2022 Commentaries

On the sub-tabs of this section, read the commentaries and top news stories written during 2022.

Visit “What I’ve Said.” It’s found on the drop-down list of the Main Menu. You’ll find past essays, formerly posted on this website’s Home Page.

“What I’ve Said” captures the moment of the times; items of interest, Enfield legislative actions, and points of controversy beginning with the 2019 Town Board election campaign and continuing to the controversies of today.

Here’s a recent list and past highlights:

A Troubling Leap of Faith: Analysis of Enfield’s “snap” referendum on bonding two fire trucks; posted Oct. 29, 2023.

No Idea’s a Dumb Idea: Analysis of Jim Mathews taking the lead as Chairman of the new Enfield Board of Fire Commissioners; posted Aug. 13, 2023.

Five Voices, Five Reasons: Enfield Town Board members share their reasons for putting fire protection services under an independent Commission; posted July 5, 2023.

Opportunity Lost; Planners, Town Board could have bridled the Breezy Meadows subdivision, but didn’t; posted June 5, 2023.

Water, Land, and a Dirt Road; Breezy Meadows’ Impacts Perplex Planners, Pols, and Public; posted April 20, 2023.

The “Death” of a Good Judge; (Hector) LaSalle, the Democratic Party, and Me; posted February 20, 2023.

Confirm Judge LaSalle; My commentary supporting LaSalle’s appointment as New York’s Chief Judge; posted February 6, 2023.

Freshman Fervor: (Legislator) Randy Brown makes his mark defending hometown interests; posted Jan. 4, 2023.

And Earlier:

We Might Eat Leftovers: Second Wind’s Fate Could Impact Enfield’s Funding Future; posted Dec. 23, 2022.

End of an Era; Judge Poole Retires; Board ponders options posted Dec. 15, 2022.

Strained Separation: County-City cut cord with police-critical Reimagining group; posted June 26, 2022

A Tool for the Toolbox: “Wracking our Brains” to Find a Firefighter; posted May 15, 2022

Tompkins Does It One Way; Enfield Another: Public Transparency and the ARPA Awards Process; posted May 13, 2022

A Working Group for Whom? Working with Whom? posted April 22, 2022

Gerry’s Lakeside Puzzle; New York Redistricting; posted Feb. 14, 2022

Some Good Will Come of This: Transparency and the Tompkins County Industrial Development Agency; posted Jan. 18, 2022

Meet in the Middle: On the Enfield Town Board’s first-of-the-year meeting; posted Jan. 12, 2022

(and more posted in the archives…)

Check out the latest local stories from Enfield and Tompkins County attached to the Latest News tab.

Recent Postings:

Nov. 18: Relaxing the Downtown flycar arm-twist; Committee urges softer sell for Rapid Response buy-in

Nov. 17: EVFC Gives Up Funding Fight; $20K will pay attorneys, not buy fire house gear

Nov. 15: Updated; Election Results bring no surprises; Knutsen-King wins Justice; other leads hold

Nov. 11: Cargill: Dirty Mine or Job Hub? Tompkins Legislature asks Hochul to take a hard look… but little more

Nov. 10: Town Board Claws Back EVFC Funding; On-the-fly action raises legal question

Nov. 7; Updated Nov. 8: Rollins rolls up big Highway win; Knutsen-King leads Bailey for Justice

Nov. 3: Fire Budget Adopted; Buddy Votes No

Oct. 24: Post-Hearing changes boost Fire Budget 24%

Oct. 24: Country critics chip away at flycar cost share

Oct. 22: Three options; None of them Great; Commissioners’ Chair warns of fire truck give-back should bonding vote fail

Oct. 20: Tompkins Tortured Tax Compromise; Closely-divided Legislature sets tentative 2% levy hike for ‘24

Oct. 18: Let’s Make a Deal; Sand for Salaries; Enfield Board horse-trades during first-round budget review

Oct. 4: The not-so-free “Flycar;” Towns could pay half the cost for countywide rescue service, officials disclose

Oct. 2: The Shiny Red Elephant in the Room; Enfield Fire Commissioners ask we spread the pain for pricey pumper

Sept. 29: “You Haven’t Sold Me;” Pay-in Flycar Plan draws fire in Newfield

Sept. 22: T.C. Budget Kisses Quarter-Billion

For previously-reported stories, visit the Reporting Archives tab. Stories are archived by the month(s) of their posting.

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 :

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.

Deb Mohlenhoff (courtesy The Ithaca Voice)

(Nov. 30): By now, most of us in rural Tompkins County know Ithaca is transitioning to a City Manager form of government. And this week, the City revealed it’s picked its current Chief of Staff and long-time former Alderperson, Deborah Mohlenhoff, for the job. She’ll move up to become City Hall’s top executive in January.

Generally, for me, City Managers leave a sour taste. I’d rather a municipal executive earn her right to govern from the voters, not simply draw a paycheck. But here, I make an exception.

Ithaca, as a city, is the most dysfunctional I’ve seen it in my 55 years living here. Its incoming Common Council is the youngest, greenest, and most misdirected ever; 10 Alderpersons overdosed on activism, starved of institutional memory.

A couple of its youngest are students; here today, no doubt gone after commencement. I doubt many of them remember the “old” Commons, let alone the paved State Street that predated it.

They show disrespect for the “quirky” Ithaca the rest of us loved, but now have lost. A “Harold’s Square” is no “Harold’s.” Council’s meeting room is an embarrassment. Ithaca’s police department is depleted, demoralized, and defanged.

Good Luck, Deb. Ithaca needs a grownup in the room. You drew the straw. Manage well. / RL

(Nov. 29): Ten candidates, but not including the current chairman, will compete in the December 12^th first-ever election for five seats on the Enfield Board of Fire Commissioners, a Fire District official announced late Tuesday.

The ten candidates, three of whom hold current, short-term Town Board appointments to the Commission, include Enfield Fire Chief Greg Stevenson, who would need to resign as Chief if elected to the Board.

Somewhat surprisingly, Jim Mathews, chosen by his likewise-appointed colleagues in August to chair the Commission, will not seek election. Neither will Commission member Geoff Hollister.

The three current Commission members who will seek election for up to five-year terms are Highway Superintendent Barry “Buddy” Rollins, volunteer firefighter/EMT Robyn Wishna, and Marcus Gingerich, who has no other direct connection with the fire service.

Still other candidates include former Enfield Town Board member Robert Harvey, long-time Fire Company volunteer Larry Stillwell, and Alexis Comparetta, the Fire District’s volunteer Secretary.

The candidate announcements came six days after the deadline passed for applications and exactly two weeks before the Commissioners elections.

The complete list: Greg Stevenson, Alan Teeter, Alexis Comparetta, Christopher Willis, Larry Stillwell, Robert Harvey, Robyn Wishna, Donald Gunning, Barry Rollins, and Marcus Gingerich.

Yearwood: Be “proactive.”

