Taking a Stand

The sub-headings under this tab provide statements I’ve made, both during the 2019 campaign, and now, during the months beyond, to advance the interests of our Town, putting onto paper and verbalizing in public, the viewpoints of many I’ve met on the 2019 Campaign Trail.

Agree or disagree? I welcome your feedback. Because an elected official governs best, governs most fairly and responsibly, when he or she has the people at his or her back.

This tab is an ever-changing work-in-progress. Time will chronicle additional perspectives. I’d call it Enfield’s Soapbox for Old-Fashioned Representative Democracy.

Please, revisit often.

Bob

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:

Dec. 29: Crash Corner; Enfield Board seeks to bring safety to Applegate at 79

Dec. 22: Hochul Moves Local Elections to Even Years

Dec. 21: The “Model 6” Solution; Compromise floated toward flycar funding fairness

Dec. 20: Think big, spend more; ICSD Board picks $125M Capital Option

Dec. 17: Vote now… or vote (and pay) later; ICSD’s Fungible Funding and our Taxpayer Choices

Dec. 13; Updated Dec. 14; Wishna, Rollins top Fire Commissioner picks; Town Board coin toss settles terms

Dec. 11: Maybe a Kinder, Gentler Cost-Share; Flycar municipal pay-in may hold off ‘til ‘25

Dec. 5: Clinging to a thread, Fire Commissioners bind ballot tight for upcoming election

Nov. 30: School Board slides toward better bus garage

Nov. 29: Ten vie for five Commissioner slots

Nov. 26: ICSD eyes new bus barn, likely lots more; Capital cornucopia could enter the nine figures

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

Nov. 17 (expanded, Nov. 23): 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

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.

Klein: “It could cost Tompkins County zero.”

(Apr. 19): The Tompkins County Legislature April 16^th followed through with a committee’s plans that could extend broadband Internet service to more than 1200 households countywide, including some in Enfield.

The unanimous vote authorized a partnership agreement between the County and Point Broadband to fill in the high-speed Internet gaps. It would also commit $100,000 in County funds toward initial engineering studies.

On the county’s eastern side, Dryden’s fledgling municipal service could cover Dryden and Caroline. In Enfield, Point Broadband would likely partner with Haefele Connect, the local cable franchisee.

“Both Ulysses and Enfield did not seem to be cost-effective to have us do the two towns,” Point Broadband’s Charles Bartosch told the Legislature. Contracts have not yet been signed. “We can’t say we will do something unless we strike an actual agreement,” Bartosch said. But “you can be assured that we’re going to try to do it; I expect we will.” If Haefele cannot do it, Point Broadband will.

Building the system, itself, will hinge on state and federal grants. Best case, Legislature Chair Dan Klein said, grants could even cover the seed money. “There is a scenario that’s not a crazy scenario where this whole thing, this $7.5 Million project, will cost Tompkins County zero.”

Atty. Maury Josephson

(Apr. 18): Tompkins County conducted a nationwide search, but its final choice came from close to home.

Maury Josephson, Assistant City Attorney for the City of Ithaca, earned unanimous approval by the Tompkins County Legislature April 16^th to become the new Tompkins County Attorney.

Josephson succeeds Bill Troy, who resigned suddenly last September. Holly Mosher, Troy’s former deputy, has served since then as Acting County Attorney and will continue in that role until Josephson takes over May 28^th.

“I am deeply humbled at the trust and faith that the Legislature is placing in me,” Josephson told lawmakers during his brief, two-minute acceptance, “and I pledge to you to do my utmost to provide advice and counsel that is sound, timely, and most important, useful to the County in accomplishing its objectives.”

Josephson acknowledged that his departure from City Hall, where he’s served for the past four years, is “bittersweet.” But, he said, “A time comes to turn the page and move forward, and this is the right time.”

Moira Lang

(Apr. 17): After 15 taxpayers, cheered on by a packed room of their supporters, told the Ithaca Board of Education Tuesday in no uncertain terms that its proposed 12 per cent tax levy increase was too high, the Board voted that night to cut the district’s proposed next year’s budget by $2 Million, and reduced the projected levy hike to 8.4 per cent.

“You cannot have everything. You should have to more carefully spend what you already have,” taxpayer Anita Graf, a home schooling mom, told the Board during a nearly hour-long parade of protest.

Though the Board’s own discussion later bogged down and appeared to leave a final decision until a later date, member Moira Lang offered a compromise that passed. It trimmed the budget’s proposed spending increase from 7.8 per cent to 6.5 per cent, and tapped reserves to cut the proposed tax levy by about $4 Million.

Lang prodded the Board for action, which seemed doubtful until the final minutes of the nearly four-hour meeting. Lang’s compromise passed 8 votes to one. Erin Croyle, the lone dissenter, tried, but failed to get the Board to adopt the School Superintendent’s original proposal.

At least one Board member would have cut deeper. “I specifically would not find (a) six Million cut undoable,” Jill Tripp said at one point in the discussion.

District voters will decide the Board-endorsed $168.9 Million Ithaca School budget May 21.

Attorney Daniel Cohen

(Apr. 10): Over this Councilperson’s strongly-worded objections, the Enfield Town Board Wednesday named Daniel Cohen and his Pittsburgh-based law firm to lead renegotiation of a now-expired, ten-year contract with Haefele Connect, Enfield’s cable television franchisee.

It would be the fourth time since 1984 that a contract’s been negotiated, but the only time specialized legal counsel has been retained.

“I am confident that we can negotiate an agreement that is stronger and provides more benefits and protections to the Town,” Cohen wrote Enfield in his engagement letter.

By a vote of 3:1 (with Councilperson Jude Lemke excused), the Town Board agreed to sign the engagement letter and thereby commit to Cohen’s $8,900 flat fee.

In the past, Town officials had negotiated directly with Haefele. It was “collegial” and “non-confrontational” this Councilperson, Robert Lynch, told the Town Board. Now it will be “lawyered-up” and “adversarial” with a “hot-shot Pittsburgh attorney” in charge, he said. There’ve been no complaints from customers, Lynch said, and Enfield should be lucky its provider isn’t Charter-Spectrum.

Enfield’s losing out on tens of thousands of dollars of franchise fees, Supervisor Stephanie Redmond argued in Cohen’s defense, fees that the most recent Haefele contract failed to impose. Franchise fees are passed on to subscribers, Lynch reminded Redmond. “It’s a tax, and a regressive one at that.”

Lynch pledged to talk with Haefele’s principals himself.

(Apr. 12): No real surprise here. After assuming the post of Interim General Manager six weeks ago, Matthew Rosenbloom-Jones was named Friday as the new permanent General Manager of Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit (TCAT).

Rosenbloom-Jones was hired as the transit agency’s service development manager in January. He assumes the top post from Scot Vanderpool, who retired in early-March. We’re advised that as many as 70 candidates applied for the GM’s job, of which three were interviewed as finalists.

“What clinched the selection for us was (Matthew’s) ability to clearly articulate practical plans to help TCAT to rebuild service and ridership to pre-pandemic levels,” TCAT Board Chairperson Deborah Dawson said upon Rosenbloom-Jones’ selection.

Regarding TCAT’s ridership rebirth, Rosenbloom-Jones said, “It will take time, but with well-thought-out capital spending plans for new buses and solid operational and administrative strategies and teamwork, I am confident we will get there.”

The new GM since his interim appointment has voiced increasing skepticism about electric buses, having idled TCAT’s current fleet of seven after detecting a frame defect. “The technology is just not there yet,” Rosenbloom-Jones said about electric buses at a TCAT committee meeting in March. / RL

Administrator Holmes

(Apr. 10): Lisa Holmes, who guided Tompkins County Government as its top administrator for much of the past three years, will retire at year’s end, County legislator Randy Brown disclosed to the Enfield Town Board Wednesday, a disclosure County Government concurrently announced.

Holmes, elevated to Interim County Administrator upon former Administrator Jason Molino’s departure in May 2021, and subsequently appointed a year later to the permanent position, guided Tompkins County through the final months of the COVID-19 pandemic and guided the County through its first steps toward building a new Center of Government.

Soft-spoken, yet a solid leader, Holmes became the first woman to lead Tompkins County’s administrative arm. She’s served Tompkins County for 26 years, first as Director of the Office for the Aging, and then as Deputy County Administrator.

“Being the County Administrator has certainly been a privilege and the pinnacle of my career in public service, and I’ll continue giving the role my best effort until my retirement.” Holmes said as she announced her planned departure.

“The County has had a steady and measured leader in Lisa, we’ll be lucky to find those qualities in the next Administrator,” County Legislative Chair Dan Klein said.

