Optimism abounds at State of the Area, despite government shutdown
By Lauren Young
Staff writer
About 60 people braved the wintry weather to attend the State of the Area address at the Morgan Room inside Hubbard Hall at Cazenovia College on Thursday, Jan. 24.
They were treated to comments by several local, state and federal elected officials about ongoing issues affecting local residents.
This event, hosted annually by the Greater Cazenovia Area Chamber of Commerce (GCACC), reviewed recent topics like Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposed 2019-2020 Executive budget, the impact of the recent government shutdown (that ended just hours later), the loss of Aid and Incentives to Municipalities (AIM) funding for villages and towns, and the overall decrease in student enrollments.
U.S. Congress
Congressman Anthony Brindisi was first on the list, but was unable to attend after being called back to Washington D.C. earlier that week. His district director Sarah Bormann instead updated everyone on office happenings by reading from a letter Brindisi wrote.
In his letter, Brindisi said this is the first time a new congress had been sworn in during a government shutdown, which had become the longest shutdown in the nation’s history at a total of 35 days.
“This is very disappointing; this is no way for our government to operate,” Brindisi wrote in his letter. “We cannot continue to govern crisis to crisis in this manner, and we cannot play politics with people’s lives.”
Brindisi said the U.S. economy had lost over $3.5 billion from the shutdown, and “the longer it continues, the worse it gets.”
Over the last few weeks, Brindisi wrote that he has voted on several bipartisan bills to “get the government back up and running” — the first bill he sponsored, called the No Budget, No Pay Act, states that if members of Congress cannot pass a budget on time, they should not get paid.
Last week, Brindisi was also appointed to the Agriculture and Veterans Affairs committees.
Colleen Deacon, Regional Representative for Gov. Andrew Cuomo, spoke next to review Gov. Cuomo’s recent budget proposal, which features another $750 million in Economic Regional Development Councils, which provide funding for local projects like Knowles in Cazenovia, which received $1.8 million during the last round of awards to better compete in the radio frequency filtering market and allow it to meet the increasing need for 5G telecommunication technology and infrastructure.
NYS Assembly
For the Assemblyman John Salka, who started his position in the 121st District earlier this month, he has learned that Albany is a “complex environment” and that he has “a lot to learn.”
“The short time that I’ve been in Albany has been very, very exciting, and an incredible lesson,” said Salka.
Noting that Cuomo eliminated AIM funding for villages and towns that rely on the state aid for less than 2 percent of their expenditures, Salka said he and his colleagues see the restoration of AIM funding as a priority. For the town of Cazenovia, Salka said, it’s about a $29,000 loss.
“I’m excited about getting things done,” he said.
Salka said a proposal for the bottle bill expansion, also part of Cuomo’s budget, will be on the horizon, but will debate his plastic bag ban.
“We want to make sure we talk to people in the business community to make sure that doesn’t put more stress on them, and if it does, how can we help them out,” said Salka.
Salka said he will continue to participate in more town hall meetings and plans to visit Cazenovia for one sometime this summer.
Town of Fenner
Fenner Town Councilor Kristi Andersen, who spoke in place of Supervisor Dave Jones, said 2018 was a year of infrastructure, and this month marks the town operating the sewage treatment plant for a full year after it took it over from the county.
The town also constructed its 2019 town budget with a nearly-flat tax rate and construction for the Nelson Route 20 Water District, an Intermunicipal project between Cazenovia and Nelson, will start this year.
The town has also taken strides in protecting the lake, like developing and finalizing Lakeshore Development Guidelines, and for several years, has also been working on a micro-hydro electricity-generating project in New Woodstock, which has become recently functional, said Andersen.
The electricity generated by this project will produce a credit for the town office’s electrical use, she said.
“It’s so new, so we don’t know how much of our electricity bill it’s going to cover, but it’ll save the town some money,” said Andersen.
“It makes fiscal sense for the village, it’ll save us money and you can also feel good about how you’re generating that electricity,” later commented Mayor of Cazenovia Kurt Wheeler about the project.
Town of Nelson
Tammy Hayes, Nelson Deputy Town Supervisor, on behalf of Supervisor Roger Bradstreet, shared similar progressive news — adding that the 2019 Nelson town tax rate is down to 2.65 percent of 1,000th of assessed value, compared to its previous rate of 2.76 last year, and are under the tax cap by at least five percent.
