News Briefs:
Harvest Festival Parade, Maybe?
(June 27): It’s the longest of long shots. But the Enfield Community Council (ECC) has not given up on hosting a community parade to coincide with its 50th Anniversary Enfield Harvest Festival, Saturday, September 20.
“It’s not that difficult to do; it’s just time-consuming,” ECC President Cortney Bailey advised the agency’s board of directors Thursday. But a parade would be “awesome,” Bailey exclaimed.
There hasn’t been a parade down Enfield Main Road since the Fire Company canceled its annual carnivals decades ago. ”The fire department is on board,” ECC board member Debbie Teeter said of firefighter interest.
The ECC board Thursday extended an open invitation for anyone who’d like to organize a Harvest Festival parade. If no one steps up, it probably won’t happen.
ECC’s June 26th meeting focused on Harvest Festival preparations. Once again, ECC seeks to revive the ping-pong ball drop, a pre-pandemic tradition, but canceled for recent festivals, last year by bad weather.
There’ll be a barbecue, a cider press, perhaps farm animals, but no hay ride.
“The problem is control; misbehaving children and parents,” Bailey said, recalling hay rides in the past. The tractor’s driver complained of kids jumping on and off the wagon without supervision.
###
Newfield Dems Tap Incumbents
(June 26): On the heels of the Republican Primary results Tuesday, Town of Newfield Democrats this week announced their political choices, the result of a June 18th Democratic caucus.
All those nominated were incumbents. Caucus results assure Democrat Michael Allinger another four-year term as Newfield Town Supervisor. Democrats renominated Allinger. No Republican or Independent challengers have entered the Supervisor’s race.
Indeed, the only Newfield contest this November will be a three-way race for two seats on the Town Board. Democrats nominated only one candidate for Councilperson, namely incumbent Joanne James. The party nominated no one for the second position, meaning that Republican incumbent Christine Seamon, top vote-getter in Tuesday’s GOP Primary, could continue on the Board next year as well.
Republicans have also nominated Michael Corbett for Town Board, thereby putting Joanne James’ reelection at risk.
Newfield Democrats cross-endorsed Republican Town Clerk Karen Miller Kenerson and Highway Superintendent Kevin Berggren. Neither faces any opposition.
###
Final COG Engagement Meeting Underwhelms
(June 25): Maybe it was the 92-degree heat. Only four members of the public ventured to Legislative Chambers Tuesday night for the fifth and final Community Engagement session seeking input on Tompkins County’s proposed $50 Million Downtown Center of Government.
Because of the slim turnout, officials, lacking—and at times pleading for—additional comment, closed the scheduled 90-minute discussion after only 52 minutes’ time.
Just two observers spoke, one of them this writer. Both commenters criticized the project.
“The presentation; very polished, very good,” this Enfield Councilperson, Robert Lynch, told assembled legislators, “but there is an underlying premise that this is a done deal… We’ve got to realize there are options still on the table, and I would like to see those options pursued.”
“Is this the best use of like $50 Million?” former Ithaca mayoral candidate and current Common Council aspirant Zach Winn asked. “There’s commercial property all over the place,” Winn observed. What’s more, he added, “There are people who don’t find downtown very inviting.”
With time to kill, the seven attending legislators spent much of it talking among themselves.
Lansing’s Mike Sigler signaled he’d welcome alternative sites, but conceded the majority rules.
“We have a Legislature of 14 people,” Sigler acknowledged. “Whether I agree that it should be downtown or not is not irrelevant, but the votes are that most people want to see this downtown.”
###
Seamon, Corbett win Newfield GOP Nod
(June 24): It was Tompkins County’s only Republican Primary contest Tuesday. And results released June 24—unofficial, yet predictive of the final result—allow Newfield Town Board incumbent Christine Seamon to advance to the November General Election for another four-year term.
Seamon polled the most votes in a three-way race for two seats on the Newfield Board.
Michael Corbett finished second, yet well ahead of third-place finisher Christopher M. Hyer, Jr. and secured the second nomination
Amidst a very light turnout Newfield election, Seamon garnered 49 votes, Corbett 40 votes, and Hyer only 15 votes. There were also a couple of unnamed write-ins.
Seamon and Corbett will face Democratic nominees in November. Newfield Democrats select their candidates by caucus.
A local banker planning soon to retire, Michael Corbett responded to a League of Women Voters questionnaire saying that ”budget and finances” will become a “prime concern,” if he’s elected.