Assemblymember Anna Kelles

(Apr. 9): For the second straight election cycle, Tompkins County‘s Democratic Assemblymember, Anna Kelles, will face no Republican challenger for re-election. And indeed it’s also quite likely that Tompkins County will have no primary election contests this June at all.

No Republican met the April 5^th filing deadline to face Kelles in the November election. And no Democrat filed to oppose Kelles herself. An Independent candidate could still petition to oppose the two-term Democratic incumbent in November.

The race for 52^nd district State Senator is set. No surprises. Incumbent Lea Webb filed on the Democratic side to seek a second term; Republican Tompkins County legislator Mike Sigler will oppose her. Neither will have a primary challenger.

Josh Riley was the only Democrat filing to oppose Republican Marc Molinaro in the 19^th Congressional District race. No one will “primary” Molinaro, so that race is also set.

New York State Board of Elections filings do indicate that four Republicans have filed to oppose U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, and that a virtual unknown, Khaled Salem, seeks to challenge Gillibrand for the Democratic Senate nomination. If so, that would trigger a June 25th Primary locally.

But a local election spokesperson says such is unlikely. We’re told the Republicans may clear the slate to one candidate soon, and that Salem could be disqualified next week.

Charles Bartosch

(Apr. 3): Much talk turned into action Wednesday as a committee of the Tompkins County Legislature recommended that the County spend seed money toward providing broadband Internet service to those local residents in seven rural towns that don’t now have it.

“The benefit we’ll see from that $100,000 will far exceed the actual cost. So, I think, money well-spent for sure,” legislator Greg Mezey told the Housing and Economic Development Committee, which he chairs.

Point Broadband—once called Clarity Connect—will be the firm providing the service, directly or indirectly. In Enfield, Point Broadband will contract with Haefele Connect, the town’s cable franchisee.

Countywide, the broadband gap-fill will reach about 600 unserved addresses. Another equal number will be serviced by Dryden’s municipal broadband venture in its own town and in Caroline.

The total buildout will cost millions. Point Broadband commits to fund at least one-quarter of the expense. Making the expansion work hinges on federal and state grants.

As to the Haefele Enfield tie-in, Point Broadband’s Charles Bartosch explained, “There’s no formal agreement yet. But my philosophy when I talked to Lee (Haefele) was it’s going to be cheaper for you to serve these households than for me.”

The “walk-out” engineering funded by the County money could take place within months. Construction lies farther off.

(Apr. 3): Tompkins County’s Rapid Medical Response service answered its first call Tuesday. We’re told it was for a hip injury someone suffered at home, an “Alpha” level call in EMS terminology, one of the lowest response categories.

And while the Enfield Board of Fire Commissioners, at its meeting later that day, welcomed Tompkins County’s new assistance, those same fire officials qualified that no one should expect county-paid EMT’s to will take the place of Enfield’s own fire-based rescue squad.

“This program doesn’t mean our rescue squad is out of business,” Fire Company President Dennis Hubbell said emphatically. ”We will communicate that to members Thursday (at weekly training),” Hubbell said.

County-paid EMT’s will now respond to lower-priority calls than most fire service volunteers do, including in Enfield. And Enfield Fire Chief Jamie Stevens cautioned Tuesday that as a consequence, the County unit could be deployed far away on a low-level call when something much more serious happens closer to home.

Of the County service, Fire Commissioners Chair Greg Stevenson said, “This does not supplant anything that’s in place.”

(Apr. 2): With Democratic and Republican Presidential nominations decided nationally, it’s little surprise that Joe Biden and Donald Trump captured majority support by Tompkins County’s electorate in Tuesday’s New York Primary.

But the major story here on the Democratic side was not who voted for a candidate, but rather who didn’t. While President Biden secured 79.3 per cent of the slightly over 3,000 Democratic ballots cast, a surprising 415 Tompkins County voters (13.5%) left the ballot line for President blank.

The “leave-it-blank” strategy was advanced in recent days by Democrats who sought to oppose Biden’s handling of the Gaza war, since New York election law denied them from voting “uncommitted.”

Of the only two other candidates on the Democratic ballot, Marianne Williamson secured 4.8 per cent of the vote, Dean Phillips 1.9 per cent in Tompkins County.

On the Republican side, even though she’s dropped out of the race, Nikki Haley did remarkably well. Haley secured 152 Republican votes (23.3%) compared to presumptive nominee Donald Trump’s 428 votes (65.6%). Chris Christie got 7.8% Republican support.

As predicted, Tompkins County’s Presidential Primary turnout Tuesday was incredibly low. Only a combined 3,721 persons voted.

(Apr. 1): Well, sort of. And only for a brief while.

Enfield Town Clerk Mary Cornell has closed her Town Clerk’s Office at 168 Enfield Main Road to allow temporary relocation for planned office renovations.

The Clerk’s Office will be closed from Tuesday, April second through Monday, April eighth.

Beginning on Tuesday, the ninth, the Town Clerk will use temporary quarters in a portion of the Town Board’s meeting room and Court at the Enfield Courthouse, 182 Enfield Main Road.

Planned Town Hall renovations, funded with federal American Rescue Plan funds, will likely take up to four weeks. So expect the Clerk to remain at the Courthouse through early May.

During the planned week of closure, Clerk Cornell will attempt to answer phone calls, as her time permits. But office visits for services like buying dog licenses will need to wait until Tuesday, the ninth.

(Mar. 31): While the Ithaca City School District proposes a more than 12 per cent tax levy increase to cope with funding challenges (see separate story), the Trumansburg Central Schools are taking a different approach, one that inflicts pain.

The Ithaca Times reported March 28^th that as many as five named teaching positions and an additional two in special education would be eliminated under a cost-cutting proposal, now scheduled for a school board vote April 16.

T-Burg’s fiscal problem is two-edged. Education aid may be cut under a proposed state budget, now under review. Moreover, enrollment is dropping. The story reports that K-12 enrollment has dropped nearly ten per cent from pre-pandemic levels.

“When you look at the decline in our enrollment, we are down by the equivalent of an entire grade level,” Jon Koeng, school business administrator, told the school board.

“I’m hopeful this is our hardest year with our hardest conversations taking place now,” School Superintendent Kimberly Bell was quoted. “It doesn’t feel good for any of us; it’s a loss to our community and a loss to our district.”

T-Burg proposes a 3.35 per cent tax levy increase for the year ahead, far less than does Ithaca. The Times reports Trumansburg Schools plan to reduce spending by $1.6 Million. / RL

(Mar. 28): A collective meeting of Tompkins County municipal leaders Thursday endorsed Trumansburg Mayor Rordan Hart’s drive to have Tompkins County Government pick up the full cost—both this year and also next—for the three-unit Rapid Medical Response system that will fill-in for volunteer rescue squads when they’re short-handed.

Thursday’s unanimous vote by the Tompkins County Council of Governments (TCCOG) dealt a crippling, if not fatal, blow to efforts by some County legislators to persuade local municipalities to pick up a third or more of the pilot program’s cost for 2025. (This Councilperson represents Enfield on TCCOG.)

“We often talk about storm water that water doesn’t respect municipal boundaries,” Ulysses Supervisor Katelin Olson remarked. “Well, in the EMS world, health emergencies don’t respect municipal boundaries as well.”

County Legislature Chair Dan Klein pointed out Ulysses’ own taxpayers would likely pay more—not less—under full County funding. Olson said she’s OK with that, given how the service will shorten medical response times.

“Your budgets are going to look a little better. Tompkins County’s budget is going to look a little worse,” Klein concluded. But that said, the chairman did not vote against TCCOG’s recommendation.

What’s at GrassRoots

(Mar. 28): “Further discussion is a waste of time until we get more answers,” Enfield Community Council (ECC) President Cortney Bailey cautioned. Nonetheless, the ECC Board will consider skateboard enthusiast Daniel Woodring’s proposal to build a 15 x 24-foot public skateboard ramp behind of ECC’s Community Center.

After hearing Woodring’s pitch—similar to one he made to the Enfield Town Board March 13^th—the ECC adopted a loosely-worded resolution Thursday to investigate insurance issues, possible tie-ins with Town Government, and report back in a month.

The volunteer-built “half-pipe” Woodring proposes would be similar to one he’s built near the GrassRoots camping area in Trumansburg. If the ramp can’t be behind the ECC, it might be on Town property across the road or near the Town Hall’s food scrap drop-off.

“I think the whole idea is awesome,” ECC Board member Lisa Monroe remarked during the meeting.

Bailey warned that the director of the ECC’s summer camp remains skeptical of letting campers use the half-pipe. Then Woodring had an idea: What if he and other experienced skateboarders show up at camp to demonstrate and teach their skills? “That’s a win-win,” Bailey answered.