(Nov. 28): No votes were taken, not even a straw poll. But seven of nine Ithaca School Board members, meeting Tuesday, moved ever closer to building a new $40 Million District Transportation Facility and also, most likely, spending more money on other capital projects.

None of those attending Tuesday’s meeting spoke against the new garage. Board member Jill Tripp brought the firmest idea to the table; a compromise of sorts. She would package the bus garage within a bond issue that would also spend $10 Million in each of three years on other capital items.

“The environment that we have our people working in is just unconscionable,” Board member Eldred Harris told colleagues Tuesday. Both he and Karen Yearwood urged the district think big. A consultant in mid-November had laid out three possible capital options to take to voters, ranging from $15 Million to $125 Million. Yearwood urged the district to be “proactive” and go for the top figure.

Harris suggested that the Board vote its preference that night. But Board Vice President Moira Lang, conducting the meeting, held back, saying she needs more time to weigh the choices.

Most likely, the Board’s decision will come in December.

(See the previous reporting posted on this story.)

Thomas Kelly (center; courtesy, The Ithaca Voice)

(Nov. 27): The officer-depleted, morale-compromised Ithaca Police Department will likely soon have a new man at the top.

Outgoing Mayor Laura Lewis Monday announced her choice of Thomas Kelly, a Lieutenant with the Schenectady Police Department, to become Ithaca Police Chief, effective December 18^th, pending Common Council’s (expected) approval.

Mayor Lewis chose Kelly over a second finalist, John Poleway, a retired police chief from Westchester County.

The leadership void at IPD has been painfully evident for not just months, but years. Deputy Chief John Joly was named in 2021 Acting Chief following a predecessor’s retirement. Lewis later recommended Joly for Chief, only to have Common Council refuse to ratify the choice. Since spring, Joly has placed himself on leave and signaled plans to sue City Hall for reverse racial discrimination and workplace hostility.

All the while, the Ithaca Police force continues to shrink.

Ithaca will pay dearly for Thomas Kelly’s service. Council has boosted the incoming Chief’s salary to $150,000, nearly comparable to that of the Tompkins County Administrator.

(Courtesy The Ithaca Voice)

(Nov. 27): They’re called “Terry Stops,” named after a legendary 1968 Supreme Court case. Police have the right to detain people on “reasonable suspicion,” perhaps pat them down for weapons so as to protect both themselves and the public.

New York Courts have expanded defendants’ rights a bit in those sorts of searches. And now the Rowan Wilson New York Court of Appeals has broadened those rights still further, giving those who ride bicycles similar protections to those who ride in cars. It’s a controversial 4-3 ruling that reaffirms how this Court is trending left. Wilson, the new Chief Judge, voted with the majority.

https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2023/11/24/new-yorks-highest-court-rules-in-favor-of-protecting-cyclists-constitutional-rights

Signed on; Legislator Anne Koreman

(Nov. 22): Eleven of Tompkins County’s 14 legislators, including both Enfield reps Anne Koreman and Randy Brown, have signed on to a letter in support of the “Medical Aid in Dying Act.,” the letter’s text released by County officials Wednesday and referenced briefly at the Legislature’s meeting the night before.

The measure, that was put before the State Senate and Assembly early this year, but has not advanced behind the chambers’ respective Health Committees, would enable terminally ill patients to obtain medical help to end their own lives.

Notably absent from the 11-signatory list were Lansing legislator and State Senate candidate Mike Sigler, Republican legislator Lee Shurtleff and Dryden Democrat Mike Lane.

“The Medical Aid in Dying Act would result in a practical, dignified, and responsible end-of-life option for Tompkins County residents who find themselves (terminally ill),” the letter states.

“We understand that some people feel that this bill opens up the possibility that an individual could be taken advantage of,” their letter continues, “but we also feel that the bill contains numerous safeguards to protect individuals from manipulation.”

Under the proposed legislation’s terms, the ability to access what some may term “doctor-assisted suicide” would be triggered by a 6-month terminal diagnosis.

Ain’t what it used to be. But ads still go there.

(Nov. 21): Bad news for Gannett. Good news for government budgets; that is, of it ever happens.

In case you haven’t noticed, The Ithaca Journal covers next to no local news anymore. Every year at about this time, the Tompkins County Legislature bemoans that fact, most particularly because State law requires Tompkins County—as well as all its local municipalities—to use Gannett’s daily as its only place to publish legal notices, and an expensive place at that.

Tuesday night, for whatever good it may do—at the same meeting it again grudgingly made its newspaper choice—the County Legislature adopted a Resolution asking the State Legislature to change its outdated law and allow legal notice postings in digital formats, like those the online news sites offer.

“Small daily print newspapers across the United States and in New York State have seen significant reductions in staffing and capacity to cover local news events, leading to lower subscriber numbers, and a lower volume of locally-relevant stories and features,” the adopted Resolution states. It adds a change in law “would permit this body to publish notices with other local newspapers with an online presence, increasing access to public information and supporting more local journalism.”

The original Resolution would have backed a specific Assembly bill. “That bill is going nowhere,” legislator Amanda Champion regrettably informed her colleagues, after conferring with Assemblymember Anna Kelles. One suspects the newspaper lobby got to legislative leaders.

“We’ll make this more general,” Champion said in retooling what was finally adopted. “Maybe there will be another bill.”

(Nov. 20): The Enfield Board of Fire Commissioners, which was earlier poised to order “referral to law enforcement” the circulation of anonymously-mailed postcards prior to a closely-divided referendum on the fire truck bonding, has now quietly dropped any official pursuit of the matter.

“It’s not up to us. No one wants to be cops,” Chair Jim Mathews said after Monday’s Commissioners meeting, where the postcard controversy was surprisingly absent from the agenda. Referral to law enforcement had been set for consideration at a meeting two weeks earlier, but a power outage cut short that session, and Commissioners never reached the topic.

What bothers Mathews and others is not that the anonymous postcards carried lies (they didn’t), but rather that the mailings gave the misimpression that the Enfield Fire District sent them. It did not.

No one raised “Postcard-gate” during Monday’s most-recent meeting. Only when asked after adjournment did Mathews acknowledge that legal counsel had encouraged Commissioners to drop the issue. It’s best handled “offline,” Mathews said, suggesting that any potential criminal referrals are better made by attorneys, not the Board.

“Gerrymander” vulture

(Nov. 20): New York’s Highest Court heard arguments November 15^th—yet gave no indication how soon it would rule—on a Democrat-driven move to revisit the 2022 Congressional maps that gave us Republican Congressman Marc Molinaro.

The arguments that day were procedural and technical. New districting maps have not been drawn, nor were they in question that day. Rather, the issue before the Court was whether the maps a Steuben County judge’s Special Master drafted two years ago remain good for a decade, or just for one, two-year election cycle.

The same New York Court of Appeals that heard last week’s case upheld Judge Patrick McAllister’s map-making in 2022. But with liberal Rowan Wilson now as sitting as Chief Judge, the High Court has tipped left, motivating Democrats that last week’s arguments could lead to a 2024 mapping re-do.

