Finding Ulysses

You’d think that, with less than three months to go before Election Day, there would be quite a bit of activism for Barack Obama going on in Trumansburg. Trumansburg has been a very politically active community in the past, with about half of the village’s population being very strongly progressive.

Yet, there are few signs of activism on behalf of Obama in Trumansburg right now. The official Barack Obama campaign web site shows no upcoming events in the town of Ulysses - not even any house parties. Meetup.com offers the following message: “Sorry, there are no Barack Obama Meetup Groups near Trumansburg, NY”. The Ulysses Democrats’ web site gives no news of any Obama campaign events.

There was a voter registration table outside Walmart in Ithaca yesterday - but no Obama material was at the table. On August 28th, the State Theatre in Ithaca will host a simulcast of Barack Obama’s acceptance speech - but people will also be able to watch the same speech at home on TV. That’s all - even in Ithaca.

Compared to 2004, there is a surprising lack of presidential campaign activism in Trumansburg and neighboring communities. What’s to account for the inactivity?

There’s been a great deal of controversy over the last few months over the proposal to privatize our Ambulance service. With talk of a private billing service being hired to pursue Ulysses residents to pay the bill whenever EMS is used, there’s a been a skeptical reaction. At a recent public meeting on the subject, all 9 volunteers who showed up spoke in opposition to the plan.

Here’s what Town Board member Liz Thomas has to say on the matter.

“On June 18th, the Village held a public hearing for all residents within the Fire District on a proposal to move from providing taxpayer-funded ambulance service to a bill-for-service system. Billing for ambulance transport would allow the Fire District to recover some funds from health insurance companies, which many of us feel is a justified use of our insurance. However, many residents have no insurance and the result of this switch to billing for service is that everyone will be billed, not just those who are insured. It should be noted that the Village is willing to commit to forego collection of bills for uninsured individuals, if it is legally permissible.

I would estimate nearly 100 people attended the hearing, and the majority who spoke, including several EMS volunteers, were in favor of keeping the system as is. From my point of view, the audience seemed inclined to continue taxpayer funded emergency medical service coverage for all, regardless of whether they are insured or not.”

As for myself, I take special note of the following sentence in what Thomas has to say: “It should be noted that the Village is willing to commit to forego collection of bills for uninsured individuals, if it is legally permissible.”

There’s a pretty big IF in that statement, when it comes to what’s legally permissible, and a loophole that those who seek to extract money could drive a bus through.

Also, I’d like to know what the Village plans to do about the underinsured. Our community is not just divided up into insured and uninsured. There are a lot of self-employed people in Trumansburg and Ulysses, and we tend to have pretty bad medical insurance, because we don’t belong to the big employment pools that can negotiate special rates.

What’s the Village willing to do for the underinsured, when it comes to ambulance service? If we’re not covered for ambulance service, will we not be billed, or will only those with absolutely no medical insurance whatsoever be given a break…

… if the Village makes the legal interpretation about whether that’s permissible.

These are hard economic times, and the way that health insurance in the USA is likely to be going through big changes in the next four years. Property values in Ulysses are going up right now.

Is there really a reason to rush this decision through this year?

Residents of the Trumansburg Fire District (which includes the Village of Trumansburg, Town of Ulysses and parts of the Towns of Covert and Hector) have recently received or should shortly receive a mailing from the Village of Trumansburg regarding an important upcoming public hearing to discuss the possibility of billing for EMS services on a per call basis.  Up to this point, the EMS service has been funded through taxes of the various municipalities it serves.  The letter describes the process of the appoinment of an EMS Task Force, their report and recommendation, the referendum that turned out never to be, and the public hearing.  This public hearing is an important opportunity to make your voice heard regarding the possibility of moving to a system of billing-for-services for the EMS/Ambulance portion of the Trumansburg Fire Department.

When: Wednesday, June 18, at 7pm
Where:  Trumansburg Elementary School Auditorium.