Klein: “work, not money”

(Mar. 25): Enfield agencies that thought they might catch a few crumbs that fell off of Tompkins County’s Community Recovery Fund table found disappointment Monday as the fund’s Advisory Committee voted to plow the $16,758 in savings from projects that fell through back into the fund’s own administration.

“What would be involved in redistributing $16,000?” Committee Chair Dan Klein asked rhetorically. “That’s a lot of work. It’s not a lot of money, though.”

“If something goes belly-up with one of the larger grants that’s still kind of ‘out there,’ then we have to come back in and figure out how we’re going to push that money back to the community,” member Deborah Dawson remarked, declining to say more, yet suggesting Administration may have work to do.

In the past two years, the fund has distributed $6.5 Million in repurposed American Rescue Plan funds to about 65 agencies, businesses and governments.

Although the Enfield Town Highway Department got more than $26,000 to buy new radios, every other Enfield applicant, including the Fire Company and the Community Council, were frozen out of the government giveaway.

Meeting for its first time in months, the committee Monday stretched its rules to save the Human Services Coalition’s award of $174,000. The Coalition was supposed to tie-in with a non-profit agency to help Ithaca’s chronically homeless transition to stable housing. The non-profit couldn’t be found, so a commercial developer will be recruited instead.

Had the committee rejected the Coalition’s revision, its award could have been freed to assist others.

Koreman: Inaction? $115B.

(Mar 21): Anne Koreman’s Environmental Quality Committee had stuffed nine Green-friendly legislative endorsements into a single Resolution. And Tuesday it passed the Tompkins County Legislature, but only on a party-line vote of 11 to 3.

Included in the adopted lobbying amalgam was the “Bigger Better Bottle Bill.” It would raise deposits from a nickel to a dime. And judging from comments on the floor, had that one endorsement stood alone, it might have passed unanimously.

“The nickel doesn’t buy what it used to,” Mike Lane remarked.

But, the committee had mixed the bottle bill’s endorsement together with eight other measures, initiatives mostly to wean New Yorkers off of fossil fuels. They were bills the contents of which some legislators remained unsure.

“This is a buffet of legislative proposals,” Democrat Rich John admitted. “Like a buffet, some things you like more than others.”

Koreman defended the package, claiming “inaction” on Climate Goals could cost $115 Billion.

“How are we predicting 115 Billion?” Republican Mike Sigler asked. “That’s kind of out of nowhere… It’s very random to me.”

Koreman claimed the estimate came from New York’s Climate Action Council, comprised of professors, scientists and industry people.

Republicans didn’t buy it. They all voted no. Every Democrat supported the package.

Tripp: Keep schools open.

(Mar. 21): I thought schools were places for students to learn, including about astronomy.

By a seven-to-one vote, the Ithaca Board of Education reversed course Tuesday and opted to close school on April 8^th, the day of the Solar Eclipse, not quite total in this area; but more so in places farther north.

Hooray for the lone dissenter, School Board member Jill Tripp.

“We provide a safe environment. I think we provide a very healthy and exciting environment for children,” Tripp told the Board. “I think people who want to take their children or other people’s children to this event should do that, but I think we need to keep our schools open.”

One argument for an “Eclipse Day,” was fear of short-staffing; that with many other districts also closing, teachers will take personal leave to tend to their own kids. (Yes, that raises a whole separate issue.)

But there’ve also been fears that students riding home on the school bus might gaze at the sun, eyes unprotected.

There’s an easy solution to that one: Keep school in session later, until the eclipse is over. Have teachers supervise any viewing, teach the principle, and give pupils a moment to remember.

Then, again, there’s a point nobody’s talked about. What if it’s cloudy or rains? This is Ithaca. / RL

Vote here April 2nd; not before.

(Mar. 21): The Republican and Democratic Presidential races are decided. New York’s Presidential Primary is April 2nd, really this year too late to matter.

You can’t write-in anyone new. Scrawling “Uncommitted” or “Cease-Fire” will only void your ballot.

Nonetheless, probably because the law commands it, New York will hold eight days of early voting for the Presidential Primary, Saturday, March 23rd through Saturday, the 30^th. Locations will be at the Ithaca Town Hall, downtown, and the Finger Lakes Library System office at 1300 Dryden Road. (Hours are posted at the Board of Elections website.)

There’ll still be voting at the Enfield Community Building on Tuesday, Apr. 2, Primary Day. Whenever you vote, one suspects elections workers will be as busy as Maytag repairmen. / RL

John: NY, don’t sit & wait.

(Mar. 20): Without much talk or added information, the Tompkins County Legislature Tuesday ordered the soon deconstruction of the two 1960’s buildings standing on the site of a future Center of Government.

Graffiti has grown like weeds around the law office building nearest the Courthouse. The vacant former Key Bank building is also slated to go.

Legislators acknowledged what many had learned in committee a week earlier: that the New York State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) could delay demolition for want of review of the two albeit non-historic buildings standing, nonetheless, in an Historic District.

“Adding (this) unknown element was pretty scary,” Ithaca’s Rich John told fellow lawmakers. “We have to lean on them (SHPO) very hard that New York State has to help us, and if their plan is to just sit and wait and think about it for a long time, that will hurt us, it will hurt the taxpayers.”

“New York will do what New York will do, no matter what we say,” legislator Deborah Dawson replied cynically.

State help or hindrance, Tuesday’s adopted Resolution calls for razing the buildings “with all deliberate speed,” both to be down by next February.

(Mar. 19): With five unanimous votes and next-to-no discussion, the Enfield Board of Fire Commissioners Tuesday took its most significant—and costly—step toward putting fire apparatus in its own name and establishing long-term funding for its most expensive fire truck.

Most notably, Commissioners authorized ten-year bonding of “Truck 602,” the $825,000 pumper engine its predecessor agency, the Enfield Volunteer Fire Company, bought last year and district voters wrangled during the year’s final months over how it should be paid.

Unit 602’s ten-year bonding is half the length than what last year’s appointed Commissioners, and the District’s former legal counsel, had preferred. At the 4.6 per cent interest rate current counsel secured from the Bank of Greene County, taxpayers will spend just over $1.04 Million for the pumper over the decade. An additional, last-minute funding gap for the truck was closed by tapping unused financing costs within this year’s budget and trimming over $9,000 from earlier-projected attorney’s fees.

“I think we made good progress tonight,” Board Chair Greg Stevenson said after the two-and-a-half hour meeting. And he commended fellow Commissioners for not squabbling.

Tuesday’s actions also transferred, at no cost, Fire Company apparatus to the Fire District, equipment that included ten other fire trucks and supplies ranging from hoses to boots.

[A more detailed story is now posted.]

To Goodell: “Actually, I am” a scientist.

(Mar. 18): Anna Kelles got a workout. Before the State Assembly March 12th passed her sponsored bill to expand New York’s fracking ban to include the use of carbon dioxide, Ithaca’s Assemblymember did floor debate battle with two Republican opponents of the bill, including the Jamestown area’s Andy Goodell.

Goodell: “But the whole purpose of this law is to override the [Department of Environmental Conversation; the DEC] or sidestep them… because we as legislators, without any scientific background, without doing any studies, without evaluating it, know better than our DEC, is that correct?”

Kelles: “But actually to say that we’re not scientists, with all due respect, actually I am.” [Oh, Boy.]

Goodell: “Oh, are you a natural gas scientist?”

Kelles: “No, but I am a scientist by training.” [Dr. Kelles’ specialty is nutrition.]

Goodell: “Are you a geologist?” He pressed on as comments overlapped.

Assembly Speaker Pro-Tempore Jeffrion Aubry intervened: “Mr. Goodell and Ms. Kelles; we ask and we answer. We don’t cross each other while people are speaking. This is not the court, all right?”

Goodell [tossing the last barb]: “It should be.”

After an hour on the floor, Anna Kelles won the day. Her fracking bill passed the Assembly, 98 votes to 50. It moves on to the Senate. / RL

(Mar. 18): A few years back, when protesters sprayed “Pigs” and other anti-police slurs onto Ithaca Police Headquarters, Tompkins County legislator Mike Sigler took to the Legislature’s floor and faulted then-Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick for doing next to nothing about it. Now the officers inside that Headquarters have returned their thanks.

The Ithaca Police Benevolent Association (IPBA) Monday endorsed Republican Sigler in his race to unseat current 52^nd District State Senator Lea Webb. The Tompkins County Deputy Sheriff’s Association endorsed Sigler previously.

IPBA President Thomas Condzella commended Sigler, writing, “Having you stand with us, denouncing the proposed abolishment of the Ithaca Police Department, while also supporting practical and meaningful reform efforts, was noticed by the membership of the PBA.”