A bipartisan Independent Commission would get the first crack. But the commission’s tendency to deadlock could lead Democratic supermajorities in the State Senate and Assembly to gerrymander lines just like they attempted two years ago. Unlike last time, Democrats hope the Wilson Court would sustain their partisan dirty work.

“There is nothing to show that the Legislature has learned its lesson and that it’s not going to engage in a festival of gerrymandering if the court lets it rip,” Misha Tseytlin, lawyer for the Republican defenders of the 2022 maps, told the Court during oral arguments.

The New York Times claims New York—thanks to Judge McAllister—has one of the most competitive maps in the country. Congressman Molinaro stands among several who benefited last time. A Democratic gerrymander could flip those seats next year. / RL

(Nov. 20): Enfield Fire Commissioner (and Highway Superintendent) Barry “Buddy” Rollins had asked at a Commissioners’ meeting two weeks earlier why the Enfield Volunteer Fire Company (EVFC) 2022 Audit was not yet on file with the Town Clerk.

This Monday night, Rollins wasn’t there. But if he had been, he’d have gotten his answer.

Just as some Commissioners and their attorney were discussing whether they—or the lawyer—might need to make a Freedom of Information Law request to get hold of the needed document, Commissioner Robyn Wishna short-circuited the discussion. “It’s not done yet,” Wishna explained, as to the audit.

Fire Company President Dennis Hubbell later confirmed Wishna’s answer. ”I hope it will be done soon,” Hubbell said of the financial report, promising it to be filed with the Town Clerk as soon as finished.

Hubbell also reported to Commissioners the previous Thursday’s Town Board action. “We did get stripped of our ARPA money,” Hubbell said. The Board had redirected $20,000 in American Rescue Plan funds away from the EVFC to pay attorneys’ fees.

“I gave up arguing with the Town about it,” Hubbell complained. “It wasn’t worth the aggravation of getting our part of the money.” The EVFC had sought the funds for equipment.

Even though $5,000 of the EVFC’s request remains unspent by the Town, the Company president doesn’t care. “I don’t want anything to do with it,” he said of the left-over ARPA money—or for that matter, the Town Board.

(Updated Nov. 21): The following are Final Enfield results from the Nov. 7th General Election , data posted by the Tompkins County Board of Elections Monday, Nov. 20. (Only miniscule changes were reported from unofficial tallies previously announced.)

The results make no changes in the leads of various Enfield candidates, as previously reported:

Highway Superintendent:

Barry Rollins (R/D): 472

Chris Willis (I): 184

Write-in: 1

****

Town Justice:

Heather Knutsen-King (R/I): 305

Cortney Bailey (I): 271

****

Town Supervisor (unopposed):

Stephanie Redmond (D): 439

Write-In: 15

Undervotes: 220

****

Town Councilpersons (2 seats; unopposed):

Robert Lynch (D/I): 459

Melissa Millspaugh (D): 400

Write-ins: 52

Undervotes: 437

****

Town Clerk (unopposed):

Mary Cornell (D/R): 621

Write-In: 1

Undervotes: 52

****

Total ballots cast & counted: 674

Alderperson-elect Kuehl (Courtesy The Ithaca Voice)

(Nov. 17): Jorge DeFendini, (now) outgoing member of Ithaca’s Common Council, learned a hard lesson this week: Never, ever take the electorate for granted.

DeFendini, a member of the liberal “Solidarity Slate,” ran unopposed for reelection in the student-heavy Fourth Ward. He held two ballot lines. And yet he lost.

Cornell University senior Patrick Kuehl launched a stealth write-in campaign, largely campus-based. Incumbent DeFendini, it’s reported, spent most of his fall campaigning for others, mostly working to unseat First Ward Alderperson Cynthia Brock.

DeFendini ignored his own constituents. And guess what? In a pitifully low-turnout election, they ignored him. The current count has Kuehl with 49 votes; DeFendini, 40. Elections officials say DeFendini can‘t catch up.

Moral here: Never presume victory. I do not. Board of Elections filings will soon reveal that my campaign for reelection as Enfield Councilperson—using all my own money—spent $710 toward campaign mailings this fall; 528 individual letters, sent by me to you. That’s in addition to what we spent last spring in the primary.

Yes, I, too, stood unopposed on the November ballot. But I received one of Enfield’s higher vote totals; more votes than did the unopposed Supervisor, whom I never saw campaign.

A vote is to be earned, not presupposed. Jorge, you learned. / RL

(Nov. 16): Like just about everything else with the newly-born, guidance-deprived Enfield Board of Fire Commissioners, another deadline has come crashing down upon us. This time it’s the candidate filing cutoff for Fire District elections.

Posted on the Town website just Wednesday, Enfield gave notice that those interested in seeking any of five seats on the Board of Fire Commissioners in the December 12^th District elections must file expressions of interest within just one week, by the day before Thanksgiving.

“Any person wishing to be a candidate for the position shall file their name with the Secretary of the Enfield Fire District by email to: secretary.enfieldfc@gmail.com no later than November 22, 2023,” the notice states.

The good news is there’s no petitioning requirement. A letter will suffice. “Persons need only state that they desire to run for the position of Commissioner,” the announcement continues.

I know, not a lot of time to make up one’s mind. Any or all of the current Fire Commissioners—appointed in August as a legally-required interim action by the Town Board—may (and are likely) to apply. Fire Chief Greg Stevenson has also strongly indicated interest.

But the current Board of Fire Commissioners has become polarized, for political reasons well-publicized here. December 12^th could mark a bellwether election, with all five seats up for the voters’ choice to serve for staggered terms. If you’re interested, please file your letter with the Fire District’s Secretary. Because democracy works only when you step up. / Bob

Hubbell (with Supervisor Redmond), Sept. 6th

(Nov. 16): In a pointed email, rebuking Enfield Town Boards past and present, and read at a special Town Board meeting Thursday, the president of the Enfield Volunteer Fire Company (EVFC) dropped the company’s request—first granted, then rescinded—for $20,000 in American Rescue Plan funds to purchase new equipment.

The Town Board approved the funding back in May. But then a Board majority clawed it back November 8^th to pay the lawyer who oversaw formation of Enfield’s new Fire District.

“Unfortunately, those that voted to rescind ARPA funds to the Enfield Fire Company are not going to change their minds,” President Dennis Hubbell wrote Councilperson Robert Lynch (this writer), who read portions of his message aloud. “I’ve seen it for 48 years; give the Fire Company money and then take it away.”

The announcement came as Lynch questioned the legality of the Board’s early-November action. He argued state law required the evening’s Resolution, written on the fly, should instead have been posted online at least a day in advance.

Supervisor Stephanie Redmond pushed back. She said a lawyer with the Association of Towns had told her the measure was legal, as its mid-meeting submission had come as soon as “practicable.”

Nonetheless, Lynch maintained the majority’s action had “violated the spirit” of the law in that firefighters were not alerted to attend and press their case. Still, he added, the EVFC’s withdrawal rendered the matter “moot,” and he would not pursue it further.