If you have not received this letter yet, you can find the link for a pdf on the main page of the Village of Trumansburg web site.  What seems to be lacking at that site as of yet is a copy of the report of the EMS Task Force.  Fortunately, I picked up a copy at the May Village Meeting, and scanned it to pdf, so you can read it here.

My understanding is that no taxes are expected to decrease with the advent of billing for EMS services, but the revenues from these bills would be directed back to the EMS budget.  I think we have to ask some hard questions at this point regarding the consequenses of such a plan.  I’d like to see more community engagement on this issue.  I’m hoping some of that discussion can happen here. 

Trumansburg Village elections were held today. The unsurprising result was that Marty Petrovic won re-election as Mayor, having run on both the Democratic and Republican lines. More surprising is that Allen Carstensen, in spite of the Democratic majority in Trumansburg, lost to Republican Deborah Notke. The unofficial results at this hour are Carstensen with 165 votes and Deborah Notke with 230 votes.

Tomorrow is Election Day here in the Village of Trumansburg, and we get to elect a Mayor and a new member of the Board of Trustees.  Please get out tomorrow and vote. 

Tomorrow is also date of a special public meeting about the proposal to put a Byrne Dairy convenience store and gas station on the southern end of town on route 96.  The meeting will be at 7:30 PM at the Fire Hall. 

Sarah Adams, who opposes the proposal, forwarded the following two letters about the issue.  The first is from Ms. Adams herself: 

There was such large turn out at the BZA Public Hearing on Feb 25th regarding the Sonbyrne 24 hour Gas station/ Convenience store proposal the village hall was over legal capacity of the allowable 60 people. Attorney David Tyler advised the applicant to withdraw his application until comments from the county planning office had been received and we were all dismissed.

There is a new Public Hearing date now scheduled for March ___ at the Fire Hall (note venue change) so that a larger group can be accommodated.
At issue are 2 separate requests from Byrne Dairy.

1.     A “Special Use Permit” is required to operate a gas station at this site, 208 E. Main St. Even though there was a small store and gas station at this site it is not currently zoned for this use. The Byrne proposal calls for 8 pumps.
2.      A variance from the sign ordinance. This proposal calls for a sign that is 18 sq. ft larger than allowed, and 2 backlit signs ( 1 is allowed).

There are several compelling reasons that the BZA should reject these requests.

1.  The zoning ordinance requires that “ No part of any building used as a gas station shall be erected within 100’ of a residential district”. The NE portion of the proposed building is only 59’ from the adjacent residential property!<
2.  “Special Permit” must meet standards that include the fact that “ Operations in connection with any special use permit shall NOT be more objectionable in nature to nearby properties by reason of noise, fumes, vibration, flashing lights, increased traffic or any other objectionable reasons, than would be the operations of any permitted use”.
C. The sign variance request must first go the Planning Board for Site Plan review.
And finally this project does not meet the goals of the Comprehensive Plan.  
“Maintain and establish commercial buildings that the rural and historic character of the village and “Protect the village from development that might undermine its rural character or the vitality of locally owned businesses”.

Please come to the Public Hearing on the 18th. This is your opportunity to say NO to an inappropriate and illegal use of this property. Trumansburg deserves better planning!

Also, from Durand Van Doren and Sandy List:

To the Village of Trumansburg Board of Zoning Appeals
Regarding requests from SonByrne Sales, Inc. (Byrne Dairy) for a Sign Variance for illuminated signs exceeding the maximum size allowed; and for a special permit to sell gasoline and diesel fuel.

In 1890, A.P. Osborn, editor of the local paper, published a remarkably insightful, interesting History of Trumansburg. Among his observations, he wrote, “This is a reading and thinking community and will not be satisfied with [the] mediocre. It is one of the most beautiful inland villages in the state; . . . its dwellings neat, tasty and homelike, surrounded by beautifully kept lawns and well-cultivated gardens, its streets are bordered with elms and maples, its sidewalks are blue flag stone.”

