, was left for another day.

The sculptors and the sculpture at dedication

(Oct. 17): Braving a blustery, yet sunny Saturday morning, nearly a score of celebrants, some of them kids—plus a couple of dogs—gathered across from the Enfield Town Hall October 17 to dedicate the Town’s recently-completed flowered sculpture, a project funded through the Community Arts Partnership.

“Hands, hearts and minds” made this sculpture happen, the Arts Partnership’s Megan Barber told attendees. Officials present included two members of the Enfield Town Board, Deputy Supervisor Terry Bloom, and Gwen Quigley and Tony Moretti, the Hammondsport artists who sculpted the metal and ceramic submission, a work crafted in tribute to Native American agriculture.

The sculpture, yet to claim a name, becomes the second permanent fixture on a small town park, also still nameless. The park’s other fixture, the “SkateGarden” skateboard ramp, was built two years ago.

Bloom, liaison to Enfield’s Parks Committee, envisions swings and other youth attractions in future years.

The sculpture’s superstructure arrived in July. What’s added now is a ceramic base in the shape of a turtle, with ornate mosaic words and agricultural symbols embedded in it. And despite the artistic complexity, designers assured attendees the mosaic will survive Enfield’s rough winters.

(Oct. 15): The alleged gang rape of the anonymous Cornell student, “Jane Doe,” at a university fraternity house became a sparring point in the feisty debate between Governor Kathy Hochul and Republican challenger Bruce Blakeman Tuesday night.

And in the October 13 exchange, Hochul had harsh words for Cornell as she scolded Tompkins County’s District Attorney.

“The university failed that young woman,” Hochul said bluntly as the moderator cut off three minutes of jousting between the two.

“It became clear to me that the district attorney had already denied the opportunity to interview this young woman,” Hochul faulted D.A. Matt Van Houten. “You should know enough to interview the victim of a crime and not just dismiss it,” the governor admonished the local prosecutor as she defended her decision to put Attorney General Letitia James on the case.

Blakeman fired back at Hochul: “Where were you? What did you do? You were the Trustee of Cornell University. You were the Governor of the state…. And as a trustee and as governor, you didn’t call for an independent investigation when you found out that the district attorney was dropping the case. Shame on you.”

“You know that’s pretty pathetic to blame me for what happened in a fraternity house,” Hochul rebutted. “My gosh.”

In his defense, Van Houten has maintained he had to act on the limited evidence provided him by Cornell. And that evidence, Van Houten insists, was insufficient to bring criminal charges.

(Oct. 15): What optimism giveth, reality taketh away. That pretty much sums up what the Enfield Town Board did October 14 as it elevated its proposed 2027 Town Budget to “Preliminary” status and sent it on to a Public Hearing two weeks later.

When Supervisor Stephanie Redmond first advanced her Tentative Budget September 23, it called for a 6.46 percent hike in the property tax levy over the current year’s.

But during budget discussions in September, Councilperson Jude Lemke and the board’s majority predicted yet-to-be-finalized negotiations with Haefele Connect could reap at least $20,000 in newly-imposed television franchise fees.

Yet the Haefele talks remain unresolved. And this Wednesday, the board opted not to count on the new revenue. The board also added $3,500 to projected health insurance costs.

So rather than a lower 5.52 percent tax increase advanced at meeting’s start, the approved Preliminary Budget—still subject to change—would raise the levy by 6.63 percent.

Councilperson Robert Lynch attempted unsuccessfully—and repeatedly—to grant Town Justice Heather Knutsen-King and her court clerk higher raises than were first proposed. Motions to grant six percent, five percent, and four percent increases each fell for lack of a second.

“Judge, I tried,” Lynch said after the successive dead-end votes. The justice and clerk must settle for three percent increases.

(Oct. 12): New York’s sleeper race this cycle is for Attorney General. And while two-term incumbent Letitia James may have the Empire State’s Democratic majority and Governor Kathy Hochul’s coattails to her advantage, she also has a fight on her hands.

A.G. James faced Republican nominee Saritha Komatireddy in their one and only debate October 8 on Spectrum News’ NY 1. It wasn’t pretty. Quite plainly, these two do not like each other. It showed. And repeatedly, Komatireddy put James on the defensive.

