HomeMy WebLinkAboutTCCOG Monthly Report October 8, 2025Monthly Report
Tompkins County Council of Governments
for October 8, 2025
by Councilperson Robert Lynch
Enfield TCCOG Representative
The Tompkins County Council of Governments (TCCOG) met on September 26. The meeting addressed
two action items. TCCOG also entertained several discussion topics.
EMS: By a unanimous vote, TCCOG adopted a resolution urging Governor Hochul to sign a bill passed
earlier this year by the New York State Senate and Assembly, a bill that would require each county to
work with local governments and EMS councils to “develop a countywide EMS plan” within six months
of signing. The TCCOG resolution is similar to one presented by Councilperson Hinkle to the Enfield
Town Board and adopted by Enfield’s Board August 13.
“It’s another step, an incremental step towards the requirement that EMS and ambulance service
becomes an essential service in New York,” Dan Lamb, TCCOG meeting chair, said in the resolution’s
support. “And so, if we go this far, OK, the sky didn’t fall; let’s go all the way and require this as an
essential service, just like we do with fire,” he said. Legislation that would assign “essential service”
status to EMS didn’t pass the New York Legislature this year, although Lamb had hoped it would have.
The TCCOG resolution adopted September 26 differed from Enfield’s in that it lacked Councilperson
Hinkle’s stipulation to relieve towns and villages of financial burdens. At TCCOG, I’d offered a
paraphrased version of that stipulation as an amendment:
“Resolved, further, that any expanded local EMS operations mandated as a result of this
coordinated, county-wide planning effort be supported by funding from state and county
sources and not burden local municipalities…”
After debate, the proposed amendment failed, ten votes to one. Only this TCCOG member supported it.
Several TCCOG members spoke against the amendment. “My town’s already got skin in the game, and
we’re not talking about stepping back,” said Dan Lamb, whose town, Dryden, already heavily subsidizes
its local ambulance service. “We’re willing to put in some money to make sure that our residents are
protected,” Lamb stated. “I don’t think we have a proposal on the table to say whatever you do we’re
not going to pay for anything. I don’t know if that’s the right attitude.”
“I’d love if the state contributed money, but I don’t think it’ll happen,” Dryden Village Mayor Mike
Murphy added. Caroline Supervisor Mark Witmer called the funding issue “undecided and complex.”
“This bill is silent with respect to funding,” Mayor Rordan Hart of Trumansburg, another community with
municipal ambulance service, remarked. “I don’t think us adding any language with respect to how it
should be funded is relevant to the question.”
Tompkins County has already commissioned a consultant’s study that’s working toward a plan to meet
the criteria the bill before Governor Hochul would require counties to prepare. The report had been
expected by September. TCCOG was advised its release has been delayed until late-October.
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Toxic Sewage Sludge: As a second action item, TCCOG endorsed unanimously a resolution urging
Tompkins County place a five-year moratorium on land application of all forms of sewage sludge. The
resolution also requests the New York State Legislature adopt a “comprehensive sewage sludge bill,”
one that would, among its provisions, impose a five-year statewide moratorium on spreading sludge.
TCCOG’s recommendation followed a presentation at its July meeting by Claire Walsh Winsler, Director
of Food, Agriculture and Land Use for Environmental Advocates New York. Walsh Winsler at the time
described the danger of the sludge’s application onto farmland as it likely contains amounts of PFAS, so-
called “forever” chemicals, which if injected by humans or farm animals can endanger public health.
To the best of knowledge by anyone at the meeting, no such sludge is being spread on land in Tompkins
County currently. County Legislator Anne Koreman said she understands all local sewage plants send
their sludge to landfills. Indeed, landfilling remains the lone alternative if the material cannot be spread.
“I think it’s outrageous that this situation was allowed to develop in the first place, Danby Supervisor
Joel Gagnon remarked. “We’re wasting the materials by landfilling instead of completing the cycle of
putting them back on the land,” Gagnon said. He’d hope that some future “remediation” could later
render the sludge free from contaminants and available to spread. “There are nutrients in it. It does
make things grow,” Dan Lamb acknowledged. “But it also results in biocontamination,” Lamb said.
I’d expressed some reluctance prior to my vote, concerned I’d only heard Walsh Winsler’s side of the
argument, not the other. I also questioned why state legislation imposing the statewide moratorium,
while passing the State Senate, died this year in an Assembly Committee. Dan Lamb answered that he’d
heard that some sewage plant operators have found it less expensive to have the sludge spread onto
farmland rather than to landfill it. Reservations aside, I supported the resolution, recognizing the
environmental consciousness of the Town Board I represent.
Broadband: Nick Helmholdt of the Tompkins County Planning Department detailed the latest
developments in extending broadband Internet service to unserved homes in Tompkins County,
including to a scattering of Enfield residences. The news proved mixed. On September 17, Governor
Hochul had announced the award of grant money to expand broadband statewide. The award included
$803,700 to newly-serve 523 Tompkins County locations.
But rather than the hard-wired extensions Tompkins County had proposed, the state-authorized
provider, Geneva-based Community Broadband Networks (CBN), would provide “fixed wireless internet
service,” over-the-air technology. Tompkins County had originally proposed that locally-based Point
Broadband provide hard-wired service. Haefele Connect would have subcontracted with Point
Broadband to serve many of the Enfield locations. Helmholdt admitted the change was based on
economics and reflected federal regulatory changes over the summer.
“This is not what the county had originally proposed,” Helmholdt acknowledged. Nevertheless, he said,
“the folks at the state seem confident that this will meet the criteria required for the federal funding to
be used and provide broadband for those locations that are currently unserved across the county.”
“We had previous experience with a fixed wireless and the technology proved not to be as useful as we
had hoped because of line-of-sight issues,” Danby’s Joel Gagnon said. Helmholdt responded that the
provider has maintained that technology has “significantly improved” over the past decade. “We’re
taking it at their word at this point,” Helmholdt said.
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I’d recalled that Tompkins County had initially insisted that the broadband extensions be hard-wired.
“Should we try for something better?” I asked. Helmholdt admitted Tompkins County wanted “a
terrestrial solution, preferably fiber,” but that the state’s announcement forecloses that option.
“So should we look at it further?” I then asked. “Should we have another investigation to see if we need
and deserve something better?”
Helmholdt conceded defeat. “I’d say the prospect of getting additional money at this point seems low,”
the planner said.
“The gravy train for broadband internet, I think, has come to a halt,” Dryden’s Dan Lamb observed, “and
we’re lucky we got what we have at this point in this community. It’s a lot more than we had just a few
years ago.”
Other Matters: Doug Barnes, Senior Environmental Health Specialist for the Tompkins County Whole
Health Department, provided TCCOG a lengthy presentation on new lead and copper restrictive
regulations that will soon impact public water systems, including multi-family water supplies . The most
pertinent regulation discussed was a 2024 rule that will require replacement of all lead service lines,
starting in 2027 and continuing through 2037. Barnes’ entire presentation can be viewed on the TCCOG
meeting portal at the Tompkins County website.
Respectfully submitted,
Robert Lynch
Councilperson
Enfield TCCOG Representative