One hundred years later, in the 1990s, a Tompkins County realtor commented, “It’s the one town I can send people to and say it has good prospects for the future. It’s alive and vital. People go there to live a lifestyle that doesn’t exist anymore, but it’s not artificial or contrived. It’s not nostalgic. It’s really alive, some genuine mixture of past and present.”

In both these comments, we can immediately see a Trumansburg that we recognize and that we value. What Osborn praised is something that’s still part of the life we know. Among the charms of our village is that it is a remarkably complete, functioning little municipality. In no particular order, it has school, churches, small diner-style restaurants and others more upscale, supermarkets, drugstores, a newspaper, bank, post office, bars, gas station, laundromats, antique store, hair salon, auto parts store, coffee shop, realtors, caterer, lawyers—in short, pretty much what every community needs. But all of this — Trumansburg’s tiny little downtown, the day-to-day ebb and flow, and coming and going that make the village what it is — is fragile. The idea that a chain convenience store is planning to install itself at the edge of the village, offering products that largely duplicate what we already have, seems like a step in the wrong direction.

The character and individuality of Trumansburg, that tenuous blend of past and present that draws many folks here to stay, will be eroded by varying the guidelines villagers have established specifically to protect and maintain this fragile individuality. Furthermore, such variances as Byrne Dairy is requesting will directly contradict the expressed intent of the village’s recently adopted Comprehensive Plan. Adding a corporate business with backlit plastic signs, incongruously tall light poles, prefab box-like construction, blacktop pavement, and 24/7 business hours moves our village a step closer to looking like everyplace else, rather than taking the time to grow carefully with innovative design and planned developments that will enhance the genuine, attractive and distinctive personality that has been valued here since Trumansburg’s early days.

A recent error of this nature allowed the addition of strip mall-style construction at the north end of town near the post office, resulting very quickly in the loss of one locally owned business and the demise of a corporate video store, leaving a blank, empty storefront now staring across a sterile swath of blacktop. Let’s not make the same kind of mistake at the southern entrance to our village. Instead, let’s continue to be a thinking community. Let’s take steps to protect our distinctive village, including its fragile, independent downtown and its commercial entities, especially the local ones.

Yours truly,
S.K. List & Durand Van Doren

There’s one basic reason that I’ve agreed to put a lawn sign for Allen Carstensen for Village Board in my lawn, and one fundamental reason that I’ll be voting for him on Tuesday: Critically open government.

Allen Carstensen has been an advocate for open and responsive government for years now, not just in the short time that he has been running for a place on the Village Board himself. Carstensen has been a frequent presence at Village Board meetings, and is well aware of how they run. On his Ulysses Democrats blog, Carstensen has been posting audio of Village meetings, so that the rest of us can get a sense of what’s going on with the Village Board of Trustees too, even when we aren’t able to attend.

As much as Carstensen understands the workings of the Village Board, he also seems to appreciate the importance of standing in the way of those workings when important issues are not being addressed. He has proven himself willing to stand apart from the presumed course of action, to question it and criticize it when it deserves criticism.

For those who believe that representative democracy means electing a body to conduct smooth-running meetings and get business done, Carstensen’s approach may seem inconvenient. For those of us who believe that representative democracy demands full public involvement, even when that involvement interferes with the quick operation of government meetings, Carstensen’s approach is vital.

We need someone on the Village Board who is willing to ask inconvenient questions, and to think about issues that aren’t being considered by others on the Board. We need a trustee who will operate in a very different way from the trustees who are already on the Board. Allen Carstensen can serve as that sort of trustee, with a critical eye to give projects a second going over when others approve at first glance.

At the special meeting of the Trumansburg Village Board, a resolution was passed stating that the Village Board would accept any offer of a secondary source of water if that source was able to provide 230,000 gallons of potable water straightaway, at a one-time initial hookup price of half a million dollars, in a form that would free Trumansburg from the moratorium on water expansion from the Tompkins County Board of Health.