The town is also revamping its road maintenance schedule, due to its reimbursement of CHIPS funds, and introduced a Little Free Library earlier this winter with a new one coming to Erieville in the spring.
The Comprehensive Plan was also recently completed, which included a survey that reached over 300 households.
The U.S. Route 20 Safety Improvement Project, which altered the hamlet streetscape of roads and sidewalks to make it safer for pedestrians, bicyclists and cars, began in 2017 and finished last year, and a walking loop through the hamlet is coming soon.
This walking loop, said Hayes will feature the creation of a trail, just under two miles long going through the Nelson Swamp, and connecting the town office buildings. The trails were designed by SUNY ESF students under the guidance of John Dunkle, Cazenovia town engineer and Nelson Planning Board chair.
Hayes said it will provide a recreational path for residents and visitors. It also will include a walking bridge.
Cazenovia College
Student enrollments are shrinking at many colleges across the nation, especially small, private colleges in the northeast, like Cazenovia College, said Cazenovia College President Ron Chesbrough, who said colleges like Cazenovia are “struggling,” and will face deficits for at least the next two years.
The impact has resulted in the college deferring capital projects, cutting costs and selling assets, which he said has alternatively benefited the village.
“As Superintendent Reilly will attest, the high school-going and college-going demographic has declined for years, and will continue to do so for several more years,” said Chesbrough.
Selling its assets, however, has benefited the village, to which the Mayor of Cazenovia Kurt Wheeler attested, describing how one significant commercial property and several residential properties from the college “put a couple million dollars of assessed value back on the tax rolls.”
On the brighter side, Chesbrough said the college is in the middle of a “dramatic enrollment turnaround.”
This past fall, they had a 25 percent increase in student enrollment, a trend continuing into next year where it is expecting another 20 percent increase in enrollment, he said.
“If our numbers hold for the fall of 2019, we will have seen an increase of 50 new students, year after year, two years in a row,” said Chesbrough.
In the past year, the college has also launched four new majors and this fall, will be launching its first graduate program — in clinical mental health counseling.
“It’s a very high-needs area, and enrollments are stacked up already,” said Chesrough.
A campus center was also created at Watts Hall, which stood as an empty residence hall for most of the year, he said.
Cazenovia Central Schools
While enrollments have also been dropping at the Cazenovia Central School District, Superintendent Matt Reilly started out his speech with a question on many parents’ minds.
“Two is the answer — that’s the number of snow days that we have remaining before we have to start looking at vacation,” said Reilly.
Last year Reilly reported on the district’s progress for its Strategic Plan; this year, he reported that the plan had been approved, and the district has narrowed its focus to three areas: Challenging and engaging all students; organizational and individual wellness; and communication.
As part of last year’s budget deliberations, Reilly said the school board included $100,000 of undesignated funds to improve student health and safety.
“We made great use of those monies,” said Reilly. With that money, the district hired a School Resource Officer (SRO) and a part-time mental health coordinator. The district also passed a $1 million capital project in December, and have made a “dramatic improvement” in overall school district finance.
Village of Cazenovia
Mayor of Cazenovia Kurt Wheeler also had positive things to share, announcing how a kayak launch dock will open this spring in Lincklaen Park, built through grant funding and local matches, and the village will open a new park behind the Cazenovia Public Library called Creekside Community Park.
Wheeler said the village has experienced a steady growth in assessed value and sales tax, and during this year and the year ahead, the village will convert its streetlights to LED, which will lower costs and are more environmentally-friendly.
NYS Senate
New York Senator Rachel May, the new state senator for the 53rd District, took the mic as the evening’s final speaker, describing her transition into the role and her rejection of Cuomo’s eliminated AIM funding, which she believes is “totally inadequate.” However, Cuomo’s addition of $15 million for the Office for the Aging, Inc. to help with issues like reaching out to aging citizens unable to access care services, said May, is helpful in rural counties like Madison County.
Now that both the state Senate and Assembly are controlled by Democrats, May said some residents may be concerned by how it will impact Upstate New York, but she assured the audience that she was “unbelievably impressed” by her colleagues and the senate.
“These are passionate, knowledgeable, talented people who represent a pretty broad cross-section of the state,” she said. “They are very eager to make sure that they understand the issues that we’re facing Upstate.”