“I think it important for any governmental body to make all decisions, budgetary or other, in the most fair, balanced manner,” Corbett wrote.
###
TCIDA Expansion Bill Dead-Ends
(June 23): Local Home Rule legislation, backed strongly by Tompkins County’s governments and school districts toward expanding the community’s voice in development decisions, must wait until next year to win adoption.
The measure, which would have expanded membership on the Tompkins County Industrial Development Agency (TCIDA) from seven to nine members, failed to reach a floor vote in the New York State Assembly before that lower house adjourned early June 19.
The Enfield Town Board, the Tompkins County Legislature and the Tompkins County Council of Governments had each endorsed the bill. It would have impacted only Tompkins County and was seen as non-controversial.
The Ithaca City School District (ICSD) had initiated the expansion idea. It had hoped that a school district representative added to the TCIDA would allow a more critical voice in tax abatements that some have argued cost the ICSD tax revenue and endangered school programs. The Ithaca Teachers Association’s (ITA’s) voice proved particularly vocal.
Assemblymember Anna Kelles and State Senator Lea Webb had introduced the Home Rule bills in their respective houses. Kelles’ bill got no farther than the Assembly’s Local Governments Committee. Senator Webb’s measure passed the Senate June 13, by a vote of 58-to-one. Only Senator James Skoufis opposed it.
###
Green New Disappointment
(June 23): Empire State environmental activists have little to cheer about as the 2025 New York Legislative Session ends. Several of their signature initiatives stalled this term, mostly in the State Assembly.
Inaction on a couple of bills dealt Assemblymember Anna Kelles a particular setback.
Assembly leadership never put to a floor vote a Kelles-supported bill that would have sought to reduce packaging waste and made packagers pay for the waste they produce. The Tompkins County Legislature in February had endorsed the measure.
Industry lobbying against the waste-reduction bill was fierce. “There were more lobbyists in the hallways … than a session typically would have,” Kelles told The Gothamist, a downstate news source.
“There was the most obscene amount of lobbying,” Manhattan Assemblymember Deborah Glick told its reporter. “Every lobbying firm in this city was on the clock. We had Washington, D.C. lobbyists coming to Albany. That was unlike anything I have seen.”
A second Kelles-backed bill failing to reach a vote would have banned for five years the application of processed sewage sludge onto farm land.
Yet again, industry lobbyists prevailed. The Ithaca Assemblymember cited locally-contracted waste hauler Casella as among those who seek to profit from “biosolid” sales.
“We can protect our land by holding mega corporations accountable, so that they’re not just polluting our land indiscriminately,” Kelles told the reporter.
###
EMS “Essential Service” Bills Pass
(June 20): Locals thought it dead in the political water. Not so.
“New York State is not going to save us,” Dryden Councilperson Dan Lamb—well-connected to Albany politics—advised a Tompkins County legislative committee May 27th of a bill to elevate Emergency Medical Services (EMS) to an “Essential Service.” Lamb had thought the initiative had died during budget negotiations. He was mistaken.
On June 12, by a nearly-unanimous vote, the New York State Senate adopted a bill declaring EMS that “Essential Service.” Four days later, the Assembly concurred. Governor Hochul must still sign the measure.
The bills provide no money. But they do direct each county to, “convene meetings and a planning process with cities, towns, and villages within their jurisdiction for the purpose of developing and maintaining a comprehensive county emergency medical system plan that shall describe how coordinated and reliable emergency medical services within the county would be provided for all residents within the county.”
The bills would demand each county submit a report within six months of signing.
In meeting the requirement, Tompkins County stands ahead of the curve. The County Legislature June 3 commissioned a $48,000 study into EMS coordination. Tompkins’ Department of Emergency Response also has a plan to gap-fill the local ambulance shortage.
Some New York towns oppose heightened EMS status, fearing it could later lead to mandated ambulance services.
###
State-wide Sanctuary Law Stalls
(June 20): It would seem like a slam-dunk for New York’s Democratic legislative super-majorities to pass. But they couldn’t. It never got out of committee.
And although State Senator Webb and Assemblymember Kelles were among its many co-sponsors, the “New York for All Act,” an immigrant rights protection bill, never grabbed local attention.
Now, however, bill sponsors want a special legislative session later this year to revive the measure.
Think of “New York for All” as a sanctuary statute applied statewide.