[A longer version of this story is now posted.]

“They’re not receptive.” Anne Koreman

(Nov. 16): Much to committee chair Rich John’s displeasure, the Tompkins County Legislature’s Public Safety Committee Thursday softened the County’s proposed demands on rural municipalities to negotiate cost-sharing agreements for what’s now called the Pilot Rapid Medical Response (PRMR) system, a trio of flycars, staffed by EMT’s, positioned about the county.

A pair of amendments to a proposed legislative Resolution, crafted during more than a half-hour of debate Thursday, among other things, removed the hard-sell provision that “the Legislature shall approve the Memorandum of Understanding” (the funding agreement with the Towns) prior to commencement of the PRMR.”

“They’re not receptive in my area,” Ulysses-Enfield legislator Anne Koreman said of the cost-sharing models, one of which would charge Enfield $58,000 annually for the flycar benefit. Koreman equated the PRMR to the Sheriff’s Department, whose expenses are shared countywide and evenly, regardless of who might benefit.

Koreman was the only committee member to oppose sending the Resolution, even after amended, to the full Legislature, which will likely consider it in December.

“People are paying for services that do not help them at all,” John complained, arguing the PRMR would benefit his Ithaca City constituents little, since they have a paid Fire Department. John warned he may ask the full Legislature to put back in the wording the committee stripped out.

(Nov. 12): It could become the biggest guessing game in Enfield: What will the new owners do with the recently-purchased Kuma gentlemen’s club? Odds are they won’t bring back exotic dancing.

Enfield Codes Officer Alan Teeter informed first the Planning Board, and then the Town Board this month of the long-shuttered nightclub’s sale at auction. It’s been closed since its former owner died amid the pandemic several years ago.

“They do not know what they’re going to do with that,” Teeter informed the Town Board November 8^th, “except that it’s probably not going to be a nightclub.”

The new owners came into the codes office to seek a permit to demolish a dilapidated rear deck.

“It’s up in the air right now,” Teeter said of the new owners’ plans. Yet he hinted they might open “a restaurant of some sort there.”

“Maybe a café?” Supervisor Stephanie Redmond asked with anticipation.

“Any possibility of a cannabis dispensary?” this Councilperson followed-up.

“I don’t think so,” Teeter answered with a quiet chuckle. “But you never know.” / RL

Self-congratulation after their budget vote.

(Nov. 12): On Wednesday, Nov. 8^th, the same night that the Enfield Town Board approved its next year’s budget (see expanded story, posted here), the Tompkins County Legislature held its own budget vote, approving a nearly Quarter-Billion Dollar spending package that’ll for the first time in several years, increase the tax levy, in this instance by two per cent. After legislators acted, they applauded themselves.

Approval came on a vote of 13-1. Dryden’s Greg Mezey cast the lone dissent.

“I think an increase in the levy at this point is completely unnecessary,” Mezey said. He cited an unassigned budgetary Fund Balance totaled last year at $72 Million. “I feel rather principled that when we have such a strong Fund Balance, when we are in such a healthy position, there didn’t seem to be a lot of doomsday around our decision-making process,” Mezey observed.

“I didn’t plan on voting for this because I still think we could have zeroed this out,” Newfield-Enfield’s Randy Brown said, referencing the tax levy. “But I am going to support it because I think it’s a true compromise.”

Officials estimate the budget will cost the owner of a Quarter-Million Dollar home about $1,325. / RL

(Nov. 8): By a quick, unanimous vote—and following a Public Hearing where no resident spoke—the Enfield Town Board Wednesday adopted the Town’s 2024 Final Budget, a $2.3 Million package that will hike the property tax levy by just over seven per cent.

But drama arose later in the meeting when the Board revisited and passed on a 3-1 vote Councilperson Jude Lemke’s motion to claw-back the $20,000 in federal American Rescue Plan (ARPA) funds the Town had earlier promised the Enfield Volunteer Fire Company (EVFC) and divert much of the money instead to pay down the fees of the attorney who this year guided formation of an independent Fire District to oversee the EVFC.

“How many times do we need to cut the Fire Company off at the knees?” Councilperson Robert Lynch (this writer) asked. Lynch voted against Lemke’s resolution and also opposed paying the pile of monthly bills in which attorney Brad Pinsky’s $15,000 invoice was included.

Lemke maintained that with transition to a Fire District, anything the EVFC bought with the ARPA money would need to be sold or leased to the Fire District and that paying the lawyer’s bill instead would simplify paperwork. But EVFC leaders walked out in disgust a month ago when Town officials last raised the potential clawback. Those Fire Company leaders were not in the room Wednesday when the Town Board finally acted.

(See expanded story, now posted.)

Deirdre Hay: popular here; not everywhere.

(Nov. 8): Once again, Tompkins County proved on Election Day it’s the Southern Tier outlier when it comes to political preference.

Despite lopsided local support for Democratic nominee Deidre Hay, voters across the 10-county, Southern Tier-based New York Sixth Judicial District elected Republican Cheryl Insinga to a seat on the State Supreme Court.

Tompkins was the only one of the District’s ten counties to give Hay a majority of votes. The closest other county where Hay came close to tying was Cortland, where Insinga’s margin was within two percentage points.

District-wide, among those who voted in the Supreme Court race, Insinga won with 56,291 votes (51.7%) to Hay’s 52,572 votes (48.3%), according to Wednesday morning tallies filed with the State Board of Elections.

But in deep-blue Tompkins County, results were much different. Hay, a Cornell Law professor, secured 13,031 votes (77.8%) to Insinga’s mere 3,708 votes (22.2%).

Some Democrats may fault Insinga for barely making her existence known locally, while Hay’s candidacy was widely promoted on social media and elsewhere. Nonetheless, a well-placed Republican source says money was spent and Cheryl reached out. “There’s only so much money to go around,” the source admitted.

(Nov. 7): Incumbent Democratic Councilpersons Casey Powers and Heather McCarty coasted to easy reelection wins in Newfield Tuesday, as each secured another four-year term on the Newfield Town Board.

Unofficial results posted Tuesday evening at the Board of Elections gave Powers 488 votes and McCarty 483 votes, respectively. Their Republican opponents, Christopher Hyer and Chad Rylott trailed, with Hyer securing 251 votes and Rylott 234.

Powers’ and McCarty’s wins maintain a three-votes to one majority among partisans on the Newfield Town Board, with Supervisor Michael Allinger serving as an Independent. Allinger’s office was not up for election this year.

Trailing: Cynthia Brock

(Nov. 7): One of the last centrist voices on Ithaca Common Council will apparently be leaving at year’s end.

Unofficial results from Tuesday’s elections show incumbent Democratic Alderperson Cynthia Brock losing to the far-more-progressive Democrat Kayla Matos, an activist and Southside Community Center leader.