In accepting the endorsement, Sigler noted that his opponent, Democrat Webb has secured the Working Families Party endorsement, a third-party he maintains seeks to Defund the Police. / RL

What Dan Woodring built at GrassRoots.

(Mar. 17): Daniel Woodring, I’m told is an avid skateboarder… and pretty good at it. Now he wants to bring his passion and ingenuity to Enfield.

Wednesday, March 13^th, the soft-spoken Woodring brought his idea for a modest-scale “SkateGarden” to the Enfield Town Board. He’s already built one ramp near the GrassRoots Festival camping area, but its fate remains uncertain.

What’s planned for starters in Enfield is a wooden ramp, 24 feet long, 16 feet wide, and three feet high. It would take 24 sheets of plywood and some volunteer labor.

“It’s definitely something that our local youth have been asking for,” Supervisor Stephanie Redmond told Woodring. “The issue is location.”

And that’s the challenge. While Redmond and others dream of a town park near the Highway Garage, the lot’s now barren and remote. “It’s a crying shame it can’t be at the ECC,” I remarked. “That’s where the kids are.”

But here’s the rub: It’s insurance. Woodring’s gotten quotes of as high as $8,400 a year for even a non-profit like the Community Council to insure a half-pipe. Redmond claims a Town can get one insured for as little as $330. I’m skeptical.

Town property next to the park-and-ride lot, across from the Town Hall, has gotten consideration. A skate ramp remains very much a work-in-progress, / RL

(Mar. 11): The Enfield Town Planning Board will demand from a local, small-scale developer what it never required from giant Breezy Meadows: namely proof that the new lots created will not draw down the well water from neighboring homes.

Continuing preliminary review March 6^th of Adam Scholl’s plans to subdivide three, one-acre lots off his home’s long, narrow driveway at 166 Van Dorn Road South, Town planners said they’d require Scholl drill a test well on the first new lot and see if it depletes wells from the two nearest existing houses facing Van Dorn. Problems, they warned, could nix the project.

Planners distinguished Scholl’s plans from Breezy Meadows on two counts.

First School’s lots are tiny; most at Breezy Meadows’ were five-to-ten acres apiece. Moreover, because of their landlocked nature, the Scholl lots require Town Board approval. ”The Town Board would be happiest,” Planning Board Chair Dan Walker said, “with that they wouldn’t have to consider a ‘special development area’ unless they knew water was going to be available and acceptable.”

The Planning Board’s Rich Teeter looked at water through the zero-sum lens that nobody applied at Breezy Meadows. “If this is good water, it’s not going to matter,” Teeter said. “But if it’s bad water, and house number three is doing laundry or taking a shower, house number one ain’t going to be able to get the dog washed.”

(Mar. 9): Greg Stevenson, then Enfield’s Fire Chief, called it our town’s “Hot Corner” last fall, and not as a compliment. Applegate Corners, he said, has had too many traffic accidents recently.

But now, in response to a Town Board Resolution passed in December and requests from Enfield’s leaders, the New York State Department of Transportation (NYDOT) is taking action.

In a message to Board of Fire Commissioner’s member Robyn Wishna February 26^th, Scott Bates, Regional Traffic Engineer for NYDOT, announced four planned safety upgrades at the corner of Route 79 and Applegate Road.

Bates said the North Applegate Road Stop sign will be replaced; a Stop-Ahead warning sign on South Applegate will go up; Route 79 westbound motorists will be warned of the upcoming 45 MPH speed reduction; and a “street name supplemental plaque” will be added.

Bates said “signage improvements will be made by NYSDOT maintenance staff as soon as the materials are procured and work schedules permit.”

The only things NYDOT will not promise right now are the flashing blinker that the Town Board had suggested, along with possible “pavement modifications.” We’ll gladly take what we can get. One step toward safety at a time. / RL

(Mar. 6): Ithaca’s pro-Palestinian activists Wednesday achieved a victory that eluded them a month earlier before the Tompkins County Legislature.

By a lopsided 9:2 vote at a meeting which at times resembled parliamentary chaos, Ithaca’s Common Council Wednesday supported a watered-down resolution calling for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip and an end to U.S. military support for the State of Israel.

Exactly one month earlier, the County Legislature had fallen a single vote short of backing a similar initiative.

Many of the same activists who’d urged Tompkins County to back a cease fire, packed the cramped Common Council Chambers Wednesday to urge the same. As many as 25 speakers took turns reciting similar Palestinian-friendly themes. At one point, Alderperson David Shapiro exited chambers for 30 minutes to protest a banner they’d unfurled that he found “anti-Semitic and racist.”

Alderperson Kayla Matos had prompted the public attendance by submitting a Resolution she’d hoped would receive majority support, one decidedly critical of Israel and accusing it of genocide. But Council instead replaced her language with Patrick Kuehl’s quickly-drafted substitute, a draft more sympathetic to the Biden Administration.

Matos and colleague Phoebe Brown objected to the Kuehl replacement, but supported it anyway. “Whatever we do tonight, let’s make a stand,” Brown stressed.

[A more detailed story is now posted.]

Where it will go. (Sigh!)

(Mar. 6): Credit Lansing’s Mike Sigler for speaking up. Had he not called for debate Tuesday of that proposal to plaster some kind of a COVID-19 tribute mural onto the side of the Human Services Annex downtown, it would have been rubber-stamped by the Tompkins County Legislature without the discussion it deserved.

“It just doesn’t fit right with me,” Sigler, who’s also a Republican candidate for State Senate, told fellow lawmakers Tuesday. “We can hold up and say this vaccine is terrific, but the problem remains a lot of people don’t think it’s terrific.” Sigler noted that the CDC reports only 19 per cent of adults have gotten the latest booster.

Sigler called for a “reckoning”: “I would like to know what worked; what did not work; are masks effective; are they not effective; how effective are they?”

Sigler cast the only dissent when after ten minutes’ discussion legislators authorized the mural’s placement. No one yet knows what the painting will look like. Lawmakers have been assured they’ll have review power.

Yet caution may stand in order: “I do think there is something about public art that should be provocative and engaging and spark conversation,” Dryden’s Greg Mezey said in defense of artistic freedom. “I hope as a Legislature we don’t over-censor that art and we let the artists do what they do.”

(Mar. 5): “It was clearly an error,” Board of Fire Commissioners Chair Greg Stevenson said bluntly.

Because of either a prior attorney’s or a prior commissioner’s error, the Bonding Resolution that Enfield voters approved last fall to refinance the town’s new $825,000 pumper truck will fail to cover the accrued interest between when it was bought and when the bonds will likely kick in this spring.

“We will have to figure out where the rest will come from,” Stevenson told the Board Tuesday.

The truck’s accrued interest is now $41,961. Voters authorized bonding the truck only up to $830,000. So Commissioners must unexpectedly squeeze nearly $37,000 from an operating budget that’s already pretty tight. Enfield’s fire budget is only $483,000.

During the next two weeks, Commissioners will eyeball possible reductions. And although they’d earlier decided not to bond a second truck even though voters had also authorized its bonding in the October referendum, money cannot be swapped from one truck to the other.

[A more detailed version of this story is now posted.]

(Mar. 5): Preliminary budget figures presented the Ithaca Board of Education at its most recent meeting would raise the total amount requested from taxpayers next fall by 12.1 per cent, even though district officials would rather you think of only the tax rate, which would remain stable next year due to rising assessments.

During her 20-minute presentation to the Board February 27^th, Chief Operating Officer Amanda Verba projected a 7.8 per cent rise in revenues for the 2024-25 budget, increasing budget totals from $158.6 Million to $170.9 Million.

The tax levy climbed only just under four per cent a year ago. The coming year it would rise from $107.7 to $120.8 Million.

“Most of our expenditures are people,” Verba told the Board. “We invest in our people, salary and benefits to deliver the top-line education and to deliver those experiences and the programmatic opportunities for all of our students.”

Instructional expenses would rise next year by 8.9 per cent, well above the rate of inflation. Total salaries and benefits would top $119 Million.

“This is a very large organization.” Verba remarked. ICSD, she said, employs 1,400 people.

After Verba’s PowerPoint, Board members kept mum, other than for one of them to tell Verba, “You’ve outdone yourself one more time.”

Administrators will present the Board a final budget in mid-April. Voters decide the budget in May.

(Mar. 5): We New Yorker’s cast our Presidential Primary votes April 2nd. But unlike in states like Michigan and Minnesota, disaffected Democrats wishing to lodge a protest vote against President Biden for his handling of the War in Gaza—or for any other reason—have no ability to vote “Uncommitted” in that election.

The sample Democratic ballot posted by the Board of Elections shows only the Presidential choices of Biden, Marianne Williamson, and Dean Phillips. No write-in line appears. Stray marks can void a ballot.