That’s not necessarily an endorsement of Water District 5, though it does give the Ulysses Town Board a goal to shoot for.

I think that there’s another opportunity that’s been missed, however. I noticed that, throughout the meeting, Village Clerk Tammy Morse and Village Trustee Rordan Hart drank bottled water. Mr. Hart’s water was from Fiji. I couldn’t tell where Ms. Morse’s water was from.

Does that not count as a secondary source?

At a time when the private health care system is crumpling, and candidates for President are considering how to move people away from private health insurance Trumansburg is considering moving toward that broken system.

Allen Carstensen, candidate for the Village Board of Trustees, is sharply critical of efforts he characterizes as a “step towards privatization.” On his Ulysses Democrats blog, Carstensen expresses his concern for what will happen to people in Trumansburg who have no health insurance, if the switch to an ambulance service that requires proof of insurance goes forward:

Most of these people are honest, hard working, tax paying folks who helped pay for the equipment and facility that houses our Ambulance/EMS… Yet these people would be hit with a big bill from our ambulance service on top of a big bill from the hospital if they had a serious medical emergency. Most bankruptcies are caused by medical emergencies, and the bankruptcy laws were recently changed in favor of big corporations.

My family has health insurance, but it’s rotten. I’m self-employed, and that means that I don’t have people to negotiate alongside me to get a good deal, as employees of large organizations like Cornell University do. Year by year, the number of things that my insurance agrees to pay for, and the amount that it agrees to pay, shrinks. I’ve actually read a report characterizing the health insurance company that I get coverage from, through the National Association for the Self-Employed, as one of the worst in the nation. I’d love to leave it behind, but switching insurance companies when you’re self-employed is a risky proposition, and the alternatives available to me aren’t much better.

There are a lot of self-employed people here in Trumansburg - authors, artists, consultants, and business owners - who aren’t able to just whip out a Blue Cross/Blue Shield card and not worry about medical expenses. These people add significantly to the local economy and to the local culture, and their vulnerable position when it comes to health care deserves to be considered.

On behalf of the under-insured of Trumansburg, I’d like to thank Allen Carstensen for his efforts to bring scrutiny to the issue of linking our village ambulance service to health insurance.

The Trumansburg Democrats held their village caucus this afternoon. Allen Carstensen and Marty Petrovic were both nominated with strong approval by the Democrats at the meeting. No opponents to Petrovic were suggested.

One possible rival to Carstensen was offered nomination, but she did not accept the nomination. The date of the general election is March 18th.

The news is filled with stories of primaries and caucuses in far away states, as if the earlier states could genuinely wrap up the presidential race before Super Tuesday, February 5th, when people here in New York and in most other states will have their chance vote for their party’s nominee. I’m seeing almost no sign of organizing here in New York for one candidate or the other on the Democratic side. Most of the lawn signs and bumper stickers I’ve seen travelling across the state have been for Republican candidates. On a certain level, that’s understandable, given that Hillary Clinton has home state advantage, but unlike the Electoral College in the general election, the Democratic presidential primary in New York is not winner-take-all. Even if Hillary Clinton takes the majority of New York delegates, other candidates can bring something to from New York to the presidential convention in Denver this summer - if their supporters here work to get out the vote.

This Saturday, Democrats are having their primary in South Carolina. The day after, Trumansburg Democrats will be able to talk about the results of that election and to have a caucus of their own. Here’s the announcement from the Ulysses Democrats:

We have one more important local election this year for one Mayor and Trustee, Village of Trumansburg held on March 18, 2008. THIS Sunday January 27th 4pm Village Hall, Ulysses Democrats will seek and take nominations for candidates in each position at our Village caucus.

If you’re a Trumansburg Democrat, please attend. It’s one of the few chances you have to directly shape the course your political party sets on issues in your community.