Lansing village mayor reflects on first month in office

Last Thursday, June 3, marked one month since Ronny Hardaway began his two-year term as mayor of the village of Lansing, and he has already started implementing plans around the village.

When asked how his first month in office went, Hardaway said, “Well, I’m learning some new things. Some things I definitely expected. So, it’s been pretty good, fairly smooth.”

Talking to Hardaway, you’ll quickly realize that he has an accent, which comes from growing up in west Texas and eastern New Mexico. He worked professionally in Dallas before moving to Lansing with his wife, County Legislator for District 10 Deborah Dawson, in 2009.

“I liked Lansing because it is a small town,” Hardaway said. “You have small neighborhoods, good neighborhoods. We have lots of apartments. We have a lot of diversity. … It’s like big-city diversity in a small town.”

Before he was elected mayor, Hardaway served as a trustee for six years and as deputy mayor for four years. He said that there are many challenges he hopes to address during his term, but the two biggest ones are diversity of housing and The Shops at Ithaca Mall.

In working to diversify housing in the village, Hardaway is looking to improve and expand options to include some affordable workforce housing by negotiating with developers. Additionally, this involves working to bring small businesses to the area, especially to retail locations within the mall, to make the village more attractive and accessible.

“We also need to help our current mall, The Shops at Ithaca Mall, get a little bit better foothold as well for retail business,” he said. “And so, we’re working with the current owners on a model of subdividing that mall.”

According to Hardaway, a subdivision model would create a group of owners who each own part of the mall and individually control their piece but work together, “sort of like a commercial version of a homeowner’s association.”

Another major hurdle Hardaway is focusing on is making the village more pedestrian-friendly.

“I have been working on committees … to get the village more walkable, adding trails, walkways, sidewalks, green spaces, parks, etc., throughout the village,” he said. “And that became a much more obvious need with the pandemic this past year that people couldn’t leave their homes very much to go out and shop and do things they normally do. But it was really good when people could just get outside when the weather was nice and do some walking and get some fresh air and get their head out of just being stuck at home all the time.”

Furthermore, traffic and speeding are big roadblocks in making walking a viable, safe option for residents and visitors. Hardaway said the village is working on adding a sidewalk to the north side of Dart Drive and possibly adding sidewalks and stoplights to other east-west and residential roads where speeding is common and dangerous.

“I want to make our roads as safe as possible,” Hardaway said. “And getting people off the street where cars are driving, that’s one of the best things you can do.”

When Hardaway is not busy working in government, he also runs a web software company, CyberPalette, that “[maintains] about 13 different websites. … I just do that because that’s what I love to do,” he said.

Hardaway also mentioned the ongoing sewer project among the town of Lansing, the village of Lansing and the village of Cayuga Heights on the western side down the Shore Road and Cayuga Heights road and the issues with the stormwater systems around the mall.

“[The] stormwater systems around the mall are not doing an adequate job of moving stormwater away from the mall and away from the residences around the mall. So, we’re working … to get that resolved,” he said. “That can potentially damage not just the mall but the homes and townhomes that are west of the mall as the water runs down the leg. So, that’s a fairly significant issue. And we’ve almost got that solved. Just a matter of getting it implemented now.”

Hardaway spoke to the future of the village and how he is working on getting the village government facilities off of fossil fuels and onto clean, renewable energy. According to the initial energy assessment, “We want to reduce our energy by 5% in the next five years, an additional 10% to five years beyond that. And then beyond that, add an additional 20. So, we’re looking by 2035 to have reduced our greenhouse gas emissions by at least 35%.”

Hardaway and his team are working to help the community move to clean energy by getting the village certified as a climate smart community and by joining the Clean Energy Communities Program, both through NYSERDA.

He emphasized that he has a great team behind him and that part of his job is to make sure that they have the resources they need to be successful.

“We have a really good staff,” Hardaway said. “It’s a small staff, but they do a tremendous amount of work and do it well. And just [I’m] basically keeping all of them happy, and making sure that all of their wheels are greased and they can get what they need when they need it, and then deal with emergencies.”

In Brief:

Musical theater showcase

Lansing High School is presenting a Musical Theater Showcase on June 11 and 12 at 7 p.m. at the Lansing Middle School Auditorium, 6 Ludlowville Rd.

Tickets are $5 and are available at ltapa.ticketleap.com/mts/ from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. through June 10. Masks and social distancing are required, and tickets and seating are limited to insure distance between households.

The showcase is presented by a dedicated group of students performing 18 numbers from various musicals and directed by Katie Howell.