Republicans are given Donald Trump and Nikki Haley (plus drop-outs Christie and Ramaswamy.)

On the Democratic ballot (only), voters may also select convention delegates. Tompkins County legislator Shawna Black and former Congressional candidate Max Della Pia are among the seven delegate names. But again, all seven can be chosen, and no one else’s name appears.

Board of Elections officials confirm the no-write-in rule. Sadly, in effect, Biden’s a lock. Ideas? / RL

(Mar. 5): Republican Congressman Marc Molinaro may make a campaign issue of presumptive Democratic opponent Josh Riley’s true home. Is it Ithaca or Washington?

In a posting “DC Isn’t Gorges,” Jeff Coltin writes in the Mar. 5 edition of the Politico New York Playbook that Molinaro “is again tweaking (Riley) for being a ‘DC lawyer’ and arguing he doesn’t really live in the upstate 19^th Congressional district.”

Riley owns a home in Ithaca, all acknowledge. But he reportedly still owns a home a mile from the U.S. Capitol. (That would prove convenient should Riley win this November.) While the Democrat touts his southern tier roots, having grown up near Binghamton, he also worked for a decade in D.C, having left the law firm of Jenner & Block in 2021 ahead of his failed first run for Congress a year later.

The first time around, Molinaro also criticized Riley’s “DC lawyer” status. But now, Coltin says, the GOP incumbent is “pushing an entirely unscientific poll showing that 96 per cent of people on Molinaro’s campaign email list ‘believe you should have to live in New York to run here.’”

Coltin reports Riley cites the Ithaca home as his “primary residence” and is registered to vote here.

The late “Flaco”

(Feb. 29): I likely own the brightest outdoor security light on Gray Road. Now some in the New York State Legislature would have me turn it off.

A bill that’s gained heightened focus by the death of that prized New York City zoo owl, Flaco—and sadly drawn the co-sponsorship of a well-intentioned Assemblymember Anna Kelles—would outlaw most existing bright outdoor lighting across the state by January 2026.

Outdoor fixtures would need to be shielded to direct light only downward, or be motion-activated or else turned off completely between 11 PM and sunrise. (I know, what a great way to fight crime.)

The “Dark Skies Protection Act” would, its language states, “preserve and enhance the state’s dark sky while promoting safety for people, birds, and other wildlife, conserving energy and reducing our carbon footprint, and preserving the aesthetic qualities of the night sky.”

The legislation is currently before Senate and Assembly committees. It died there during the last session.

Flaco, the owl, escaped from a cage at the Central Park Zoo after someone vandalized the enclosure. Flaco flew into a building and died, though not necessarily at night.

Should the “Dark Skies Protection Act” become law, expect Enfield Center’s streetlights to violate it. So would the Enfield Fire Company’s bright floodlights. In the Senate bill, homeowners would face a $100 fine for a first offense. / RL

Sen. Andrew Lanza

(Feb.28): With fast legislative action, and with Governor Kathy Hochul’s quick concurrence, Albany lawmakers Wednesday put a likely legislative end to the task of redistricting New York’s Congressional seats for this November and for the remainder of the decade.

By a vote of 45 to 17 in the State Senate and 115 to 33 in the Assembly, the Legislature, given the power of its Democratic supermajorities, ratified the redrawn district lines unveiled just one day earlier.

The new maps’ release followed Monday’s rejection by legislators of the compromise maps submitted February 15^th by the bipartisan Independent Redistricting Commission (IRC).

Governor Hochul gave the revised maps her approval late Wednesday, but provided no press release on her official website to explain her support.

The revised maps keep Tompkins County within the 19^th Congressional District, currently represented by Republican Marc Molinaro. Democratic legislators’ adjustments to boundaries on the district’s eastern side may make it harder for Molinaro to win a second term than the IRC’s boundaries might have.

State Senator Andrew Lanza tried in vain Wednesday to pin down Deputy Majority Leader Michael Gianaris on how long the Democrats had kept the revised districting on their hard drives or on paper before releasing them Tuesday. He also had no luck questioning Gianaris on whether Congressional Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries had played a role in the process.

It remained unclear late Wednesday whether Republicans are angry enough about the now-adopted revised maps to take Democrats to court.

(Feb. 28): Much has been written here, over time, concerning the Enfield Community Council’s continuing efforts to retrieve more than $20,000 in property taxes its Community Center was assessed for a single year, due to a paperwork oversight.

The Ithaca Voice’s Megan Zerez attended the ECC’s February 22^nd Board meeting and afterward wrote a very comprehensive account of a journey that’s tough to detail in a few words.

ttps://ithacavoice.org/2024/02/a-clerical-error-almost-led-to-the-foreclosure-of-enfield-community-center/

The pursuit of reimbursement continues. Meanwhile, it’s worth your time to read Zerez’s report.

(Feb. 23): The Enfield Community Council Board of Directors adopted its 2024 budget at its annual meeting Thursday. And ECC officials are to the first to admit they have work to do.

The budget sets projected expenses at $174,160 (up 8.6% from what was spent in 2023); estimated income at $162.193. That leaves a nearly $12,000 projected shortfall that leadership will somehow need to fill.

More activities must be held and the Community Center rented for events more often, Board members stated as their most logical solutions after the meeting. They have no plans to ask Town Government for more money. A prime revenue source could be increased attendance at the ECC’s summer day camp.

Approved Thursday and already made part of the budget, the ECC Board raised summer camp attendance fees slightly. Fees for Town residents will rise from $975 to $1000 per child (up 2.8%), with non-resident fees climbing from $1,300 to $1,400.

“I don’t see it as a fund raiser, but it should cover the costs,” Board member Debbie Teeter said of the camp fees.

Last year, 48 campers partook in ECC’s program. “Hopefully we’ll climb again this year and build it up as we had it before COVID,” Teeter told the Board.

Mike Sapraicone

(Feb. 23): You’ve likely never heard the name Mike Sapraicone. And if New Yorkers hold true to their political leanings, you’ll have forgotten his name by this time next year.

Empire State Republicans, at their convention in Binghamton Thursday, nominated the former New York City police detective, now an affluent owner of a downstate security business, to face incumbent Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand for the U.S. Senate this fall. Reports say Sapraicone polled about 85 per cent of the convention votes, meaning neither of two intra-party rivals could wage a primary fight without petitioning first.

“What’s important for us to do now is to keep this party strong and united,” Spectrum News quotes Sapraicone as telling the convention. “Whatever it takes to unite, if we’re going to come together and defeat Gillibrand, we have to come together,” he said.

But party unity may not be enough. Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than 2:1 in New York.

We’re told Sapraicone supports Trump for President. But his two inside challengers say they support him even more. Cara Castronuova works for the conservative outlet Newsmax. Josh Eisen has faulted Sapraicone for having donated $1,000 to the campaign of Democratic Attorney General Leticia James. / RL

Randy Brown

(Feb. 22): At the Enfield Community Council’s Annual Meeting Thursday, Tompkins County legislator Randy Brown confirmed he’ll draft and press for adoption in March of a Resolution for Tompkins County to refund property taxes levied ECC in the 2021-22 tax cycle, all because the agency failed to file exemption paperwork on time.

But how the money can legally get refunded remains in question.

“If we give the money back, it’s a gift, and we’re not allowed to do that,” Brown cautioned the ECC Board. The legislator also advised that Albany’s help may be needed to make the refund happen.

“It will have to go to the State, and they will have to approve it,” Brown said. Like was first discussed last year, a special law must likely be enacted .

ECC officials paid Tompkins County more than $20,000 in December to cover taxes and penalties assessed by Tompkins County, the Town of Enfield, and the Ithaca City School District for just that one year. Although the ECC clearly qualified for the exemption, the matter remains a mess.

The Enfield Town Board has promised it will waive its just over $5,700 share of the total—if it legally can do so. But the School District’s attorney has said the ICSD stands powerless to waive its much larger $12,000 portion. Tompkins County’s own share is about $2,100.

Brown Thursday could not predict an outcome. “But I’m optimistic,” he said.

Our new NY-19; We’re just hung out there.

(Feb. 21): By any reasoned observation, Tompkins County no longer belongs in the Hudson-to-here 19^th Congressional District. And Dryden’s Mike Lane agrees.

Commenting on the Independent Redistricting Commission’s revised Congressional maps, released February 15^th, the Tompkins County legislator, in floor remarks Tuesday, called our redrawn district, “the most ridiculous” of any in New York State.

With Tioga County and much of Cortland County now chopped off and merged elsewhere, Tompkins is connected to the rest of NY-19 by only, in Lane’s words, “a small neck” of land to the east.

