HomeMy WebLinkAboutReport of the Mayor 1/20/19750
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VILLAGE OF CAYUGA HEIGHTS
Report of the Mayor
January 20, 1975
Supervisor McDermott, of the Town of Lansing, has presented to me for
signature a contract to provide for service for Lansing Sewer District
No. 4. This District is designed geographically to serve the area in
which the Town hopes the Pyramid Mall will be located. I wrote to
Mr. McDermott to say that certain issues regarding disposal of sewage
from this area have not been settled and further that I was concerned
about legal problems that might arise when the Village of Lansing came
into being. Roger Sovocool says that if we sign this contract with the
Town of Lansing and the Village wishes to challenge the validity of
the contract or to make another contract with us, we may be involved
in extensive litigation. His advice is to wait until Village of Lansing
elections have taken place and the Village of Lansing adopts a policy on
the question of Sewer District No. 4.
The County Board of Health extended the sewage disposal arrangements for
the McDonald's Restaurant from January 1 to June 30, 1975 and offered as
a chief reason for doing so the inability of our Sewer Plant to accommodate
the sewage from the restaurant. I called Mr. McDermott and asked him how
this false statement got into the record. He,said he did not know. I
spoke also to Dr. Gaffney, County Health Officer, who seemed not to be aware
of our difficulties with the Town of Lansing over the location of Sewer
District No. 3. I said that we needed the County's help in putting pressure
on the Town of Lansing to form District No. 3. I explained to her also that
our concern about District No. 3 had a bearing on our policy regarding
District No. 4.
Professor Macneil's letter concerning the Ceracche Television franchise
coincided with a letter from Mr. Wiggins asking us to hold a public hearing
on the subject on January 20. I replied to Mr. Wiggins that the letter and
the concern expressed by some of our Trustees and by the City of Ithaca
seemed to justify further consideration of the matter by the Village Board
before we arranged for a public hearing. I have since learned that
Mr. Ceracche has agreed to provide for us some basic documents referred to
in Professor Macneil's letter. I have asked him for them.
When I learned that the Federal Government's plan for creating jobs seemed
likely to provide quickly a dozen or so jobs to be at the disposal of local
municipalities, I wrote to the County Personnel Officer stating that we could
use 3 or 4 laborers on our work force. I understand that one has been
allocated to us.
We have had further negotiations with the Commissioner of Agriculture and
Markets over our Dog Ordinance and the contract with the local chapter of
the S.P.C.A. It appears that the contract is approved end that we must make
• few adjustments in the ordinance. For this purpose, we shall need to hold
• public hearing in February.
After discussion with Albany and the County Assessment office over our Equali-
zation Rate, Mr. Wheeler and I decided that there was not enough time to pre-
pare the elaborate documentation needed to justify a formal protest before
the Commissioner in Albany. We have received from them more information re-
garding their procedures and have asked them to give us an opportunity to be
party to their deliberations next year.