| Legislature Gives Official Honor to Former District
Attorney George Dentes The Legislature, by unanimous vote, passed a resolution honoring former District Attorney George Dentes who died suddenly last week. The resolution praises Mr. Dentes, during his 16 years as D.A., as serving “with dignity, honesty, integrity, verve, steadfastness, humor, defiance, brilliance, thoroughness, intelligence, intensity, innovativeness, kindness and charm”, while earning the respect of supporters and opponents alike, and from police agencies and colleagues both locally and from throughout New York State. The Legislature, through the resolution, “share(d) with his family and the larger Tompkins County community, the sadness of this extreme loss due to his untimely passing.” Contact: Legislator Frank Proto, 277-4875 Legislature Provides Support for Nursery Project in the Town of Dryden The Legislature, by unanimous vote, approved a Loan and Development Agreement with RPM Ecosystems to provide a $200,000 low-interest economic development loan, under the Tompkins County Economic Development Revolving Loan Fund, to support RPM’s Growing Operation Project. The 159-acre regional nursery plant operation supporting tree restoration projects throughout the Northeast, will be built on vacant farmland on Route 13 in the Town of Dryden. After a brief public hearing, the Legislature, also by unanimous vote, authorized the County to apply for a $516,000 New York State Small Cities Community Development Block Grant to provide an additional $500,000 low-interest loan to support the project. Staff with the Governor’s Office of Small Cities invited the county to submit the application for assistance. The Legislature was told that the $8 million dollar project, expected to leverage $7 million dollars in private funds, will produce significant economic benefit, providing 56 full-time permanent jobs, nearly all of which will be targeted to low and moderate-income workers. The state Department of Environmental Conservation has already ruled that the project will not produce any negative environmental impact. Contact: Martha Robertson, Chair, Planning, Development, and Environmental Quality Committee, 272-0584; Heather Filiberto, Tompkins County Planning Department, 274-5560. Legislature Approves Grant-Funded Partnership for Emergency Responder Training The Legislature, without dissent, authorized the County, through its Department of Emergency Response, to enter into an agreement with Tompkins Cortland Community College (TC3) to develop and deliver a series of training courses to supplement the county’s current training program for emergency response personnel. A $55,000 grant from the New York State Office of Homeland Security, received by the county and to be administered by the college, will fund the pilot program, through August 31, 2007, to provide a suite of response courses in disciplines related to emergency response and preparedness to meet the training goals of the National Response Plan. “This is a tremendous opportunity to leverage a relatively small amount of funding to bring all of our emergency responders to an improved level of proficiency,” said Director of Emergency Response Lee Shurtleff. “Our training needs are so significant, yet our resources so limited that, beyond the existing state training resources that we have, we are looking to include other training partners who have the expertise and organizational capability to make this happen. We are grateful to TC3 for its support.” Courses will be taught by instructors certified by New York State and agencies including the federal Department of Homeland Security. The parties will continue to pursue outside funding sources to support the comprehensive training program. Contact: Lee Shurtleff, Director of Emergency Response, 257-3888 In other actions, Legislators
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