“Regular boundaries” and “communities of interest” are now both lacking, Lane complained. He’d rather have Tompkins joined with the newly-redrawn, Syracuse-centered District to our northeast.

“The redistricting games that are played,” Lane said, “I don’t care which state, which party; they’re not a good thing.”

“I just want to point out that I think Tompkins County got mistreated again in this redistricting process,” Lane concluded.

The Independent Commission admitted it reached consensus only through political horse-trading. The State Legislature could modify the lines later this month. But many doubt it will. / RL.

(Feb. 21): Something—really, some-things—have changed since last fall when Tompkins County officials signaled they were about to close the books on their ambitious $6.5 Million Community Recovery Fund; when they’d said nearly all contracts were signed and projects well underway.

Tuesday, February 20^th, on the eve of releasing a slick, 8-minute video showcasing seven high-profile funding recipients, County Legislature Chair Dan Klein revealed that the Recovery Fund Advisory Committee must reconvene in late-March because a couple of recipients need major changes to proceed.

There are “a couple that wanted to modify their contract in ways that were not a really easy ‘yes’ to,” Klein told the Legislature. “They wanted to modify their contracts in pretty significant ways.”

Under Recovery Fund rules, applicants would need to forfeit their awards should changes deviate too much from their original plans. Their withdrawal, if enforced, could free up money for earlier-denied Enfield applicants.

Klein did not reveal which applicants have sought the changes, or whether their projects are large or small. Most notably, however, a couple of big-ticket recipients, whose status appeared most tenuous at earlier meetings, were showcased nowhere on the video.

Attorney Brad Pinsky

(Feb. 20): The Town of Enfield’s somewhat rocky relationship with the Syracuse-area attorney who last year helped transition the Town’s fire protection services to a Fire District ended—presumably amicably—Tuesday when the Fire District’s Board of Commissioners paid Brad Pinsky’s final bill, $15,000 plus $842 in expenses.

“We owe him the money; he ought to be paid,” Commissioners’ Chair Greg Stevenson said in recommending the Board pay the $15 Grand, the lower of two amounts Pinsky had invoiced Commissioners after the newly-elected Board had terminated his representation in January.

Stevenson said he’d first received a higher invoice, one for more than $19,000, the first bill calculated at the lawyer’s $390 per hour rate. It covered services performed during the final months of 2023. But then Robyn Wishna, a Commissioners’ holdover, recalled that Pinsky had quoted the initially-appointed Board a lower, flat rate, a figure counsel later acknowledged he’d hold true to.

“If he says we owe him more, we can pay him when the time comes,” Wishna told fellow Commissioners Tuesday.

Enfield Town Board members squabbled late last year over whether the Town or its Fire District should compensate Pinsky for any or all of his work. The Town Board, over one member’s (this writer’s) objection, tapped $15,000 in American Rescue Plan funds to pay Pinsky’s bill for his earliest service. / RL

(Feb. 21): One Tompkins County legislator rattled a hornets’ nest Tuesday, Lansing’s Deborah Dawson suggesting her county revisit the possibility of setting a higher-than-New York State minimum wage, Dawson suggesting a local minimum wage be tied to the so-called “Living Wage” set by an Ithaca credit union.

“I don’t know if that’s within our purview… I don’t know what impact it would have on local businesses,” Dawson told fellow legislators Tuesday. “But if we really are concerned with leading by example and adhering to Living Wage recommendations, I would suggest… that’s something we might want to investigate.”

Raising the current upstate minimum wage of $15 an hour to the locally-embraced $18.45 Living Wage would provide a 23 per cent increase for low-wage workers but also similarly burden those who employ them.

Dawson’s comment grew from recently-released findings by the Tompkins County Workers’ Center claiming to show that Tompkins County’s wage and wealth inequality stands among the highest in the state.

While no one spoke directly against Dawson’s idea, legislator Mike Lane urged caution.

“Ramifications of this and how it would affect our employers out there from not-for-profits to regular small businesses could be very large,” Lane warned. “And does that mean that our businesses start leaving Tompkins County?”

Tompkins toyed with a higher local minimum wage pre-COVID, but the idea died amidst the pandemic.

The culvert lies below

(Feb. 17): Enfield leaders—and taxpayers—received welcome news Friday. New York State has awarded $693,866 under its Water Quality Improvement Project (WQIP) program to replace an undersized and deteriorating culvert that carries Enfield Creek under Bostwick Road.

For two years, Town Supervisor Stephanie Redmond has assigned the Bostwick Road culvert high priority. But until now, she’s been hard-pressed to fund it.

Last March, a different New York agency rejected Enfield’s funding application with but a form letter. Redmond had considered using American Rescue Plan funds, only to learn federal rules don’t permit that.

Cost for the Bostwick Road project is just over $867,000. The WQIP grant will cover 80 per cent. The Town may dedicate Highway Department staff and machinery as “in-kind” services to pay for the rest.

What makes the current culvert so dangerous is that it’s two passageways, not just one. In a flood, debris can clog and water backs up. And water is already eroding soil between the two pipes.

“Replacement of the undersized culvert on Bostwick Road will benefit both water quality and flood events,” Deputy Town Supervisor Greg Hutnik wrote in his winning application.

The proposal calls for culvert replacement to occur either this summer or next.

(Feb. 17): A bill that would close a loophole in New York’s current ban on hydrofracturing for natural gas moved its way toward a floor vote in the State Assembly Thursday with the lower house giving the bill its “third reading,” one of the final steps before a floor vote.

The measure, sponsored by Ithaca’s Assemblymember Anna Kelles and by Lea Webb in the State Senate, would add just three little, but important, words to the current ban, extending the fracking ban to liquid propellants “or carbon dioxide.”

Kelles and environmental advocates acted after a Texas-based company signaled interest in using carbon dioxide to extract natural gas as a work-around to the Empire State’s current prohibition.

The anti-fracking legislation has proceeded no farther than committee review in the Senate. Albany watchers say supporters would prefer adoption as part of the state budget in March so as to avoid the bill’s signing being delayed until later in the year.

(Feb. 15): What started as a simple, no-brainer initiative got ground up by the gears of Enfield Town politics Wednesday.

This Councilperson, Robert Lynch, advanced a straightforward fix to the chaos that gripped last December’s Enfield Fire District election. I proposed state legislators consider clarifying the law and making it clear that when electing five Fire Commissioners, residents get more than just one vote.

My proposed language: “In this first annual election of fire district officers, each eligible voter shall be permitted to cast one vote each for as many individual candidates for fire commissioner as positions exist to be filled in said election.”

But Councilperson Jude Lemke, a lawyer, didn’t like the language. And she convinced Supervisor Stephanie Redmond to agree with her. What they wanted instead remained unclear. But their arguments steered toward preference for “cumulative voting,” where a voter could cast up to five votes for the same candidate.

Over this member’s objection, the Town Board tabled the resolution for a month.

So amidst the muddle, I draw this line: I oppose being limited to casting just one vote to elect five people in a first-ever Fire Commissioners’ election. But I also oppose being able to vote multiple times in such an election for the same person. To me, it’s stuffing the ballot box. / RL

Ugly as Sin. Can’t Go.

(Feb. 15): For this discussion, best remember those ugly sculptures on the Buffalo Street Bridge that legally can’t be removed.

A committee of the Tompkins County Legislature, following little discussion, unanimously recommended Thursday that a mural be painted on the Albany Street side of the Human Services Annex to commemorate our fight against COVID-19.

“Public art is seen as another tool for public health messaging,” Samantha Hillson, the County’s Director of Health Promotion, told lawmakers. She envisions the mural as “visualizing the overarching resilience of our community and honoring the 100-plus individuals who passed away during the pandemic.”

Hillson could supply the committee no sketches, but promised to share them before they’re painted.

“There’ve been issues with artists,” legislator Mike Lane reminded the committee. “They have certain rights under law that we have to be careful about.” He must remember the bridge.

And by the way, just two days earlier, another legislative committee had recommended that the Human Services Annex be someday vacated and then sold. / RL

(Feb. 15): The Enfield Town Board, by a 4-1 vote, Wednesday moved money around to better help Highway Superintendent Barry “Buddy” Rollins purchase the new pickup truck he wants, a vehicle used on-the-job for light snow plowing and other Town business, but taken home by Rollins at night.

The Board Wednesday transferred $15,000 from Highway Reserves to the equipment fund toward buying the $72,000 vehicle. The transfer would supplement the $30,000 earmarked for the pickup’s purchase in the Town Budget approved last fall.

Rollins current pickup is only three years old. Replacement would be on the short side of the 3-5 year replacement cycles members were told most municipalities use.

“I could call tomorrow” to order the truck, Rollins told the Board. But he said delivery might not come until 2025.

