www.tompkinsweekly.com Locally Owned & Operated Your source for local news & events Volume 9, No. 13 • January 26-February 1, 2015 FREE ALSO IN THIS ISSUE… Pipeline Project Questioned By Lori Sonken We negotiate each easement with each landowner,” Landowners in Dryden and Negus said. Freeville are angry about “Why force these nice the $1 offer they received people to spend their money from the New York State and hire their own lawyer Gas and Electric Corp. to specify all the proper (NYSEG) for a permanent things that should go into easement giving the utility the easement?” asked Marcia Fort offers a call the right to use their prop- Lavine. She echoed com- to action on Martin erty to install and maintain ments made by West Luther King Jr. celebra- a 10-inch underground gas Dryden Road resident Sue pipeline, and permission to Stein and others that many ........................................page 2 tion sell the easement to third people cannot afford to pay parties. a lawyer to negotiate an “I feel like I’m getting the easement. shaft by NYSEG. They Despite pleas from Sum- ner and Lavine to NYSEG to would give me $1 to tear up Photo by Lori Sonken my property. It feels insult- Bob Pass, regional community outreach and development manager for change the easement tem- ing,” said Stephen Merlin, a NYSEG, answers questions during a hearing in Dryden regarding the plate and a request to talk Freeville resident. He spoke utility’s gas pipeline project. with someone at NYSEG at a meeting on Jan. 15 about modifying the lan- organized by the Dryden Freeville to the Town of if any landowner has guage in the easement, Bob Town Board. After first Lansing. The pipeline requested more than the $1 Pass, NYSEG’s regional hearing from the public, the would tie into existing facil- NYSEG is offering. This community outreach and Personal accounts to be town board turned to ities at Warren Road, where information is confidential, development manager, aired at “People’s State NYSEG’s representatives a new regulator station said Jennifer Negus, real made no promises. “I can- ................page 3 for a response. would be built to reduce gas estate representative for not comment if we are able of the Union’ NYSEG contends that the pressure in the pipeline to NYSEG’s Ithaca division. to do that,” he said. distribution pipeline is Lansing. Dryden Supervisor Mary If easements are not needed to reinforce the sys- Some opponents are con- Ann Sumner, council- granted, “eminent domain Lane targets state man- tem in Ithaca, to bring cerned that the pipeline woman Linda Lavine and is an option,” said Bovee, power to three new residen- would be used to fuel the councilman Greg Sloan the project manager. He is dates at legislature meet- tial projects and one mixed Cayuga Power Plant in asked NYSEG representa- not clear on how the emi- ing..........................................page 5 use project in Lansing, and Lansing. But project man- tives to rewrite the ease- nent domain process would to provide new capacity for ager, David Bovee, refutes ment to make it less vague. unfold. NYSEG intends to the future. this. “This pipeline will not NYSEG representatives begin construction this As planned, the seven- be used to reposer the declined to make changes to summer. Letters, opinion ..........page 6 mile-long steel pipeline, Cayuga Power Plant,”he the the form they say is Councilman Sloan ques- known as the Lansing- said. used company-wide, but tioned the tactics used by Freeville Reinforcement Since October the utility they will consider amend- NYSEG to get landowners Project, would carry natu- has been asking about 100 ments proposed by the to sign the easements. He ral gas along Route 34B and landowners to sign ease- landowners. As written, the said residents have told him West Dryden, Farrell and ments granting permission easement requires they were discouraged from Warren roads from an exist- to use land 15 feet from the landowners to retain liabili- hiring a lawyer and were ing connection with edge of the pavement. It’s ty for the pipeline. told that their neighbors Dominion Transmission not clear how many “Each easement is nego- had signed an easement Inc.’s interstate pipeline in landowners have signed, or tiated on a one-to-one basis. Please turn to page 16 Signs of hope in war- torn Kosovo....................page 8 Morey, Snyder in Special Election By Nick Babel him a strong candidate to represent Snyder cites his experience work- the district. “I am a middle-class per- ing with the community. “I have Voters in Tompkins County’s 9th son with middle-class values. I have worked on at least four campaigns and District will choose betwen Repub- always believed that good government have extensive experience meeting lican candidate Glenn Morey, Groton