You can (and should) watch the debate here.

Komatireddy to James: “New Yorkers, you do not have an attorney general right now. For the last eight years, you’ve had a political hack sitting in the chair using our taxpayer money for her political purposes.”

Letitia to Saritha: “It’s important that individuals understand that my opponent knows nothing about the office of the attorney general.”

Time and time again, Komatireddy hammered James for her lack of prosecutorial experience. And time and time again, the incumbent Democrat sought to tie Komatireddy to President Trump, who’s endorsed her.

The gap is closing. And Letitia James’ online appeals for money signal she’s in trouble.

Vote the way you choose. Just know that this was a damned good debate. Watch it. / RL

TeraWulf “Lake Hawkeye” site rendering

(Oct. 11): Compared to our across-the-lake neighbor, Lansing, Enfield is poor, dirt poor. Our tax base pales by comparison, as does our ability to stave off lawsuits.

So when The Ithaca Voice reported last week that developer TeraWulf threatens to sue the Town of Lansing should it impose a ban on data centers, warning flags should rise.

In response to a well-attended September 20 meeting of the Lansing Town Board, one where the board decided to explore a total ban on data centers, TeraWulf CEO Paul Prager wrote a strongly-stated, four-page reply. It did not promise legal action. But it came close.

Referring to what TeraWulf now calls the proposed “Lake Hawkeye” data center and the 80-year lease the company holds on it, Prager wrote:

“As CEO of a publicly traded company, I have a fiduciary responsibility to protect that investment and our property rights. We will pursue the avenues available to fulfill that responsibility. I would, however, much rather direct our capital and employees’ time toward productive development and meaningful community investment than years of legal proceedings.”

In March, Enfield Councilperson Jude Lemke proposed Enfield join Dryden and enact a data center ban. A proposed one-year moratorium on such centers remains under review. Lemke and others still welcome a ban.

But a deep-pocketed lawsuit by Big Data could bankrupt poor, little Enfield. We’re not Lansing. / RL

(Oct. 11): At its latest biweekly meeting, the Enfield Board of Fire Commissioners huddled in closed session for an hour, but then adjourned having failed to finalize next year’s leasing terms for the Enfield fire station.

Even though the Enfield Volunteer Fire Company (EVFC) handed over its trucks and other equipment to the Enfield Fire District for free after fire commissioners assumed governance from the Town three years ago, the EVFC continues to own the fire house and the fire district pays it rent, just under $100,000 for 2026.

A preliminary 2027 budget, adopted September 1, yet still open to refinement, had penciled-in the same rental payment next year as for the current one. But one source suggests a remaining sticking point may be who’ll pay for electronic door sensors, mandated following a recent state inspection, and estimated to cost as much as $32,000.

An EVFC officer insists the fire district, not the fire company, should bear the one-time expense.

Lease negotiations, though unresolved October 6, will likely resume at the commissioners’ next meeting October 20. That’s also when the budget faces its Public Hearing and possible final adoption.

(Oct. 3): At a special Saturday morning meeting, the Enfield Town Board October 3 approved the spending of additional moneys to protect the surface of a giant, new concrete culvert being placed under Bostwick Road,

The adopted Resolution approved “the installation of a waterproof membrane on the top of the box culvert at a cost not to exceed $50,000.” The text stated that “this preventative measure is expected to significantly extend the lifespan of the structure.”

Placement of the multi-section box culvert into Enfield Creek was begun this summer, but halted after the Town stated that “unforeseen circumstances” had delayed the project’s completion and Bostwick’s reopening. Two engineering firms were called in to evaluate.

Authorization of the membrane’s installation followed an approximately 45-minute closed session Saturday, its contents not made public.

Acton also followed rejection, for lack of a second, of Councilperson Robert Lynch’s proposed amendment that would have delayed the membrane’s installation “until all engineering consultants previously retained by the Town for this project have certified in writing… that the culvert structure as designed, constructed, and installed is structurally sound for its intended purpose.” The amendment also predicated approval on legal review.