Brock lost the Democratic Party’s nomination to Matos in June. Tuesday, she fell short again, securing only 652 votes (46.1%) to Matos 761 (53.9%) Uncounted absentee ballots are unlikely to close the gap.

The Brock-Matos contest was viewed by some as a bellwether election regarding the future of Ithaca politics. With Matos’ win, expect Ithaca City politics to take yet another lurch to the left.

As expected, another Democrat, Robert Cantelmo, won the now much-less-powerful office of Ithaca Mayor, Cantelmo swamping a Republican opponent, leaving Janis Kelly in the single-digits.

Caroline’s Mark Witmer

(Nov. 7): Though it wasn’t a landslide, pro-zoning Democrats will likely continue leading the Town Board in Caroline.

Unofficial results Tuesday placed incumbent Democratic Supervisor Mark Witmer in the lead toward another term, Witmer securing 734 votes to Independent challenger Tonya Van Camp’s 646 votes.

Meanwhile in the race for two Town Council seats, Democrats Kate Kelley-Mackenzie and Tim Murray lead “Connecting Caroline” independents Kathryn Mix and Megan Slatoff-Burke. Nonetheless, first results show only 29 votes separating Democrat Murray from Connecting Caroline’s Mix. Some absentee votes must still come in.

Democrats have generally led the initiative toward establishing Caroline’s first zoning ordinance. The issue has split the community down the middle. With Tuesday’s apparent wins, the march toward zoning will likely continue.

Commissioners in the dark; meeting over.

(Nov. 6): A widespread power outage, one that blackened all of Enfield Center, called to an abrupt halt Monday night’s meeting of the Enfield Board of Fire Commissioners, just 40 minutes after it convened.

As a result, Commissioners postponed a scheduled discussion of their potentially controversial referral to law enforcement of what their agenda now calls an “unauthorized pre-bond vote mailing.” It’s that flood of anonymously- circulated postcards that some claim caused the Halloween bonding referendum to be so close.

The early adjournment also delayed Commissioners from setting details of the December 12^th Fire District elections, one when all Commissioners will face their first-time election.

The only item that received brief discussion before the blackout was Commissioner Barry “Buddy” Rollins request for additional financial information from the Enfield Volunteer Fire Company (EVFC).

Rollins said he’d asked the Town Clerk for the EVFC’s audit, but was told there was no audit received for 2022.

“We are currently in discussion with them (the Fire Company’s own attorney) to get some information,” Fire District assistant counsel Zach Longstreth, told the Commissioners. “We want to see the audit. It’s something we should be entitled to,” he said.

Utility sources blamed fallen wires along Bundy Road, a major feeder line to Enfield, for Monday’s outage. / RL

(Nov. 3): The following was posted by this Councilperson Thursday (11/2) on the Enfield Democrats’ listserv. I stand by what I wrote:

“Something needs to be said, and I guess I must be the one to say it.

“This community, Enfield, earns a failing grade for its lack of public discussion of our current year’s local elections. Both during the primaries and now during the General Election cycle, no organization—not the Democrats, the Republicans, the Grange, or anyone else—has convened debates, candidate forums, whatever you choose to call them, to allow aspirants for public office the opportunity to compare and contrast themselves with their opponents.

“How different this year is from 2019, the year that I first ran for Councilperson. I remember the debate at the Grange, where we candidates had to defend both our principles and our past. Why couldn’t the same have occurred this year? And it should matter not whether some of our Town races stand uncontested. Our residents need to know, nonetheless, where each of us stands.

“Our long-time incumbent Highway Superintendent is facing a challenge. And for the first time in decades, we have a contest for Town Justice, with two aspiring young women seeking to follow in the footsteps of Judge Betty Poole and serve perhaps for decades.

“We, Enfield, need these candidates to stand up and tell us why we should vote for them, and not vote for their opponent. Yard signs provide only name recognition. They lack the true ability to persuade.

“Please, Enfield, two years from now, let’s do better.”

Robert Lynch, Councilperson

(Nov. 3): By “Breezy Meadows” standards, it’s small potatoes. But the Enfield Town Planning Board Wednesday granted routine approvals to a pair of three-lot subdivisions in different parts of the town.

Following required Public Hearings, at neither of which anyone offered comment, planners granted each property owner quick, unanimous subdivision approval.

Owner Mark Smith proposes subdividing a 29-acre parcel south of Iradell Road just east of Van Dorn Road North into three building lots. Likewise, owners Lisa and William Munzer propose splitting off two building lots; one of them two acres, the other six acres, from their 22-acre rural tract at the southwest corner of Black Oak Road and Enfield Center Road West. Each road would front one of the new lots. Most of the larger corner parcel would remain undisturbed.

Enfield law required the hearings. Town planners raised no serious questions about either subdivision.

(Nov. 3): The League of Women Voters has established a voters’ information portal, Vote 411, where we can each learn more about the candidates and issues we must sort among on this Election Day, November 7^th.

You can link to Vote 411 here: https://www.vote411.org/

You type in your address, and after several clicks, it will take you to the Enfield races.

I answered the Vote411 questionnaire weeks ago, and the site has posted my responses. Sadly, as this writing, few other Enfield candidates have done likewise. Only Town Justice candidates Cortney Bailey and Heather Knutson-King have posted replies. If you’re undecided about who should represent us on the Enfield bench, I encourage you to read what they’ve written. / RL

(Oct 25): In the final of three budget sessions, the Enfield Town Board Wednesday handed up a nearly $2.3 Million Preliminary Budget for 2024, Town Board members making a series of minor cuts to lower the projected tax increase to just under seven per cent.

The Board action left intact the five per cent raises given the Town Clerk, Highway Superintendent and Highway staff at an earlier meeting. Key to cutting the levy increase Wednesday, the Board suspended for one year the Town’s annual professional audit, a $17,000 saving.

But the Board rejected Councilperson Robert Lynch’s (this writer’s) request to cut still deeper. Lynch would have cut $30,000 from the Highway Superintendent’s equipment account, as Superintendent Barry “Buddy” Rollins had said at the last meeting he may use the funds at issue to buy for his office a new pickup truck to drive.

Rollins defended on financial grounds his preferred practice of swapping departmental pickups every 3-4 years. Lynch said taxpayers don’t understand why the Superintendent gets a better vehicle than they, themselves, can afford.

The Preliminary Budget’s projected 6.97 per cent tax levy increase is down from the 11.44 per cent rise that Enfield Supervisor Stephanie Redmond had proposed in her initial Tentative Budget October second. The Town Board set a Public Hearing on the revised budget for November 8^th.

(Oct. 23): Only four days after Enfield residents were supposed to have had their final say at a Public Hearing, the Enfield Fire District’s Board of Commissioners Monday raised the estimated total of next year’s fire budget by a whopping 24 per cent. Commissioners conceded they’d underestimated likely expenditures, especially the cost of bonding two fire trucks.

“If we bump this (budget) up 25 per cent, is this still valid?” Commissioner Marcus Gingerich questioned.