For starters, it would prohibit state and local law enforcement under most situations—or any state employee, for that matter,—“from questioning individuals regarding their citizenship or immigration status.” The bill would also severely limit cooperation between those officials and federal immigration authorities.
“I’m calling on the New York Legislature to convene in special session,” Brooklyn State Senator Julia Salazar wrote. “It’s never too late to protect New Yorkers,” she said.
“For the next six months, Trump will be escalating attacks on New York without our state government scheduled to pass ANY legislation to respond and protect New Yorkers,” Salazar’s downstate Senate ally Jabari Brisport posted on X.
Activists partly blame New York’s drawn-out budget deliberations for impeding their progress.
Legislative Republicans oppose the bill. “You are breaking the law, and I think local law enforcement should work hand in hand with federal ICE authorities,” Spectrum News quoted Assemblyman Mike Fitzpatrick.
###
No ’25 SkateGarden Concerts
(June 18): Enfield SkateGarden visionary Dan Woodring is gone for the moment—reportedly living out-of-state. And with his departure goes any talk of SkateGarden concerts this year.
At the Town Board’s meeting June 11, Deputy Enfield Supervisor Greg Hutnik confirmed that no concerts are planned this year. SkateGarden promoters had staged weekly musical events from late-summer through Halloween last season to raise money.
But aside from the half-pipe that grant money built last year, along with the mulch-covered garden and stage area surrounding it, the Enfield SkateGarden looks very much like an unfinished construction site… which, frankly, it is.
“Some of the rougher edges were left to get going this spring,” Hutnik explained. But Tompkins County canceled the Parks Grant program. There’s no money to do anything more.
“Now we have to rethink what to do with those rough edges,” Hutnik advised the Board.
Supervisor Stephanie Redmond, and Councilpersons Hinkle and Millspaugh have worked to smooth slopes and remove junk. Four or five trailer loads were taken away, they said. The effort now is to ensure visitor safety and make SkateGarden look respectable.
“We want it to be a happy place,” this Councilperson told colleagues. / RL
###
Walrad New Fire District Secretary
(June 17): “Something had to go, and this was the odd man out,” departing Enfield Fire District Secretary Alexis Beckley explained Tuesday as she disclosed her plans to leave the appointed post she’s held since the Fire District’s inception nearly two years ago.
Wasting no time, the Enfield Board of Fire Commissioners—following a 40-minute Executive Session June 17—appointed Amanda Walrad as Beckley’s successor.
A member of the Enfield Volunteer Fire Company for about two years, Walrad volunteers as a Certified First Responder and plans to take courses soon to become an EMT. Professionally, the appointee works in the Office of Student Life at Ithaca College.
“Thank you for your service,” Fire Commissioner Robyn Wishna said, wishing Beckley all the best.
Alexis holds down two, nearly full-time jobs, including service with Bangs Ambulance. She attends school, and had concluded there’s just too much competing for her time. She also serves the Fire Company as an Assistant Chief.
Walrad’s appointment marks the second Enfield Fire District leadership change in as many months. In mid-April, Cortney Bailey resigned as the district’s Treasurer, leading the board in May to name Jenna Oplinger to succeed her.
The Beckley-to-Walrad transition occurs July 1.
###
Whole Health, Finance Positions Filled
(June 17): The Tompkins County Legislature filled not one, but two top-level administrative positions Tuesday.
First, near meeting’s start, the Legislature confirmed Jennie Sutcliffe to fill the vacancy as Commissioner of Whole Health.
Sutcliffe, a Trumansburg native who’d worked with the City of New York Health Department before moving back locally, will fill the position Frank Kruppa vacated in January to join the local hospital corporation.
Then at meeting’s end, following a nearly hour-long Executive Session, the Legislature elevated Deputy Director of Finance Darrel Tuttle to assume the Finance Director’s post from the retiring Lorrie Scarrott.
“I’m really thrilled to work in my own community again,” an animated Jennie Sutcliffe told the Legislature. “It feels like a real homecoming.”
Among Sutcliffe’s priorities is what she called “meeting the political moment;” playing defense, but also offense in defending threatened programs.
“It feels a little bit silly to think it’s important to be forward-looking right now,” Sutcliffe acknowledged. But if systems are first dismantled, then rebuilt, “we don’t want to be caught flat-footed when that happens,” she said.