But the optics look terrible, this Councilperson, Robert Lynch, said in opposing the purchase and voting against the transfer. The Highway Superintendent buys a new pickup, he said, while the Town couldn’t even afford to commission an audit this year. Lynch had opposed the $30,000 budget set-aside for the pickup last fall as well.

Rollins saw trucks and audits as separate matters. He calculated the purchase he seeks (with sale of the old truck) would only cost the Town $875 per month or $10,000 per year.

(Feb. 15): Redrawn Congressional District maps, approved and released by the New York State Independent Redistricting Commission Thursday, would bring little change for Tompkins County’s Washington representation, should the New York Legislature ratify the Commission’s proposal.

The revised maps, demanded by the New York Court of Appeals for this November’s election, retain Tompkins at the western edge of the 19^th Congressional District, currently represented by Republican Marc Molinaro. And as for the past two years, the 19^th District would stretch east through the southern tier and to the Massachusetts border.

Several changes would occur, however, just beyond Tompkins’ Borders. Tioga County would be transferred from the 19^th to the 23^rd District, represented by Nick Langworthy. The Town of Hector would move into Claudia Tenney’s District. Cortland County would be chopped in half, with northern towns, along with southern Cayuga County, falling into the Brandon Williams’ District.

Observers have said the proposed Commission changes would make the 19^th District slightly more Republican-leaning and the Syracuse-based Williams District more Democrat-friendly.

If anything, the proposed lines will disappoint Tompkins County Democrats, who’d hoped they’d be attached to the Williams District in hopes of taking part in a Democratic pick-up there this fall.

[A more detailed story is now posted.]

(Feb. 14): New York legislative Republicans have found a hit-home issue to run on. And it’s a burden that carries a local price tag.

GOP State Senators and Assemblymembers rallied Tuesday and launched a media blitz to stall a mandate arising out of a 2022 revision to the Education Law. The mandate requires that all school districts in the state buy only electric-powered school buses by 2027 and have a fully-electric fleet by 2035.

The Ithaca City School District will put before voters this May a ballot measure that includes $40 Million to build a new bus garage and charging facilities to address the requirement.

“We are moving too far, too fast on this transition,” State Senator Tom O’Mara, who used to represent us, said. “The technology is simply not there yet. The electric grid can’t support it…”

“It’s unrealistic, uninformed and irresponsible,” Senator Pam Helming, who represents much of the Finger Lakes, said.

Republicans want Governor Hochul and the Legislature’s Democratic majorities to pause the costly, questionably-logical mandate.

Critics question electric buses’ ability to handle cold winter temperatures, their poor reliability, and higher cost. An Ithaca Schools’ official recently said an electric school bus costs over $450,000; a diesel bus $175,000. Your money. Your vote. / RL

(Feb. 13): “I want deconstruction now!” Dryden’s Mike Lane emphatically told a Tompkins County Legislative committee Tuesday as lawmakers expressed general support for accelerating the schedule for razing two buildings at the corner of Tioga and Buffalo Streets to clear the site for a $40 Million Center of Government.

Lawmakers eyed amending a Resolution before them that, as first written, would have delayed the start of deconstruction for a year, 12 months ahead of the mammoth office building’s February 2026 groundbreaking. But instead of acting, the committee directed administrators to rewrite the script and delayed their vote for a month.

Two speakers, including the director of Historic Ithaca, addressed the meeting suggesting as much of the old buildings be salvaged as possible, or even that one or both—more likely, the former Key Bank—be incorporated into the Center’s design.

Committee reaction was cool. “This is not an educational laboratory,” legislator Deborah Dawson remarked, “this is building a Center of Government.”

Meanwhile, the committee Tuesday endorsed and sent to the full Legislature a long-discussed recommendation assigning which government offices would move into the 55,000 square foot Center of Government. Most would. And most notably, the revised plans call for vacating—and then selling—the Human Services Annex at State and Albany Streets.

(Feb. 12): Ithaca City School District Superintendent Dr. Luvelle Brown, in a little-reported statement to his School Board January 30th, proposed hefty across-the-board pay hikes for teachers and staff, using Ithaca’s skyrocketing property assessments to pay for them.

“I feel liberated to talk about it, and I would ask anyone to challenge me,” Dr. Brown said during a budget development overview to the Board. “Everything’s there; everything is public. We continue to move the levers. But I’m assuming that we can go 20 per cent over three years for all of our employees.”

“This isn’t some closed-door negotiating strategy; this is it,” Brown said, “because the numbers are the numbers.”

But those “numbers” relate to higher assessments. Using a misleading metric, ICSD officials focus exclusively on holding next year’s tax rate at its current level, but lean on valuations to boost the tax levy by nearly 12 per cent.

A bar graph presented the School Board showed levy revenue rising from its present $107.7 Million to just over $120 Million for 2024-25.

“We are lucky enough as a community to have cranes in the sky, so there is more tax revenue to tap into from construction costs,” Board member Eldred Harris commented.

But that oversimplifies: Some of those “cranes” are building tax-abated projects. Ballooning homeowner assessments account for much of the higher tax base. / RL

(Feb. 10): For many of us, the COVID-19 lockdown is a nightmare we’d rather purge from our memories. Not Tompkins County.

Set for committee review February 15^th is authorization to place a mural on the west wall of the County-owned Human Services Annex, facing Albany Street at State.

It would, we’re told, “highlight community resilience through the pandemic” and illustrate “the continued need for preventive measures such as COVID-19 vaccination.”

A $9,999 Centers for Disease Control (CDC) grant would reportedly fund the mural. But money issues aside, some may find it more than a bit morbid to celebrate a tragic time when schools closed down, businesses went bankrupt—and, oh yes—more than 100 local residents died from this disease.

Thursday’s Resolution attaches to it no design sketch. So our minds are left to wander. One can envision syringes, masks, nurses in PPE, and maybe even Dr. Fauci himself.

Forget, for the moment, that this downtown eyesore could enrage the community’s strong anti-Vaxx contingent. It just seems hard to imagine that anything a so-called “artist” might plaster up there could reflect anything better than terrible taste. / RL

(Feb. 9): By a vote of four-to-seven, Ithaca’s Common Council Wednesday rejected a staff proposal to raise rates—primarily youth rates—for patrons of the money-losing Newman Golf Course. But before she joined the opposition, Alderperson Phoebe Brown had an idea:

“Well, I suggest we should get rid of the golf course and turn it into a flood mitigation. And if not that, we have a homeless problem; we can build some homes or stilts over there. That’s my suggestion.”

Sometimes, it’s just best to let words rise and fall by their own sheer weight, sparing commentary.

Sadly, though, Phoebe Brown wasn’t the only Council member suggesting Newman’s closure. / RL

(Feb. 9): Enfield Planning Board Chair Dan Walker admits it’s not your garden-variety subdivision.

Adam Scholl wants to subdivide his wooded, 23-acre homestead tract that extends west of Van Dorn Road South and create three new building lots, each about one acre in size. Scholl presented his Sketch Plan to the Planning Board February 7th.

His would normally be just another minimally-regulated, Minor Subdivision under Town rules. There’d be the normal well water, sewage, and wetlands considerations. But Walker cautions that to make this project work, the chairman may need to enlist the Town Board’s help.

The problem is road frontage. There’s only 35 feet of it, Walker says. It’s the long, gravel driveway that extends to Scholl’s home. Placing new residences that front only the driveway, not the road, may require the Town Board to create something like a Special Development Area, an exception that satisfies the tract’s unique needs.

The Planning Board got its first look at School’s plans this Wednesday. Walker will study the matter further before the March meeting.

New Rules: Red at Top; The Pledge is Gone

(Feb. 7): This time may have been the last time.

By a unanimous vote preceded by zero discussion, Ithaca’s Common Council Wednesday night banished the Pledge of Allegiance from its meeting agendas.

The recitation’s removal was part of a major overhaul in Council’s Rules of Procedure which also abolished standing committees and transferred nuts-and-bolts business to multiple committee-of-the-whole meetings every month.

Yes, it came as a surprise when this Enfield Councilperson, employing privilege-of-the-floor as his vehicle, called upon all who were willing to stand and say the Pledge. Some Alderpersons joined in the recitation; others did not. After it was over, limited applause came from the visitors’ gallery.

This is not “performative,” it’s “demonstrative,” I informed Council. I’d demonstrated how little time it takes to say the Pledge, yet how important it is. It honors patriotism and tradition, I said, something many in this community respect.

Deletion of the Pledge grew to a foregone conclusion two weeks earlier when Council members at a work session saw little interest in its continuation and came up dry toward finding a substitute.