“Yes, you didn’t bind yourself to this number,” attorney Zach Longstreth said, the lawyer referring to the previously-announced budget total presented at the hearing.

“It’s affecting the reality we encountered, and we’re doing it in public,” Commissioners Chair Jim Mathews said, defending the change.

Whereas the proposed 2024 tentative fire budget Commissioners aired in public last Thursday totaled close to what Enfield spends on fire protection for the current year, the revised number has grown to $483,691. And whereas prior estimates had assumed apparatus loan payments of $65,000 next year—assuming voters next week approve bonding two trucks—the revised budget pegs the bonding cost at just under $100,000.

An estimated hike in attorney’s fees from $15,000 to $40,000 also contributed to the increase.

Commissioners won’t act on the budget until November 2^nd. And if the bonding vote were to fail, totals could rise still higher.

Persuaded; Veronica Pillar

(Oct. 23): Trumansburg Mayor Rordan Hart did his part last week to promote full Tompkins County funding of the planned “Rapid Response Medical Team,” the three-vehicle network of “flycars” that would speed EMS response to medical emergencies as soon as next year.

“I would encourage the Legislature as much as you’re willing to consider… that you entertain the notion of (the system) being a County-run program that’s entirely funded from the tax base,” Hart told the Legislature’s Public Safety Committee October 19. The T-Burg mayor asserted that all would benefit from the plan, even those in the City of Ithaca, who have paid first-responders.

City legislator Veronica Pillar became a convert. “I think Mayor Hart more or less sold me on his proposal,” Pillar told the committee. Ulysses’ Anne Koreman also backed County funding, saying the cost-sharing models proposed by some would make it too difficult “trying to parse this out.”

Not convinced, however, is City legislator and committee Chair Rich John. He said the flycars will primarily improve response times in rural areas, not the City. “And that’s a great thing.” John acknowledged. But as for the towns, “They should pay for that,” he said, John favoring funding options that could see towns like Enfield paying up to $58,000 annually for the service.

Enfield’s new truck (for now)

(Oct. 19): Stated for the first time openly at a Public Hearing Thursday, Enfield Board of Fire Commissioners Chair Jim Mathews acknowledged that if voters fail to approve bonding for a new, $830,000 pumper truck in a referendum October 31st, the Fire District might need to “give back the pumper,” to the truck’s manufacturer or to the bank.

It’s a “profoundly stupid option,” Mathews told the hearing. But “that option does exist.”

The Chairman and other Commissioners strongly endorse bonding the pumper and a less-expensive tanker truck in a quickly-called Halloween referendum. The bond principal itself would total $1.05 Million. The pumper would be paid off over two decades.

“That truck ain’t going back,” Enfield Volunteer Fire Company (EVFC) President Dennis Hubbell predicted. The EVFC purchased the latest apparatus, without any needed voter approval, late last year. But because the Enfield Town Board last February endorsed interest-free financing for the purchase, it’s possible that should the EVFC default, the bank could pursue the Town for the unpaid debt.

“Don’t mortgage the future to salvage the moment,” this Councilperson, Robert Lynch, told the hearing. Lynch conceded concern about taxpayer liability in the event of a default. But he also requested side-by-side comparisons of the truck’s total cost under bonding, versus the EVFC’s existing 9-year loan.

Chairman Mathews, in support of the bonding option, warned that keeping both the truck and the current bank financing in place could raise next year’s Enfield fire tax by 37 per cent. / RL

[An extended report is now posted on this story.]

Chair Shawna Black

(Oct. 18): Reversing much of what it had done in committee just five days earlier, the Tompkins County Legislature Tuesday endorsed a tentative 2024 budget that would hike the countywide tax levy by two per cent, the first increase of its kind in three years.

“I would ask my colleagues not to spend every dime that we have,” Legislature Chair Shawna Black pleaded with fellow members as she supported a higher levy rather than drawing budget fund balances too low.

After first failing in a tie vote to leave the fund balance untapped and impose a more than 2.6 per cent levy increase, lawmakers settled on Dryden legislator Mike Lane’s compromise that reduced the fund balance by only a fraction of the nearly $1.4 Million first proposed in committee and made up the difference by raising the levy by two per cent.

Newfield-Enfield’s Randy Brown voted against both the changes and the amended budget, a plan that could be revised still further after a late-month Public Hearing.

“People are changing their habits… buying less; but paying more,” Brown cautioned legislators. Holding the tax levy unchanged, he said, “is an opportunity for the Legislature to tell people, we hear you; we see you.”

Two per cent was the levy increase legislators had told budget writers to plan for last spring. But the projected tax increase had grown in recent weeks as lawmakers tacked on more spending.

Dawson: “One bad decision away…”

(Oct. 13): We knew this would likely happen. And it did.

During a chaotic final hour of the third budget meeting in as many days, a committee comprised of the full Tompkins County Legislature voted late Thursday to cut to zero an otherwise 2.55 percent increase in the County’s proposed 2024 property tax levy by tapping more than $1.3 Million in projected fund balances to do it.

The vote was close. Even though the committee voted 9-4 on the final package, only a plurality of seven legislators—not a clear majority—supported the tax levy change. It means the committee decision could face a challenge when the full Legislature next meets.

Legislature Chair Shawna Black and Budget Committee Chair Deborah Dawson each opposed the final draft because of the levy reduction. In fact, Dawson took those final, tumultuous minutes to rant against what her colleagues were doing.

“We’re just one bad decision from being up the creek,” Dawson warned. “And bad decisions… can be made with really good intentions,” she added. “But the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. When is it enough for you people?”

Dawson pointedly directed criticism at Danby’s Dan Klein, who fired back.

“Every year we hear the same conversation, and yet where is the disaster?” Klein asked. “We haven’t had a bad year yet in 15 years.” Fund balances have grown each year, he said. Should that bad year happen, that’s when the tax rate should go up, not before, Klein argued.

Newfield-Enfield’s Randy Brown co-sponsored the tax levy reduction. Enfield’s other legislator, Anne Koreman, opposed it.

Klein: “Towns do budgets, too.”

(Oct. 11): A key committee of the Tompkins County Legislature Tuesday sidestepped the touchy question of whether local towns must share the cost of what’s best known as the County’s proposed “Flycar” service.

By a unanimous vote, the Expanded Budget Committee of the Legislature added into next year’s County Budget more than a half-Million dollars to set up and operate the three-vehicle “Rapid Medical Response Program,” setting aside enough money for the program to proceed even in towns can’t be coaxed to contribute.

“The towns, just as we are, are doing their budgets right now,” Danby’s Dan Klein pointed out. “They cannot put in a dollar figure for 2024 unless we ask them to,” the legislator cautioned. With grant applications pending, he said, contribution costs could change.

It was only last week that County officials indicated that towns might be asked to contribute half the service’s operational expense. That could cost Enfield between $29,000 and $58,000 annually depending on the formula used.

Since the committee comprises the full Legislature, its recommendation effectively seals the deal on funding. But the committee structured its approval in such a way that enables cost sharing to be negotiated later.