Darrel Tuttle’s acceptance was shorter and more low-key. “I look forward to better serving the Legislature, the County, and working with my staff as I go into this new role as Director of Finance,” Tuttle said.
###
ICSD Unfinished Homework
(June 17): Nobody likes Summer School. And that includes Ithaca City School District (ICSD) teachers and the district’s labor negotiators.
Teacher contract talks ended June 12. Negotiators failed to reach agreement. Nor did they declare impasse or suggest a teachers’ strike, an act prohibited under New York law.
Instead, they’ll take the summer off, reconvene September 18th, and begin the 2025-26 year under an expired six-year agreement.
“So I encourage people to speak up to the school board; support your local teachers,” Enfield Councilperson Melissa Millspaugh, an Ithaca teacher herself, urged during the closing seconds of the Town Board’s June 11th meeting, the night before that final negotiating round.
This year, for the first time, the Ithaca district and instructors negotiated in public and live-streamed the talks. Maybe there’s a reason negotiators usually bargain behind closed doors; to encourage candor and avoid grandstanding.
And why take the summer off? Wouldn’t it have been better to huddle privately and reach an agreement before September’s opening bell?
Teachers want salary restructuring; so called “step-and-lane,” which rewards instructors with more experience and educational credits. ICSD administrators reject the idea.
“That has me making the same amount as my co-worker, who’s worked twice as long as me,” Millspaugh informed the Town Board. She called the current pay practice “arbitrary.”/RL
###
ECC Summer Camp Saved
(June 14): This year’s Enfield Community Council summer camp program almost didn’t happen. Now it will.
Xanthe Matychak, hired earlier this year as head of Enfield Teen Programming and Summer Camp Director, suddenly quit, effective the end of May, Community Council President Cortney Bailey disclosed to the Enfield Town Board June 11. The ECC kept Xanthe’s departure quiet, Bailey said, because without a director, summer camp would have died.
To its credit, Enfield holds many unsung heroes. Vera Howe-Strait is one of them. Howe-Strait, a long time former summer camp director (and one-time Town Councilperson) reluctantly pulled herself out of retirement and canceled a planned hiking trip all to return as director this summer and keep camp alive.
“Everybody should just say thank-you to her,” Bailey said in revealing Vera’s decision, “because she did not want to do this, but she also would not let camp end even for one year and put the families that count on us for their good day care to be left up in the No Man’s Land of ‘Oh, my God, what are we doing with our kids this summer?’”
Cornell Cooperative Extension manages ECC Summer Camp now. Extension did not disclose why Matychak left unexpectedly. But Bailey said the new hire had appeared “pretty panicked” with the prospect of running the summer program.
###
Halseyville Head-Scratcher
(June 11): Maybe your GPS has better sense than the New York State Department of Transportation. We’re about to find out.
For months—perhaps years—drivers have found that their onboard navigation devices set the speed limit on Halseyville Road, in both Enfield and Ulysses, at 45 Miles per Hour. Yet there’s no 45 MPH sign posted anywhere, all the way from Route 96 south of Trumansburg to the Dandy Mart at Miller’s Corners. So the enforced speed limit remains the state’s standard, 55.
The Enfield Town Board will ask NYDOT to conform itself to Google. By a unanimous vote Wednesday, the Town Board requested a formal state traffic study aimed at lowering Halseyville’s speed limit to 45. Board members said safety dictates a lower limit.
Councilperson Cassandra Hinkle has seen kids crossing Halseyville to and from the school bus. “I hope to God they don’t get hit,” Hinkle said.
A few years ago, the Enfield Board attempted a similar speed reduction on Hayts Road. DOT staffers rejected the request.
As more of a reach, the Town Board also Wednesday requested a speed-reduction study on Tucker Road, where the Breezy Meadows subdivision is taking shape. Tucker is gravel, and traffic engineers have said they don’t cut speeds on unpaved roads.
###
ICSD May Ban Foreign Trips
(June 10): Ithaca High School students travel to exotic places like Morocco on school-sponsored trips. But the Ithaca City School District (ICSD) may soon suspend those learning ventures, in part, because of the Trump Administration’s multi-nation travel ban.
“Legal counsel has some concerns about ICSD sanctioning travel,” President Sean Eversley Bradwell informed the Ithaca Board of Education Tuesday. He said lawyers raised reservations even before Trump clamped a lid on certain foreign entry.
The board president reported that students in some other districts have found “extreme difficulty” returning to the U.S. once they leave.
