HomeMy WebLinkAboutReport of the Mayor 8/18/1975REPORT OF MAYOR
8/18/75
We circulated with our agenda for last month's meeting a copy of a resolution by the
Lansing Village Board regarding County taxes and County road policy and planning.
At our last meeting you asked me to meet with Mayor Seymour Smidt to discuss the
Lansing resolution and find out more about•its purpose. I had a long meeting with
Mayor Smidt. together we opened up the topics which the Lansing Board bad discussed
and we agreed that we should try to restate the intention of that Board in passing
the resolution. I wrote a new statement and Mayor Smidt changed a phrase or two.
I enclose it herewith.
Mayor Smidt passed on to me a copy of a letter from Transportation Commissioner Shuler
to the Clerk of the Tompkins County Board of Representatives regarding transfer of
part of Forth Triphammer Road from the County to the Village of Lansing. The
Commissioner's words seemed to give an excellent opportunity to raise with him the
general issue of abandonment of roads by the County to Villages. I sent him the
following letter,
"I have seen your letter of July 30 to Ms. Rowell, Clerk, Board of Representatives,
Tompkins County, thanks to ?Mayor of the Village of Lansing, our next door neighbor.
I wish to raise a question or two regarding the second part of your letter in which
you mention Cayuga Heights Road, Burdick Hill Road, and Warren Road. You say, "In
considering these three roads separately, I would like the County to indicate the
Village is cognizant of the County's intention to abandon these roads and an express-
ion of their desires and wishes with respect to such proposal as well as the fiscal
impact on an immediate and long -term basis to the Village of Lansing."
• I heartily applaud the policy expressed in these words. It has been the practice in
this County, as far as the Village of Cayuga Heights is concerned and, I believe,
generally, for the County to abandon roads on notice given. In our case, and somewhat
more dramatically than in the case of Lansing, this has meant that we have suddenly
found ourselves responsible for the maintenance, policing, and other supervision of
roads that are only in a limited sense Village roads. Perhaps 95% of the traffic on
these roads is general traffic, shall we say County traffic. We inherited from the
County part of Triphammer Road, the part most heavily used, and with it we inherited
a host of problems as to maintenance, sidewalks, stop signs, dangerous intersections,
etc., which would not exist, except in minor form if this were truly a Village road.
And so it goes with other roads that the County has abandoned to us. All this is
history and perhaps beyond remedy.
•
I hope that those words of yours which I have quoted express a general statement of
policy, and I do this not for the benefit of this Village. Rather, I hope that your
department has recognized that some Villages, such as ours, serve to a considerable
degree as channels for commuter traffic moving from one part of the County to another,
in this instance to the City of Ithaca and Cornell University. In these circumstances,
it seems altogether unjust that Villagers like ourselves pay County taxes which go to
support County roads and find that they have to pay Village taxes as well to maintain
roads that are primarily for the benefit of the County.
I hope I have interpreted your words correctly and shall be glad to hear your comments
on this topic.
'Yours sincerely,
F. G. Marcham,Mayor
Village of Cayuga Heights "