Lansing breaks ground on $22M highway facility

Town of Lansing officials broke ground Saturday, May 17, on a transformative new project that will beef up the capabilities of the Lansing Highway Department. 

For years, the town has planned an addition to its existing Highway Department parcel on Town Barn Road. The new building will be slightly more than 43,000 square feet in size and will accommodate a growing fleet of trucks and equipment and provide additional office space for the department and the personnel in the town’s Planning & Codes Department.

Town Supervisor Ruth Groff said last week that the departments have outgrown their current 21,500 square-foot facility. The current Highway Department campus was built in 1968.  

“This new facility was designed with a vision of what the future might bring, with the anticipation that this new building will serve Lansing for the next 50 years,” Groff said. “Even upon its completion, it will immediately relieve the crowded office situation at the Lansing Town Hall by absorbing one entire department and still will provide room for future staff expansion.”

In addition to the new facility, the fuel pump station will be replaced, adding new technologies to efficiently monitor and track fuel usage by vehicle, by department and by municipal entity, according to Groff.  

The current building will also be transformed by removing the office area and one wing of the building, leaving the core structure to be used for cold storage of equipment, Groff said.

The town expects construction to last about 18 months, estimating that construction would be wrapped up by the fall of 2026. 

“Now, in this moment, when this project is finally becoming a reality, we can look to the future for Lansing, knowing that the town will have a proper home for its Department of Public Works and all that that encompasses,” Groff said. 

The project will cost up to $22 million, a figure the town board bonded for last August. 

“Considering the current financial climate, we were quite relieved on bid opening day to find that the bids came in comfortably within budget,” Groff noted.

The work for the project has been in the cards for years, but it really got underway in the past four years, Groff said. 

“[That is] when it was recognized that the Highway Department could no longer function effectively in a facility that was built more than 50 years ago, a building that presented health and safety concerns, no longer met operational requirements and was challenged to meet code and industry standards,” she noted.

The project has become more and more important with time, Groff said. As the town has continued to grow, she noted, so too have its needs. When the current facility was built in the ’60s, the population was about half of what it is today, Groff said. 

“Equipment and the fleet of trucks has doubled, and the public works staff has increased by 30%,” she said. “The additional truck and equipment inventory for the department is essential for maintaining the increase in town-owned infrastructure: lane miles of roads, sewer districts, water districts and stormwater districts.” 

In 1968, there was only one park in Lansing, totaling 33 acres of public recreation space.  

“Now, there are six parks with 71 acres,” she said. “Additionally, since the current highway building has only one office for three administrative staff and no conference room, this new building will provide offices for current staff and a conference room for utilization by both the Department of Public Works and Planning and Codes, and will allow for future staff expansion.”

Groff thanked planners and workers with Colliers Engineering Firm and LeChase Construction for making the project a reality, as well as Lansing Director of Public Works and Highway Superintendent Mike Moseley for their efforts.

“On top of his regular duties at the town, [Moseley] devoted an inordinate amount of time and effort to ensure that this project will provide what the town needs from this new campus,” Groff said. “He worked closely with his fellow Lansing teammates and provided sound, professional input to all the teams, always with the mantra that the taxpayers of Lansing come first.”

On the town side, Town Engineer David Herrick and Town Counsel Guy Krogh also worked extensively to make the project a reality, Groff said. 

“[Krogh] was a valuable asset, with his extensive background in not only municipal law, but with his years of experience working with contractors on public works projects,” Groff added. “[Herrick] contributed so much to this effort by identifying many areas to reduce costs through value engineering.  The town owes [Herrick] a huge debt of gratitude for saving the taxpayers well over a million dollars.”

With an eye toward the future, Groff said that the project is a boon to the town and its workers as Lansing continues to grow.

“We can sleep better knowing that our employees, the town’s most precious asset, have a safe and healthy environment in which to work and that our trucks and equipment are in an environment that will help prolong their useful lives,” Groff said. “I look forward with excitement and anticipation to what these next 18 months will produce.”

Lansing at Large appears every week in Tompkins Weekly. Send story ideas to editorial@vizellamedia.com. Contact Eddie Velazquez at edvel37@gmail.com.

In brief:

The Lansing Community Library is advertising its “Library of Things” service, which allows library card holders free access to local and regional attractions, including borrowing passes to museums, New York state parks and nearby science centers.

“Whether you want to spend the day in Rochester exploring the RMSC Museum & Science Center, Strasenburgh Planetarium, and Cumming Nature Center, or take a trip to the Corning Museum of Glass, your library has you covered,” a post on the library website states. “Prefer to stay local? Enjoy free admission to the Sciencenter, Museum of the Earth, or Cayuga Nature Center right here in our area. We also offer the Empire Pass for you to visit any of your favorite New York State Parks!”

Adult library card holders in good standing can borrow a pass for up to one week. Passes are available on a first-come, first-served basis and cannot be placed on hold or renewed.

The library also makes available to members puzzles, games, STEAM kits, Stay Sharp kits and story time kits.

More information can be found here:

https://lansinglibrary.org/what-we-have/library-of-things/.