| COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATION: COUNTY NEEDS NEW BUILDINGS
Frank Proto, chair of the County’s Space Needs & Location Committee, reported that the committee has recommended the County begin design and construction of at least two new buildings within the next three years. The committee has released its final report, which recommends a new downtown office building on the site of the Old Library and a new building next to the existing Biggs B building on West Hill. In both cases, the land is owned by the County. A third building, at an undetermined location, would house the Community Justice Center. The estimated costs of the buildings are $15 million for the downtown building; $9.5 for a new Health Department building; and a little over $3 million for the Justice Center. Proto remarked that his committee had simply done the work of researching alternatives and costing out what is needed. The Legislature will now decide what it thinks is appropriate. Any decision to go forward would be done as part of the County’s annual budget and capital program deliberations. The severe deterioration of the Biggs B building, which houses the County Health Department, is driving the recommendation for a new structure. Repairs to the building have been estimated at over $11 million. The committee considered a location on the Route 13 corridor in the City of Ithaca, but felt using the West Hill land is the best option. More County government office space will be needed to replace space lost when the state court system expands its operations in the County Courthouse, and a study of space requirements has shown deficiencies in several downtown departments. The committee studied a variety of options including reuse of the Old Library building on North Cayuga Street and a new “center of government” building on an alternate downtown site. Once it weighed costs and efficiencies, the committee recommended demolishing the Old Library building and putting a new structure on the site. This use of the Old Library site would displace the Community Justice Center, where drug court offices and the day reporting program are housed. The committee presented a conceptual design of a new building for this use, ideally located near the Probation Department on West State Street. The committee’s report recommends that design work for the buildings start in 2006/2007 and that the County plan for construction beginning in 2007/2008. The Legislators’ initial reaction to the report ranged from cautious to negative. Committee members acknowledged that their votes were rarely unanimous and disagreements among them remain. The debate among the other Legislators indicated many opposing points of view. It was also noted that the Public Safety Building, while not a subject of the committee’s review, presents another high priority. A resolution accepting the final report of the Space Needs & Location Committee will be presented to the Legislature for approval its next meeting, August 16. Copies of the report are available from the Legislature office, 274-5434. ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW OF COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM IS UNDER WAY Lee Shurtleff, the County’s Director of Emergency Response, reported to the Legislature on the progress of the upgrade of the Public Safety Communications System – the countywide emergency radio communications network used for fire, police, and emergency medical personnel. Shurtleff reported that Tompkins County has started the environmental review process for the project, leading to the release of a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) in early October. ENSR International – an environmental assessment consulting firm with offices in Syracuse, Albany, and Rochester – will study aspects of the system and transmission sites that could affect the surrounding environment and community character. ENSR staff will evaluate the potential impacts of the system’s infrastructure and technology on the environment and, if necessary, will recommend mitigation measures. The results of the study will be published in the Draft Environmental Impact Statement and will be made available for public comment. Shurtleff noted that the County will also be finalizing technical details of the proposed system and working with Motorola, Inc. on contract negotiations. It is anticipated that – barring any unexpected environmental concerns that require further study or changes to the project – the Final EIS and the authorization to sign a contract with Motorola to build the system can be ready for the Legislature’s approval by December of this year. Construction of the system could start in early 2006. The proposed design for the communications system includes reuse or replacement of existing towers at six sites and new structures at four sites. The ten towers in the proposed system will improve emergency response radio coverage in the county from about 65 percent to about 95 percent of the land mass. The current system is more than 30 years old and has multiple deficiencies that hamper the effectiveness of emergency response. The EIS process will cover nine of the sites; a new tower on the Ithaca College campus on South Hill has been reviewed separately and will be the first to be built. Balloons Will be Used to Study Visual Impact Study of the potential visual impact of the proposed system’s towers will start as early as next week. To determine the visual impact of the new towers, proposed for sites in Danby, Caroline, and Enfield, a contractor will fly tethered balloons to the proposed heights of the top of each tower. None of the proposed towers will be higher than 200 feet, and none will require lighting or guy wires. The balloons are about 15 feet across and are bright orange. Once they are sent aloft at a particular site, observers travel to various spots within an approximately five-mile radius and take photographs. They will then insert renderings into the digital photos to show what an actual tower would look like in that location. Clear weather with little wind is preferred for the balloon tests. The consultants plan to start watching the weather next Monday, August 8, for calm days with high visibility, and fly the balloons sometime that week or the next. Typically, each balloon stays aloft for about half a day. The County will notify the media and officials in each of the affected municipalities of when the balloons are expected to go up. Other, less noticeable, aspects of the environmental review are also going forward. An outline of the anticipated contents of the Environmental Impact Statement can be found on the County’s website at www.tompkins-co.org/pubinfo/pscs/final-scope.pdf |