News Briefs:
Results Final: Rosie Concedes
(Nov. 25): Final, official results of this fall’s tightly-contested Enfield Town Board races, released Tuesday by the Tompkins County Board of Elections, brought no surprises. As an earlier, unofficial tally had indicated, incumbent Democrat Cassandra Hinkle beat Independent Rosie Carpenter by just 19 votes.
The second incumbent, Democrat Jude Lemke, got even more votes than did Hinkle. Lemke and Hinkle will advance to new, three-year terms.
“Congratulations again to all our candidates, especially to Councilpersons Cassandra Hinkle and Jude Lemke,” Enfield Democrats lauded the winners on a party-promoted Listserv November 24.
The closeness of the Hinkle-Carpenter contest prompted a hand recount. It confirmed the earlier tally. Upon the recount’s completion, Carpenter issued a brief statement on social media, conceding defeat.
On Carpenter’s Facebook page, supporters showered the political novice with accolades. As many as 27 people had weighed in within the first day. Some were surprised, others disillusioned. Many encouraged a future run.
“Rosie is not a quitter!!!!! You go girl!!!!!!” one retired Enfield public servant, whose name you’d recognize, proclaimed.
Here’s what this Councilperson, Robert Lynch, wrote:
“You fought the good fight. In many ways, you woke Enfield up. I will serve collegially beside those who won. But I will never regret that I voted for and campaigned for both you and Robert Tuskey [the second Independent candidate]. Please continue to attend our meetings and offer your input. Enfield needs to hear your point of view. All the best in the years (and the campaigns) ahead.” / RL
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Cemeteries – Round Two
(Nov. 23): For the second straight weekend, volunteer efforts have cleaned debris from Enfield’s cemeteries and saved our town money.
Saturday, working diligently, I picked up and trucked away the last fallen branches from Enfield Main Road‘s Christian Cemetery. The heaviest work was performed the weekend before by a trio of volunteers; me and two Enfield helpers who prefer anonymity. Ryan’s Landscape on Enfield Center Road lent some of the muscle and equipment.
Brush piles removed included two on the cemetery’s edges (one pile’s before photo shown above; after photo below).
A tree surgeon had quoted $200 for this work. Consider it taxpayer money saved.
A hanging limb too high to reach and a declining maple at the border still need removal. So expect more clean-up later.
I performed only a small share of this latest work. Thank those who labored with me but seek no credit. They keep us a community. /RL
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Teeter, Gingerich vie for Fire Board
(Nov. 22): A former member of the Enfield Board of Fire Commissioners will face its current incumbent in the upcoming December 9 election for a five-year seat on the Enfield Fire District’s governing body.
Fire District officials confirmed Friday that incumbent Alan Teeter and challenger Marcus Gingerich were the only candidates to express interest in the election by the November 19 deadline.
Teeter has held the Commissioner’s position for the past two years. Gingerich was initially appointed Commissioner to the five-person board when the Enfield Town Board organized the Fire District in July 2023. In that December’s subsequent election, Gingerich came in ninth in a ten-way race for all board seats.
Fire Commissioners serve staggered terms, and only Teeter’s position comes up this year.
Teeter is a member and former officer of the Enfield Volunteer Fire Company, the nonprofit corporation the commissioners oversee. Gingerich holds no known fire service experience.
Recent Enfield Fire District elections have tended to pit fire service insiders against those with a more detached perspective. Last year, outsider Donald Gunning won the election.
Enfield residents will vote from 3-9 PM this December 9 at the Enfield Fire Station. No provision was made for absentee voting.
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More Flack Over Flock
(Nov. 21): To some, an October 7 vote by the Tompkins County Legislature to accept another year of Flock Surveillance grant funding settled nothing.
As many as six public speakers—a near majority of commenters—addressed the Legislature’s November 18 session and urged lawmakers to reconsider and reject acceptance of the over $195,000 that’s placed and maintains Flock license plate readers around Tompkins County.
“Every time I leave my neighborhood on West Hill, my car is photographed by a Flock camera,” Naomi Grassick complained. “I see this system as a violation of my Fourth Amendment right and a system that is meant to strengthen the power of a surveillance state that we’re living in under the guise of so-called security,” she said.
“I don’t trust the Ithaca Police Department or the Tompkins County Sheriff’s Department with this data,” Brian Cardin declared. “I wouldn’t trust myself with it. You shouldn’t trust me with it,” Cardin stated.
“Turn off the Flock cameras as soon as possible and stop adding more,” Cardin urged.