Saturday’s Resolution passed 3-1 (with Councilperson Melissa Millspaugh excused). Lynch dissented, saying he could not support the authorization without the amendment offered.

NY Rt. 13A south of Coy Glen Rd., TOWN of Ithaca

(Sept. 30): Due to absence of money or motivation—maybe both—the City of Ithaca has taken nearly four years to implement its November 2022 ordinance that lowered the city’s default speed limit to 25 miles-per-hour. But it’s safe to say the sign changers have strayed beyond their bounds.

The 2022 ordinance, a controlling state law, and an Ithaca September news release make clear that “certain state-owned roads, including portions of major state routes” can’t be touched. That’s not been the case. They have been.

In the West End, Route 89’s limit has been cut to 25. On Cliff Street (Rt. 96), the re-signing to 25 is about 50/50 complete. On Hector Street (Rt. 79), the large signs remain 30; the smaller ones changed to 25.

And Floral Avenue (Rt. 13A), is now plastered with 25 MPH signs. And new, lowered-limit signs perch aside 13A near Coy Glen Road. That’s in the Town of Ithaca, south of the city line. Common Council holds no authority there.

City Hall’s release never specifies which routes are exempt. And what are “state-owned” and “state-maintained” roads, anyway?

In the abstract, cutting speeds to 25 sounds immaterial. But for us drivers, it makes all the difference. Ithaca becomes one, sprawling school zone.

Rural commuters, of course, never got a voice. So when we spot transgression, we cry foul.

Scrounging for dropped ping-pong balls, Sept. 19

(Sept. 25): Next year’s Enfield Harvest Festival will likely look—and taste—different from the one held last weekend. And change may disappoint some.

“I’m thinking the chicken barbeque is done,” Enfield Community Council (ECC) President Cortney Bailey informed the council’s Board of Directors Thursday. “It’s a ton of work,” she conceded. Moreover, its time may have passed.

Attendance for this year’s Harvest Festival—a more than half-century Enfield tradition—was down, way down. “The Harvest Festival was mostly disappointing,” ECC’s president acknowledged as the organization launched its look forward.

This year, the ECC downsized its chicken purchases to 150. Yet it sold only 84 dinners, plus 25 half-sides.

ECC assigned part of the blame to the struggling economy. It cost $64 to buy chicken dinners for a family of four. Families can make dinner at home for a fraction of the price.

Bailey would change next year to baking “lots of different things in small quantities.” Extra desserts could be sold on the “cake wheel,” also this year a disappointment.

“The cake wheel used to make hundreds of dollars,” Bailey said. This year it collected $120.

One bright spot: the return of the ping-pong ball drop for children, performed this year for the first time from a Highway Department lift.

“This was a wonderful substitute,” Bailey said of the lift.

(Sept. 24): A preliminary National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) report into the August 30 Enfield plane crash that left two people dead provides only the vaguest hint of what may have gone wrong.

The initial NTSB release, its findings subject to change, indicates that each of the small plane’s fuel tanks were intact, yet empty upon examination.

David Kornreich, the 52-year old owner and pilot of the single-engine craft, died at the scene. His passenger, 31-year-old Andrew R. Harrell, later died at the hospital of his injuries. The early-afternoon crash occurred in a semi-wooded area west of North Applegate Road.

The preliminary NTSB report does not state a definitive cause of the crash. It only supplies fragmentary evidence.

“The airplane fuel system consisted of a bladder-type 40-gallon main tank under the pylon and two 7-gallon auxiliary tanks located in each of the wing floats,” the report states, adding, “The tanks were intact with no evidence of breaching. No fuel was present in the main tank or auxiliary tanks.”

Whether lack of fuel led to the crash or whether some unrelated malfunction drained the tanks in flight or on the ground, the report does not speculate.

Investigators tested the plane’s three fuel boost pumps and found them operating normally. Some, but not all, fuel lines were also tested and found unobstructed.

The Lake LA-4-200, N6185V took off from Tompkins County’s airport shortly before Noon August 30. It crashed little more than 50 minutes later.

(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.

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.

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.”

(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.

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.