“If you do this,” legislator Mike Lane said of the compromise reached, “I have real concern that you’ll never hammer out an agreement with all of the towns.”

(Oct. 9): The attorney’s description for current Fire Apparatus bonding rates: “They Suck.”

Brad Pinsky, attorney for Enfield’s newly-former Fire District, cautioned its Board of Commissioners Monday that should the District bond two unpaid fire trucks, as the Commissioners recommend, the bonding rates for those two vehicles could be at five per cent or more. “It depends upon the term” of the bond, Pinsky advised.

Compare that with traditional financing the current owner, the Enfield Volunteer Fire Company (EVFC), already has negotiated. EVFC President Dennis Hubbell told Commissioners Monday that current rates on both units are “under four per cent right now.”

However, the Fire Company’s loans are for shorter duration. And with a $825,000 pumper just added to the fleet, looming higher debt service could weigh down next year’s fire budget by nearly $185,000. Commissioners would rather spread the payments out and ease the short-term pain.

The Board will ask voters on Halloween to bond the two trucks and incur $1.05 Million in long-term debt. Still, until voters decide, the Fire District can’t finalize its budget.

Racing against the clock and legal deadlines, the Commissioners set October 19^th—more than a week before the referendum—for a budget hearing. Yet if the bonding vote fails, the hearing’s numbers will matter little. They’ll need a reworking. / RL

Mayor Woodard

(Oct. 5): This is how good ideas take root.

In a monthly municipal Zoom roundtable Thursday, Cayuga Heights Mayor Linda Woodard noted the ongoing renegotiation of a Memo of Understanding (MOU) between the City of Ithaca and Cornell under which the university contributes voluntarily to the City in lieu of paying taxes.

Is there any similar negotiation between Tompkins County and Cornell, Woodard asked? A Deputy County Administrator responded there wasn’t.

“Why not?” Woodard shot back. “There is so much exempt property in Tompkins County.”

Dryden Councilperson Dan Lamb intervened, recalling that the MOU was born three decades ago when Ithaca found leverage over Cornell by threatening to withhold building permits. “You, Tompkins County, don’t have that ability,” Lamb pointed out.

Cornell has negotiated increasing its annual payment to the City from $1.6 Million to $4 Million. The offer’s drawn fire as being too stingy.

But Tompkins County provides services, too. And face it, Cornell is a business. And businesses should pay property tax. Yet so far, no one in County Government dares poke the Big Red Bear. From a distance, Mayor Woodard Thursday took the first poke.

“I’m glad to hear, Linda, you’re quietly stirring the pot,” another municipal official remarked. / RL

Klein: “The contract has been signed.”

(Oct. 3): It’s a disclosure that leaves many questions unanswered; most particularly, whether someone’s put cart before horse.

But Dan Klein, Vice-Chair of the Tompkins County Legislature, Tuesday confirmed that County Government and Cayuga Medical Center have now signed the contract the will bring $1.5 Million in Community Recovery Funds to CMC to build what’s supposed to be a “Crisis Stabilization Center” at the Shops at Ithaca Mall.

Klein confirmed the signing during his otherwise-routine report to the Legislature. But he would not say whether CMC has made specific progress since the hospital’s CEO told Klein’s committee September 18th that New York State had twice rejected proposals CMC had made for the Stabilization Center. The CEO then said that the only thing regulators would consider was a psychiatric emergency room, something much different.

Pressed by another legislator Tuesday on whether a contract signing green-lights what CMC had first proposed, Klein stayed guarded.

“The contract has been signed, meaning they’ve met all our requirements and all the contracting requirements,” Klein answered.

Legislator Rich John reported that at a meeting of a different committee just last week, two hospital officials had said “they’re in the process of dealing with New York State, and they think they’re getting through this thing.”

Yet the Recovery Fund set strict rules. It only funds what applicants explicitly ask for. And too much deviation by CMC could forfeit the fund’s largest grant for someone else to snatch.

“It sounds like they don’t know exactly what they’re doing yet,” Klein conceded regarding CMC’s saga. “They certainly haven’t told us. But they’re progressing,” he said.

EMS Director Mike Stitley

(Oct. 3): In their first public disclosure, five separate cost-sharing options for a new, Countywide Rapid Medical Response system were presented the Tompkins County Legislature Tuesday. Most plans would have rural towns share up to half the expense for positioning three “Flycar” units around Tompkins County for daytime-only rescue services.

Four of the options, detailed by County Department of Emergency Response staff, would cost Enfield between about $19,000 and $58,000 annually. (Newfield would be assessed similarly.) In only the fifth of those options would Tompkins County shoulder 100% of the cost.

Potential local expense, then unknown, prompted the Rapid Response model to face withering attack at a public hearing in Newfield September 28^th. Critics then questioned whether they’d need to pay more local money than they’d receive in benefits.

Several County legislators made clear Tuesday they’d support requesting local towns to share the cost.

[Read expanded coverage of this story, now posted.]

Sup’r. Redmond (file photo)

(Oct. 2): The Town of Enfield would ask residents to fork over 11.4% more in property taxes under a Tentative Budget Supervisor Stephanie Redmond released to her Town Board Monday night.

In a brief meeting called to comply with a state-mandated fiscal timetable, Redmond unveiled her proposed $2.33 Million Tentative Budget for 2024. It would raise Town General and Highway appropriations by a combined 9.3 per cent and pull in just over $200,000 in added revenues from property owners.

There were “increases across the board in everything,” Redmond told Board members, stating that no one item caused the budget to grow by so much. Whereas last year, the Town Board granted 12 per cent pay increases to the Highway Superintendent and his staff, this year Redmond confined those raises to just four per cent. Other employees, including the Board and the Supervisor, would see three per cent pay hikes.

To prevent an even higher tax hit, the Tentative Budget draws $60,000 from fund balances, money raised in part from building permit fees charged the Norbut Solar Farm. Drivers of higher spending include a larger Highway Department equipment line, steeper health insurance premiums, and a variety of professional fees.

Redmond’s release marked the first step in a three-stage budget process. The Enfield Town Board reserved any deeper dive into the numbers until October 11. / RL

Joe Milliman Zooming in

(Sept. 29): Tompkins County Emergency Services Coordinator Joe Milliman had a very tough sell Thursday as he promoted at a Public Hearing in Newfield County Government’s proposed three-unit “Flycar” system to speed emergency response.

Every comment was critical during the 40-minute hearing and the 20-minute Town Board discussion thereafter. And what drives much of the new-found resistance is the revelation that County Government will ask local towns to pick up an unspecified share of the cost.

“I’m not opposed to the idea, but if we were voting on something tonight, I’d vote no,” Newfield Councilperson Christine Seamon said emphatically.

“This is a duplication of services,” said one commenter, a person likely connected with the Newfield Fire Company. “We already have a vehicle. We already have supplies. What we don’t have is salaries,” Milliman was told.