“These cameras treat everyone in the county as if they might be suspected of a crime,” Ann Johnson observed. “Is that what we want to spend this public money on?”
Flock’s critics gained little ground that Tuesday night. The matter wasn’t on the Legislature’s agenda. Most commenters left before the scheduled business began.
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Take that, Ithaca Journal
(Nov. 19): Consider it a protest vote. Those we elect will likely need to bow to legal pressure eventually.
But in a bold act of defiance, the Tompkins County Legislature voted November 18 against designating The Ithaca Journal as its official daily newspaper, despite the fact that state law classifies the Gannett daily as the only outlet that qualifies for publishing legal notices.
“I think sometimes as a lower level of government, we need to rise up and use our voice and our platform to encourage the state to move more swiftly,” legislator Greg Mezey stated as he led the charge Tuesday against bowing to Albany’s antiquated mandate that states that only home-based daily print publications qualify for legal notices, not online platforms or weekly papers.
Legislative critics cited the newspaper’s dwindling subscriber base and its increased cost. But more important perhaps, they complain that the Journal no longer covers local news.
Past efforts by Tompkins County to modernize state law have fallen flat, purportedly because of newspaper industry lobbying.
Legislators rejected the Journal’s designation twelve votes to two.
Protests aside, the Legislature’s clerk cautioned she’ll need to designate a paper by December 31. So expect the matter to return to lawmakers in two weeks, likely with a strong letter for statutory change to accompany it.
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New Numbers; Same Ranks
(Nov. 18): Incumbents Jude Lemke and Cassandra Hinkle each appear headed for new terms on the Enfield Town Board, according to updated tallies released Tuesday by the Tompkins County Board of Elections.
The revisions, which presumably account for late-arriving absentee ballots postmarked by Election Day, widened Hinkle’s lead slightly over challenger Rosie Carpenter, though the Hinkle-Carpenter contest remained tight.
On election night, Carpenter trailed Hinkle by just 15 votes. The November 18 updated, widened Hinkle’s lead to 19.
The Tuesday tally kept incumbent Lemke in the lead for the two Councilperson seats with 436 votes. Hinkle retained the second spot with 418 votes. Carpenter received 399 votes; fourth-place finisher Robert Tuskey got 348.
All other Town of Enfield offices this election cycle went uncontested.
The latest results remain unofficial. The Board of Elections has until November 29 to certify the results.
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Fire Board keeps officer limits
(Nov. 18)): The Enfield Board of Fire Commissioners declined Tuesday to alter longevity and experience requirements tightened last year, rules that some say overly restrict whom the Enfield Volunteer Fire Company’s members can elect to lead them.
Commissioners huddled in private for more than a half-hour November 18, but emerged announcing they’d make no change in officer qualifications.
During the session’s public portion, Fire Company President Dennis Hubbell questioned the wisdom of the officer requirements, Hubbell suggesting rules too strict harm team spirit.
“It would help the morale of the Fire Company if the choice was up to them what they want (leadership) to be,” Hubbell said.
Commissioners’ Chair Greg Stevenson defended the requirements, countering, “Only recently we were told it was a best practice so the persons we accept as officers are best-qualified,”
As the board met, a white board to the side listed candidates in the upcoming Fire Company elections. There’d be competition for officers, including Fire Chief. But to that list, Stevenson warned the rules may disqualify some of those running.
Still, Hubbell would have Company volunteers base promotions on “individual resumes,” not arbitrary criteria.
The policy is what it is, Stevenson cautioned. And elections must follow it.
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One Cemetery at a Time
(Nov. 14): Partly because of that mid-July storm, and partly from just the toll of time, Enfield’s cemeteries need attention.
This fall, Highway Superintendent Barry Rollins identified dead trees, dying trees, and low-hanging foliage at Christian, Budd, and Rolfe Cemeteries. One tree surgeon quoted over $4,300 to do the work.
The Enfield Town Board addressed the matter November 12. And in the meeting’s only “sharp-elbow” moment, I said there’s no need to pay contractors to pick up brush when volunteers can—and should—do it instead. I volunteered.
Today, acting alone, I addressed Rolfe Cemetery, the easiest of the three. The sagging spruces are pruned; a broken stump sawed off. As soon as I haul away the limbs, that’s a $250 savings in what the tree surgeon would have charged.
Mind you, some work will require experts. And the Town Board authorized up to $3,000 to handle the big stuff. What I did was the little stuff. And I’ll do more.