means that the values of the middle and speaking with the voters of the Town Supervisor, and Democrat Neil class will be taken into account when Town and Village of Groton. I have Snyder, also of Groton, in the Feb. 10 legislation is being written,” he says. worked behind the scenes to insure special election to fill the unexpired “I have served the people of Tompkins that elections run smoothly and have term of former Tompkins County leg- County in a variety of roles for years managed three polling sites in islator Brian Robison. and realize that good government Tompkins County for five years,” he Robison resigned at the end of means being able to work with a vari- says. His experience includes provid- Kitchen cast tries living November to accept appointment as ety of people. The legislature is made ing technologies and services to insti- in the past ......................page 9 Tompkins County Undersheriff. The up of a diverse group of people who tutions that include the Federal 9th District comprises the Town of make it their business to work togeth- Reserve Bank, Temple University and Groton and portions of the towns of er. They are inclusive and not exclu- a variety of corporations. He has also Dryden and Lansing. sive when they sit down to craft legis- worked in the financial products and Environmental racism “My experience includes leading lation.” services area. “In Tompkins County I through the years....page 10 the Town of Groton for the last 15 Both candidates have spent many have served the public for eight years years. I bring knowledge of energy years in local politics. “My experience on the front end of a local grocery sourcing, computer technology and as Groton Town Supervisor from 2000 store.” telecommunications as a strategic to present, and village trustee from Both men spoke about their reasons sourcing manager for Cornell 1991 to 2000, will help me at the county for running for this legislature posi- University,”Morey says. “I am a mem- level,” says Morey. Among his accom- tion. ber of the Finance Committee for the plishments as supervisor, he says, are “I want to maintain the same dia- Tompkins County Council of “maintaining a virtually flat tax rate logue that Brian Robison started for Governments’ Health Insurance that is actually lower than what it was the needs and benefits for the rural Consortium, I am chairman of Groton 15 years ago,” keeping the Town of community of District 9. Our needs Youth Commission and serve on the Groton debt-free and maintaining a are not the same needs of the larger Groton Community Council. All of healthy fund balance, updating communities in Tompkins County.We the positions I have held require the Groton’s zoning and land use laws to require more work in infrastructure ability to interact with diverse groups protect property rights and obtaining such as roads, agricultural needs such and to communicate effectively.” $900,000 in housing grants to benefit as getting the product to market and Snyder says that his values make low to medium income homeowners. Please turn to page 16 A Call to Action at MLK Celebration By Sue Henninger However, when she saw people come together in cities and towns “In Ithaca, let us all be dissatisfied to peacefully protest these events, until the reality in our 10 square she experienced a sense of pride miles is one of justice, equality and and relief, believing that there is a humanity,” said Marcia Fort, direc- new civil rights movement on the tor of the Greater Ithaca Activities horizon, one that will be coordinat- Center (GIAC), to a cheering crowd ed by committed young adults. at GIAC’s annual Martin Luther Fort also cautioned the multigen- King Jr. Community Breakfast. erational audience not to let them- Fort, the keynote speaker of this selves be distracted by media cover- year’s event, was introduced by age of events relating to race or longtime friend Audrey Cooper, civil rights, because it often focuses who recently retired as director of on the “wrong things.” the Multicultural Resource Center She also cited two troubling inci- in Ithaca. Emphasizing that Fort is dents in the Ithaca area, one in a frequently requested speaker on which African-American teens had topics like diversity, leadership, a negative encounter with local inclusion, and oppression, Cooper by Sue Henninger police “that changed their view of added that Fort has been the recipi- this community and their place in ent of numerous awards over the Photo it,” and another where her friends, years, including the New York State Marcia Fort, director of the Greater Ithaca Activities Center, was the keynote speaker at a gay couple, were harassed down- Harriet Tubman Humanitarian GIAC’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Community Breakfast.