The Ithaca Board of Education took no votes, and discussed the matter for no more than a few minutes June 10th. But members welcomed Eversley Bradwell’s suggestion to “ask legal counsel to come and talk with us.”
“It’s so enriching being able to travel,” Board member Erin Croyle remarked. “I won’t want to take that away based on fear.” Yet Croyle warned of “profiling at the border” and described federal policy has having put the district on a “roller-coaster.”
“The times change so rapidly, it’s difficult to make a decision now,” Croyle lamented.
ICSD foreign trips are planned for summer, so decisions must come soon.
“There’s always risk involved,” Eversley Bradwell conceded. So it comes down to risk management. “And the best way to manage risk is to have no risk,” he said.
###
Delgado Challenges Gov. Hochul
(June 9): Gaining zero attention inside the Ithaca “media bubble” for a full week, New York Lieutenant Governor Antonio Delgado announced June 2nd that he’ll challenge his current boss, Governor Kathy Hochul, for her reelection.
Delgado’s decision sets the stage for a June 2026 Democratic primary, as Hochul is expected to seek a second, four-year term.
“People are hurting and New York deserves better leadership,” Delgado told the New York Times in an interview, published the day of his announcement. “There’s an absence of bold, decisive, transformational leadership,” he told the paper.
Given the challenger’s stands on such issues as housing and health care, expect Delgado to run a campaign to the left of Hochul.
Born in and raised in Schenectady, the attorney and one-time hip-hop artist represented the Hudson Valley in Congress before Hochul tapped him to become Lt. Governor in 2022.
Delgado has set up a campaign website. Platform planks support expanded access to universal child care, widening the “public option” for health care, but stop short of advocating a New York “single-payer” system.
“He remains deeply committed to building a New York that works for everyone—no matter who you are, where you’re from, or how much money you make,” Antonio Delgado’s website boldly proclaims.
Let the contest begin.
###
Tompkins Backs EMS Study
(June 5): It’s just a study, not a solution. But the Tompkins County Legislature June 3 agreed to retain a Rochester-based consultant to examine Emergency Medical Service (EMS) challenges within the county and recommend solutions.
Tompkins County will pay the Center for Governmental Research $48,000 from its contingency fund and expects to have a report on legislators’ desks by August or September.
Action followed a legislative committee’s wide-ranging review of EMS services May 27. It included a proposal to upgrade Tompkins County’s Rapid Medical Response service to provide limited ambulance coverage.
But funding any heightened County involvement remains uncertain.
“We may not want to do anything here this budget cycle,” Public Safety Committee Chair Rich John warned. “It’s a big commitment… Even if we don’t do it this year, we’re going to probably have to face this in the coming years.”
“As hard as it is to hear, there are people that are not getting timely services within our community,” legislator Greg Mezey asserted. He recounted the story of a colleague who’d suffered a heart attack and waited up to 30 minutes or longer.
“Those minutes seem like hours,” Mezey said. “We have police officers. We have fire. But EMS is kind of like, well maybe you get there and maybe you don’t.”
###
ICSD Eyes Consolidation
(June 5): It’s a story that’s flown under the radar since winter.
Now, the Ithaca City School District, according to a story in The Ithaca Times, has contracted with Cornell University to study school enrollment trends and propose solutions which could include elementary school consolidations.
The study’s outcome could put Enfield elementary School at particular risk. Of all elementary schools in the Ithaca system, Enfield has the lowest enrollment, just 162 students, according to the article.
“Could enrollment be shifted around?” Ithaca school board member Garrick Blalock asked at a January 14th meeting. “How could we get there?”
Blalock claimed that building enrollments of 450-500 pupils are “optimal.” We’re told the average Ithaca elementary school has about 300 students.
To date, no one has openly discussed closing Enfield Elementary. Given that the building recently benefited from a new roof, better insulation, and a geothermal heating system, closure would make little sense. Yet, how much economic logic dictates academic decisions remains an open question.
The Times says the Cornell report is due by “around November” and would be non-binding on decision-makers.
###
Funding Committed for Center of Government
(June 4): Taking its furthest step so far toward building a Downtown Ithaca Center of Government, the Tompkins County Legislature late Tuesday endorsed a Resolution committing itself to fund the project, one whose projected cost has risen to $50 Million just in recent days.