It’s not that I did anything special. It’s not that I want any praise. It’s just that I did what I thought was right. Everyone should. / RL
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Buffalo will stay two-way
(Nov. 12): With great fanfare, Governor Hochul announced this month a $27.4 million planned rehabilitation of Route 13 through Ithaca, principally along Meadow and Fulton Streets and the connectors in-between, including West Buffalo.
Hochul’s news release talked of re-pavement, signal replacements and lane reconfigurations.
But it took a call to Department of Transportation offices to answer a vexing question left unresolved: Would the rebuild also restrict West Buffalo to one-way traffic eastbound between Fulton and Meadow, as NYDOT had advanced in the “West End Couplet” idea it floated when the improvements were discussed a full five years ago?
No it won’t. “The State Route 13/34/96 Ithaca Project will not change West Buffalo St. or West Court St. to a one-way operation,” TeNesha Murphy, the Syracuse Region’s Public Information Officer assured in an email November 5. “Both streets will remain two-way.”
For those of us who live on West Hill and commute to Ithaca, that’s welcome news. A one-block, one-way Buffalo Street might ease morning rush hour a bit, but it would snarl the drive home, especially should drivers need to jog over to Court Street to reconnect—after a fashion—with West Buffalo.
Also not part of the current rebuild, Murphy said, is the City of Ithaca’s vision to transform Route 13 from “Purity Point” to Ithaca High School into a “multi-modal walkable thoroughfare.” That downgrade might only come later.
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EFD Treasurer Opening… Again
(Nov. 10): For the second time in seven months, the Enfield Fire District must find a new Treasurer.
Board of Fire Commissioners Chair Greg Stevenson announced Monday that Jenna Oplinger, chosen last May to succeed Cortney Bailey in the Treasurer’s post, has opted not to serve beyond year’s end. Stevenson said the decision was simply Oplinger’s choice.
With that announcement, the Board Chair opened the search for the departing Treasurer’s successor. The appointed position currently pays $5,000 annually, but Fire Commissioners this year budgeted $7,500 for next year’s salary should they later decide to increase the office’s pay.
Stevenson has asked interested applicants, Enfield residents, to submit a letter of interest or inquire about the position at the Chairman’s email address, Stevenson.ebofc@gmail.com.
A list of job duties is posted on the Town of Enfield’s website. Applicants should briefly explain prior experience or qualifications. Commissioners have set a December 1 deadline for applications.
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Pay-to-Play at Stewart Park… Almost
(Nov. 8): The City of Ithaca feels near broke. Without a Controller and with officials conveniently blaming a newly-found $2.1 Million budget shortfall on a computer error, Common Council met November 5 to close the gap. Alderperson Pierre St. Perez briefed the Tompkins County Legislature the next night.
Questioned by legislator Shawna Black, St. Perez acknowledged that Council did consider—but then rejected—a proposal to charge visitors to Stewart Park an hourly rate, presumably to park there.
“I’m glad it did not pass,” Black told St. Perez. “I feel like our parks are a treasure for all of us, and it would be a shame to make that an issue where people couldn’t afford to go to the park.”
“I agree,” the Alderperson replied. “However, the cost of maintaining Stewart Park continues to skyrocket and be borne by the City,” he warned.
“A resolution on how we’re going to fund Stewart Park, and that might need to involve non-City actors, will probably have to be reached in the next couple of years,” St. Perez acknowledged. The park is “not sustainable in its current form.”
Those “non-City actors” could, of course, include Tompkins County, which presently doesn’t operate a single park.
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Hutnik to leave; Walker would stay
(Nov. 6): When the Enfield Town Board reorganizes in January—with likely all the same Board members at the table—one person in the management team will need to be new; namely the appointed Deputy Supervisor.
Greg Hutnik, appointed by Town Supervisor Stephanie Redmond as her deputy a couple years ago, confirmed to the Town Planning Board November 5 that he’ll be moving out of Enfield either in December or shortly after the New Year begins.
The move forecloses Hutnik’s annual reappointment as a Planning Board alternate member. But it would also prevent his continuing as Deputy Town Supervisor.
Both appointments require local residency.
“I really like working with the Board,” Hutnik told planners.
Planning Board Chair Dan Walker’s five-year appointment also expires at year’s end. Some had speculated Walker would then retire from the position. Wednesday night, Walker signaled differently.
“My own feeling is that I would be willing to serve if the Town Board wants it to be,” Walker said mid-way through Wednesday’s otherwise routine meeting.
“I think we ought to keep Dan,” Planning Board colleague Mike Carpenter remarked.
The Enfield Town Board would likely choose the Planning Board designee in December. Walker’s reappointment stands likely.
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