The coordinator could not say what individual municipalities would be charged, another sign of a very botched rollout. In fact, to some, it may have smelled like a New York-style unfunded mandate.

Tompkins County’s Draft Shared Services Plan required Milliman’s presentation. The plan proceeds to the County Legislature October 3 for another hearing.

“It’s awful hard to move forward without a clue as to what this is going to cost,” Newfield Supervisor Michael Allinger observed. “You haven’t sold me,” another Town Board member said.

[A full story on the Newfield hearing is now posted.]

(Sept. 29): Newfield prides itself in seldom, if ever, exceeding New York’s tax cap with its budget. This coming year, however, could be the exception.

“This is not going to be an easy year,” Town Bookkeeper Blixy Taetzsch warned Town Board members Thursday as she handed them a Tentative Budget that as it stands now would raise the tax levy by over six per cent.

The unforgiving New York State tax cap—effectively toothless, but psychologically overpowering—pegs inflation at only two per cent, whereas real inflation this year is “closer to seven percent,” Taetzsch said. A “growth factor” adjusts Newfield’s cap upward to 2.6 per cent, yet still four percentage points below where Town costs are expected to go.

“There might be some areas where we could look to trimming back,” the bookkeeper suggested.

The Newfield Town Board did not dwell on the budget Thursday. Nor did it immediately make the document public. That’s because some personnel line items remain subject to labor negotiations. The Board will address those issues in closed session during the first week in October.

(Sept. 27): It’s a stunning surprise, since I never recall the date mentioned at the Monday meeting: The Enfield Board of Fire Commissioners Wednesday moved up to October 31 the referendum date for a pair of Resolutions that would authorize purchase from the Enfield Fire Company, and the subsequent bonding, of two fire trucks. The bonding total hits $1.05 Million.

A Resolution adopted by the Fire Commissioners September 25^th only authorized proceeding with bonding. It never set a date, leading any observer to believe that the resolutions would face voters December 12^th, the date when the Commissioners, themselves, will be elected.

Exactly who authorized this transparently “Snap Election”—and under what authority—remains unclear at this writing.

“It was my impression at the meeting that the two votes were to be held concurrently; for the Commissioners and for bonding,” I wrote the Commissioners and Town Clerk this date. “Their dates cannot be changed on someone’s whim. I know you commissioners had no legal guidance that night. But specificity is demanded in things like this.”

“Enfield voters will not react well to this.” I cautioned. .“I know I don’t. The time is too short. They feel something’s being pulled over on them. On Halloween, at that.” / RL

(Posted Sept. 26; Revised Oct. 1): Consuming most of its nearly three-hour meeting Monday, the newly-established Enfield Board of Fire Commissioners handed up a tentative $389,736 Budget for 2024 (a number slightly higher than stated in an earlier report). Compared with the 2023 Budget, the plan would only raise spending 3.2 per cent.

But that spending total comes with a big caveat. Commissioners also Monday unanimously endorsed holding a referendum on bonding more than $1,000,000 in unpaid fire apparatus, including, most notably, that newly-bought $825,000 pumper engine. Without bonding, Commissioners said, financing costs on the new truck could add $112,000 to next year’s budget. Bonding would spread the truck’s 7-year loan payments out to as long as 20 years.

“I don’t see a way to get from here to there without bonding,” Commissioners’ Chair Jim Mathews told the Board. Otherwise, he said, the only options are “defaulting on truck payments, some kind of bridging loan, or raising taxes, or all three.” Mathews found none of those choices “palatable.”

The public gets no vote on the Fire Budget, but it would vote on the bonding. Commissioners must finalize their spending plan by November 4.

(Expect more to be written on this story.)

(Sept. 23): Enfield celebrated community Saturday.

Even though low clouds and occasional light drizzle prevented the (surprise) return of the legendary ping-pong ball drop, the Enfield Harvest Festival, an annual community celebration, brought us together for four hours of fun, food, and reconnecting this weekend.

I may have seen you in the serving line for the chicken barbecue. We served perhaps 200 dinners. There were the vendors’ tables (both inside and under the tent), music, fire truck displays, and all types of fall-type fun.

Thanks to Cortney, Vera, Colleen, Debbie, and all those of the Enfield Community Council who made this happen. (And thanks, too, to the EVFC for lending us their barbecue pit.)

See you again soon. / RL

(Sept. 22): Tuesday night, the Tompkins County Legislature, congratulating itself, split over $722,000 in Opioid Settlement money among eight community organizations. Some of them, such as Finger Lakes ReUse ($115,375) and the Ithaca United Soccer Club ($7,000) are, at best, only peripherally connected to addiction recovery.

While he voted for the distributions, Lansing legislator Mike Sigler had wished for more:

“I don’t want people to think that I’m against any of these organizations,” Sigler said. But “I look at all the folks getting money, and none of it goes toward actual treatment.”

Sigler continued: “The basic premise was that these opioid companies lured people into just take opioids, and then they got addicted. And it would just seem to me that if that’s what the settlement was about, shouldn’t the settlement money go toward getting people off of opioids? Shouldn’t it go to actual treatment?”

The Lansing Republican said he knows people who’ve faced addiction. “I’ve taken somebody to a 30-day detox, and it’s $10 Grand cash just to walk in the door.” If the settlement money had been spent on treatment, Sigler maintained, 72 people could have received treatment.

Sigler’s right, of course. And he took the moment to make another point: “We have a Detox Center (here) that’s struggling to open because, frankly, they’re not paying nurses enough money to work there.”

Sigler challenged the County Legislature “to get that detox up and running so that we have some place to take people.” / RL

EVFC Charter Member Howard Stamp, flanked by Sen. Webb and local leaders Saturday.

(Sept. 10): The Enfield Volunteer Fire Company (EVFC) celebrated its 75^th Anniversary Saturday with a three-hour gala event and open house at their fire station in Enfield Center. Tompkins County Legislators Anne Koreman and Randy Brown attended, as did Enfield Supervisor Stephanie Redmond and most members of the Town Board, including myself.

Keynote speaker, State Senator Lea Webb, commended EVFC volunteers for their dedication and for their “spirit of public service.”

“You just don’t do it by yourself,” Webb remarked. “You do it with family.” And she commended the family members of volunteers who encourage their effort.

The EVFC accorded special recognition to 99-year old Howard Stamp, the last known surviving charter member of the Fire Company, founded in 1948. Stamp now lives in Ithaca. The fire house he helped build lives on as our Town Board’s meeting hall and houses the Enfield Food Pantry in the truck bays where fire engines used to park. / RL

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.

Since January 2020, I’m proud to have been the Enfield Town Board’s representative on the Tompkins County Council of Governments (TCCOG). At our regular Town Board meetings, I report on TCCOG discussions of intermunicipal interest that TCCOG has addressed in its meetings.

Now added to this website, filed under the the “TCCOG” tab, are the written versions of my monthly reports, presuming TCCOG has met since our Town Board’s last session. Please browse these reports and provide me whatever input you’d like.