Given the absence of concern prior to Council’s vote Wednesday, hours after the last-ditch effort at retention had startled attendees, expect the Pledge of Allegiance never to be heard again in Common Council Chambers. (An extended story is now posted.) / RL

Supporter Greg Mezey

(Feb. 6): A plurality is not a majority. And with seven in favor, six opposed, and one member absent, the Tompkins County Legislature Tuesday defeated a controversial—and much-debated—Resolution that would have urged a cease-fire in the Gaza war, the return of Hamas-held hostages, and efforts toward a two-state solution to end the Middle East conflict.

“What the heck are you doing talking about foreign policy,” Groton’s Lee Shurtleff, a Resolution opponent, said constituents have asked him. Shurtleff said residents want more pressing local issues addressed.

“Globally is impacting locally,” Dryden’s Greg Mezey, one of the measure’s four authors, argued in pressing his colleagues think about issues beyond Tompkins’ borders.

The vote placed Enfield’s two County representatives in opposite corners, with Democrat Anne Koreman a strong supporter of the cease-fire Resolution, and Republican Randy Brown voting no.

Public speakers consumed the nearly two opening two hours of the Legislature’s session, attendees universally speaking in support of the later-defeated Resolution. But legislators revealed they’ve received some 700 emails, from writers mostly taking the other side.

Lansing’s Deborah Dawson, absent from Tuesday’s meeting, could have provided the eighth, swing vote to approve the Resolution, or she could resurrect it at a future meeting. But based on prior comments, Dawson, too, would have rejected a cease-fire request.

See the more detailed story, now posted.

Leg. Chair Tim Burtis (courtesy WSYR-TV)

(Feb. 7): Onondaga County has become the first to take on New York Governor Kathy Hochul over that new law she signed just before Christmas transferring most local elections from odd-to-even-numbered years.

The Republican-controlled Onondaga County Legislature voted Tuesday to authorize spending up to $100,000 in legal fees to contest the election year law on the basis that a legislative action shouldn’t override a county’s own charter.

“This is about the charter,” Legislature Chair Timothy Burtis told reporters. “You can’t just run over the charter…. If the governor or anybody else wants to override that, I would have the same reaction. We have a charter. That is the law of our land.”

Tompkins County, like Onondaga, has a charter. So arguably the same grounds would exist for local lawmakers protesting the election law… should they have the stomach and the wallet to do so.

Some Onondaga County Democrats believe Republicans jumped the gun. “It would just make sense before we start to implement this to reach out to some of these other counties to see how they feel about it,” Democratic legislator Charles Garland told Spectrum news.

The Onondaga County Executive will make the final call on whether to sue. But Ryan McMahon has already criticized the new law.

Though any lawsuit at first blush would only affect county elections, a victory by opponents could potentially drag down the whole law, impacting town elections too. / RL

Unit 602; new pumper

(Feb. 7): There was lots of anticipation, but no action Tuesday by the Enfield Board of Fire Commissioners concerning upcoming lease agreements to transfer fire apparatus—and also use of the fire house—from the Enfield Volunteer Fire Company (EVFC) to the newly-created Enfield Fire District.

“Hopefully by early-March we can make it official,” Board Chairman Greg Stevenson advised Commissioners regarding those lease papers. The District’s new attorney, Mark Butler, is finishing work on documents. Stevenson expects to disclose terms by the Board’s next meeting, February 20^th. Because papers must be traded, and because the EVFC Board won’t meet for nearly another month, Fire Commissioners target their own adoptions for March 5th.

Plans call for the fire house to remain under EVFC ownership. A 2020 tanker truck, still not paid off, would likely stay with the Fire Company and be leased. “All other apparatus would be transferred to the Fire District,” Stevenson predicted.

At its prior session, contrary to voter direction given in a late-October referendum, Commissioners agreed not to bond the tanker, but only the newer, pricier pumper truck, a vehicle subject of some community controversy. Stevenson said at the next meeting, he should have “something that looks like a contract” to proceed toward the bond market.

Commissioners held a closed-session Tuesday to discuss engaging a financial services company to assist. After the public session, Stevenson said no decision’s been made whether to bond the $825,000 pumper for seven years or ten.

AWOL for the SC win (photo courtesy the AP)

(Feb. 4): Democrats, we’ve got a problem.

On Saturday, President Biden won the South Carolina Democratic Primary… and by a lot. Biden secured 96 per cent of the vote; his two leading challengers just two per cent each. Congratulations, Joe, Palmetto State Democrats love you. You deserve to celebrate.

But there was no victory speech. Instead, our President was far away, “headed for a fundraising swing through Southern California and Nevada,” CNN informs us. Quite obviously, Biden took victory for granted. His campaign merely issued a written statement. I’m told there was a short online video somewhere, but you’ll have trouble finding it.

Had Donald Trump won by 96 per cent, do you think he’d be hiding inside some private fundraiser in LA when networks projected his win? No, he’d be at a South Carolina podium, with crowds cheering and cameras rolling. He’d never let us forget the moment.

Our President had better wake up: These days, Rose Garden strategies don’t work. Cory, Gretchen, or Gavin wouldn’t have been in hiding Saturday. Joe shouldn’t have been, either.

Sadly, deep down in my gut, I feel 2024 slipping away. It’s our fault if it does. / RL

Kelles: Extend the fracking ban to cover CO2

(Feb. 3): We in Enfield will always lay claim to fighting fracking first. Actually, we didn’t; we may have just shouted loudest.

Now Assemblymember Anna Kelles and State Senator Lea Webb have teamed up to sponsor legislation that would halt the gas industry’s newest end-run around existing state prohibitions. It would ban the use of carbon dioxide as well as water to extract gas from the shale rock.

“Pressurized CO2 transportation and ground injection poses severe health and environmental threats,” Kelles said in an online news conference Friday. “There is no conclusive evidence that injected CO2 will stay in the ground, but we know it will lead to methane leakage already proven to have significant negative health impacts.”

A leak can get so bad, Kelles stated, that excess carbon dioxide stalls the engines of EMS vehicles trying to reach the gas leak.

What’s more, Kelles said, the gas “must be transported through a spiderweb of thousands of miles of pipelines across the country risking pipe corrosion and ruptures.” She claimed a rupture has already happened in Mississippi.

Environmentalists warn that a Texas-based fracking firm is now peddling lease offers in the Southern Tier to extract gas this new way.

It’s too early to predict the bill’s prospects for passage.

(Feb. 3): Here’s why I dislike those political machines that lie beyond the boundaries of Enfield.

You may recall that in 2022 I circulated the designating petitions of Long Island Democrat Tom Suozzi in the race for Governor. I was maybe the only one in Tompkins County to do so. Suozzi is a centrist like me. He finished poorly in the Primary. New York was too liberal for him.

But now in a special election, voters have the disgraced ex-Congressman George Santos’ seat to fill. It’s a swing district. Dems want to win it back. And so they have nothing but praise these days for their party’s nominee… Tom Suozzi.

“Tom Suozzi has a proven record of fighting for his constituents, fighting to safeguard our suburban way of life… and always advocating for sensible solutions to the real challenges affecting everyday average Americans,” Democratic Party leaders said in a statement as they hand-picked the self-proclaimed moderate for a February 13^th Special Election.

Would-be House Speaker Hakeem Jeffries praised Suozzi as a leader with “a proven record of results.” Dem bosses chased former State Senator Anna Kaplan out. She abandoned her campaign and endorsed Suozzi.

Come canvass for us; phone bank for us, the state party now pesters me weekly. Of course, my obvious answer: “Where were you guys when Tom and I needed you? Like nowhere.” / RL

(Feb. 1): For its third straight meeting, expect throngs to crowd into the Tompkins County Legislature’s chambers February 6^th to support Palestinian rights in Gaza. Only this time, lawmakers may adopt something in response.

Four Democrats, including Ulysses-Enfield’s Anne Koreman, have submitted a Member-Filed Resolution, posted with the meeting’s agenda, that would, among its provisions, ask local legislative endorsement of a “sustainable ceasefire from all sides to stop the ongoing war and violence” in Gaza and the “initiation of an international peace process to negotiate a two-state solution.”

The four members’ initiative comes in response to pleadings from left-of-center activists who’d consumed much of the Legislature’s past two meetings, protesters urging support for an Israel-Hamas cease fire,. Many of those speakers blamed Israel of genocide.

Do not expect Koreman’s Resolution to pass without objection. Lansing Republican Mike Sigler has criticized those who spoke at past meetings, Sigler blaming Hamas for having launched the terrorist attack and saying Israel holds the right to defend itself.

Though the Resolution attempts even-handedness, its text states that “the only chance for a secure and peaceful future for Israelis and Palestinians is with a two-state solution.”

County legislators have reportedly received as many as 700 emails on the cease-fire topic. We’re told many of those written comments were pro-Israel.

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.