Newfield Supervisor Mike Allinger gives updates

Most of us don’t regularly attend town board meetings, even when tuning in from our own living rooms via Zoom has made it easier than ever. Recently, I clicked on the town of Newfield’s website to see what I’d been missing. A quick scan of the last few meeting agendas showed that I’d been missing a lot. Feeling woefully uninformed, I decided to go directly to the source for answers to all my questions — Town Supervisor Mike Allinger.

With so many possible topics to discuss, I asked Allinger to identify what he considered to be the top three issues facing the town right now.

Broadband expansion

His first response was access to broadband, and he had both good news and bad news to report.

“The study being conducted by Tompkins County in conjunction with Southern Tier Network [STN] was put on hold,” he said. “They realized that it was going to be too difficult to come up with a solution for the entire county working with STN, as there would still be the middle mile and last mile to deal with. Attention then turned to determining what gaps in coverage could be filled by other service providers.”

Allinger said he was approached last month by Chuck Bartosch of Point Broadband, formally Clarity Connect, with an expansion proposal for the Millard Hill corridor.

“Chuck put together a plan earlier this year to include Millard Hill as part of the work they were already doing in the Newfield area,” Allinger said. “His Board of Directors said that they would need some kind of financial commitment from the town and county to go ahead with the expansion. They were asking for $75,000, which was beyond the scope of what we could finance.”

Fortunately, Tompkins County administration agreed to chip in $70,000 toward the expansion. The Newfield Town Board voted to cover the remaining $5,000 at its Sept. 9 meeting.

“My understanding is the project will run fiber not only on Millard Hill Road but also on Burdge Hill, Protts Hill, Fishkill, parts of Douglas Road and Bishop Road,” Allinger said. “It’s not everything we need, but it’s a sizable chunk.”

The town will continue to look at possibilities for coverage in other underserved areas, and Allinger has not given up on a countywide approach.

“Many of the people on the Tompkins County committee feel that it is still worthwhile to pursue the effort to get broadband to every household,” Allinger said. “It is becoming the type of utility that people need, like electricity or phones. It is that important. Whether it can happen with STN or not, the county has got to be looking at other alternatives. I am committed to doing anything I can to make that happen.”

Water, sewer system improvements

“In addition to broadband, I would say that improvements to the town’s water and sewer systems are the items of highest priority on our plate,” Allinger said. “Newfield’s first water system was established in the 1970s, and infrastructure improvements are needed. We have also been conducting an infiltration study over the last two years into our sewer system, which covers most of Main Street. The amount of stormwater entering the system is creating flow rates higher than what the DEC would like to see.”

Grants are available to help with any associated costs, including a Water Infrastructure Improvement (WII) grant through New York state, but they are highly competitive.

“We have identified some grants with applications due this fall,” Allinger said. “The town has contracted with HUNT [Engineers, Architects & Surveyors] to apply on our behalf. It will be a while before we hear back and we may have to collect more data before we get to the stage of actually breaking ground.”

According to Allinger, the town is expecting to receive some COVID-19 relief funds through the American Rescue Plan and will have to decide exactly how to use them.

“Newfield will see about $500,000 over two years, which can be used to cover costs incurred back to January 2020,” Allinger said. “Other allowable expenditures include broadband, water system and sewer system improvements, which could obviously be very useful. However, $500,000 is not a lot of money when you’re talking about large projects.”

Public hearing on cannabis sales

Moving on to other topics, I asked Allinger about the issue of marijuana dispensaries that appeared on a recent agenda. He told me that the Town Board will have to vote by Dec. 31 to opt out of a New York state law allowing cannabis sale within the municipality. This would also mean forfeiting any revenue stream generated by potential sales. If no action is taken, the town is automatically covered by the state law and gives up the right to opt out in the future.

“Since this is uncharted territory for towns throughout the state, and we have no mechanism in our town to regulate where a business of this type may exist, we are of the opinion that using the opt-out would allow us a moratorium on the subject to allow for further study,” Allinger said.

One possibility the Board discussed was putting the issue up for referendum Nov. 2, but Allinger said that it is too late to get it on the ballot.

“As with the adoption of any local law, we must have a public hearing on the subject,” he said. “This is planned for the meeting on Oct. 28 at 7:15 p.m. The people of this town have a right for their voices to be heard on the subject, and we welcome their comments in writing or in person [or via Zoom] on the night of Oct. 28.”

Election on Nov. 2

Since the issue of November’s election came up, I took the opportunity to ask Allinger about it. Vanessa Greenlee and Randy Brown are running to represent Newfield and Enfield on the Tompkins County Legislature, and I wanted to know his thoughts.

“I would enjoy working with either one of them,” Allinger said. “While I don’t know Ms. Greenlee as well as some of my fellow Board members do, I like that she is taking an interest and showing up to meetings. I do know Randy pretty well. He was on the school board with my wife and he’s been on the planning board for several years. I think Randy could be a strong voice for us at the county level.”

Allinger is himself up for re-election in November, as is Town Board member Christine Laughlin. Both are running unopposed.

Upcoming meetings of the Newfield Town Board

Residents can attend meetings in person at the Town Hall, 166 Main St., or via Zoom. Oct. 14 is the monthly business meeting at 7 p.m., link zoom.us/j/506030995. Oct. 28 is the public hearing on cannabis sale opt-out/work session at 7 p.m., link zoom.us/j/859125423.