Legislative approval of the commitment, recommended earlier that day by an oversight committee chaired by Newfield-Enfield legislator Randy Brown, followed intense prodding by Tompkins County’s recently-hired Administrator, Korsah Akumfi.
“There needs to be a commitment,” Akumfi told the committee at its meeting. “There is a need for that commitment to be made right now so that we can continue with the project process and not look back.”
Although Akumfi believed the legislative votes fall short of actually pledging money, others think differently.
“If you vote for this tonight, you are committing to spending money at some time down the road,” Deputy County Administrator Norma Jayne cautioned the Legislature.
The Center of Government funding commitment passed the full Legislature by a vote of nine-to-four. All three Republican lawmakers—including Brown—joined by Ithaca Democrat Travis Brooks opposed it.
Current schedules calls for a groundbreaking early in 2027, with building completion by the end of 2028. Renovations elsewhere would follow.
###
Center of Government now $50 Million
(June 2): A resolution set for action Tuesday by the legislative committee overseeing plans for a Tompkins County Center of Government acknowledges inflation’s reality: The downtown office building’s projected cost has risen to $50 Million.
“Resolved… that the Tompkins County Legislature approves funding of up to $50 million for the development of the Center of Government (COG) project to be located on the 300 block of North Tioga Street,” a resolution affirming the Legislature’s “Approval of Funding” for the project states.
The resolution faces a vote by the Downtown Facilities Special Committee June 3, with a decision of the full Legislature likely to follow later this month.
The project’s $50 Million newly-estimated cost represents a 25 percent increase over projections made in recent years of $40 Million. When first discussed publicly in 2019, administrators projected a cost of $19-22 Million.
The committee’s latest resolution follows prodding one month ago from the current County Administrator, Korsah Akumfi, for “clarity of direction of where we are going with the project.” Akumfi, on board since only January, has sensed legislative indecision short of a firm commitment.
“The construction of a new COG has been determined to best fulfill Tompkins County’s goals of addressing departmental space needs, improving operational efficiency, promoting staff equity, centralizing services for the public, eliminating reliance on leased space, and supporting long-term sustainability objectives,” the committee’s resolution states.
###
Sorry, No Absentee Fire Voting
(June 4): Deciding by not deciding, the Enfield Board of Fire Commissioners Tuesday effectively nixed any prospects for the casting of absentee ballots in this year’s annual Fire District election.
“It’s a real pain and an administrative burden,” Board Chair Greg Stevenson advised commissioners. There are “a ton of requirements and quirks; an administrative burden for our little district,” he said.
The chairman reported that “a couple of town residents”—presumably snowbirds, gone for the winter—had requested absentee voting for this December’s election, one in which choice of a new member for the five-person commission would likely be the only matter decided.
The Enfield District’s legal counsel, Mark Butler, had recommended against absentee voting. Butler said the state law that governs it stands overly-complex.
“The potential for voter confusion and errors in the process does not, in our professional evaluation, justify the use of absentee ballots,” Butler wrote the Fire District in a memo.
The attorney knew of only one other district that had attempted absentee voting, but he believed they later abandoned the practice.
###
Quotas in the Cowbarn?
(June 1): What first caught the attention was Congressman Josh Riley’s Saturday night post on Facebook: “This is some of the dumbest s**t I’ve ever heard.” (He used the word.)
What rose our congressman’s ire May 24 was a bill filed in the State Legislature by two New York City lawmakers. It would restrict new or enlarged dairy farms to 700 cows.
Senator Jabari Brisport’s and Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal’s bill, filed in mid-March, but with little initial attention, would restrict the permitting process for farms that seek to become Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO’s). Farmers currently need a CAFO permit for a dairy exceeding 300 cows, but herds over 700 require a “large-scale” permit.
Brisport and Rosenthal would ban issuance of any new large-scale permits.
Senator Brisport’s opinion: “These factory farms wreak havoc on the environment,” he told one publication. Brisport said such farms negatively impact “marginalized communities, especially with the runoff, fumes, and the way they affect local waterways.”
Republicans have a different take: “The whiff of manure from Albany Democrats is stronger than usual this week,” state GOP spokesman David Laska stated.
“This is unrealistic legislation from people with no working knowledge of a dairy farm,” Norwich Assemblyman Joe Angelino wrote on his own Facebook post. “I’m sick of NYC running roughshod over upstate.”
The respective house bills remain in committee. Neither of Tompkins County’s state legislators has become its co-sponsor.
###