Trumansburg officials deliver updates on first responders, zoning at state of the village address

Village of Trumansburg Mayor Rordan Hart and the board of trustees provided a glimpse into the near future of the village, as well as a recap of major developments from local departments in 2023 at the state of the village address last Saturday. 

The address can be found in its entirety here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MARe_ehN8Lk. Some of the highlights reviewed by the mayor and the board included updates on the village’s first responders departments and changes to zoning. 

Police staffing

Outgoing village trustee Keith Hannon, who oversees Trumansburg’s police department, said that the main priority for the department in recent years has been to solidify a consistent staff. 

“Keeping officers at any department and recruiting new officers has not been easy these past few years,” he said. In the past, the village has had 15 or 16 part time officers from other departments who were picking up second and third shifts in Trumansburg. 

“We got away from that for obvious reasons,” Hannon said, noting that the officers were not at their peak sharpness to work in the village after having worked two or three other shifts elsewhere. “Because they are part time, you don’t get to know them as well.”

Currently the village has two full-time officers, a number that may need to increase in the near future, Hannon said. 

“We have retirements looming. We had our sergeant retire. We have some holes to fill long term,” he added. For Hannon, the Village Grove development on South Street, which promises to bring 40 new housing units to the area, could be a source of concern given that it will attract new residents — all of whom will live in a densely populated area.

“We will probably need two full-time officers down the road,” he noted.

Fire Department 

Village trustee Marcia Horn, who oversees the Trumansburg Volunteer Fire Company, presented the department’s summary for 2023. Horn will be seeking re-election during the March 19 village election.

“The department had 278 calls for the year,” she said, adding that 81 were reported in the village. The department also oversaw 11 fires, 26 motor vehicles and 35 other calls for matters such as gas odors and other property owners who needed help with flooded basements.

“We are very lucky to have such a dedicated group of 47 volunteers in our fire company,” she noted. “That says a lot for a small village of this size.”

Emergency Medical Services (EMS)

The village’s EMS program is continuing to grow. While that may be great news for village and county residents who have been aided by EMS, Hart said that further improvements have continued to pile on costs to EMS’s budget line in the village budget. The mayor noted that EMS is now about 45% of the village’s budget. 

EMS has contracts with the towns of Covert, Hector and Ulysses to provide services to residents. However, issues with availability of other EMS services in the county and state laws that mandate the medical service nearest to a patient to respond to an incident, regardless of jurisdiction, are complicated things. 

When Trumansburg EMS responds to calls outside of the areas covered by the contracts with nearby towns, ambulances transporting patients to Syracuse or Rochester are out of commission for hours.  

Responding to calls outside of the area also does not pay. In those cases, the village EMS can only recoup costs of service through patient insurance reimbursements. Hart said 15%-20% of the calls received last year came from outside the network of contracts with nearby towns and outside the village. 

The department has also improved its array of services. Deputy Mayor Ben Darfler noted that the EMS is now the only department in the region certified for having a rapid sequence intubation program. The program allows anesthesia to be administered to patients who are at high risk of pulmonary issues during a call.

“That is not common for departments,” Hart said.

Zoning 

In the last two years, the village has been working on drafts to its zoning to allow higher-density housing. Some measures regarding that were already approved by the board last year. 

“The big changes came down to the lot dimensions. People are now allowed to build more dense housing in smaller lots,” Darfler said. “It can also allow people to have a second dwelling to rent.”

Affordable housing, Darfler said, is something the board will plan to continue revisiting.

The village will also look to regulate short-term rentals through its building code.

“They’d have to work with more restrictive building code requirements,” Darfler said. “The intention is to see how that works, look at the data, see if we are at a place if the community is comfortable with the amount of short-term rentals we have. We don’t want to get to zero, but we don’t want to have hundreds.” 

The village will also look at mixed-use zoning in the downtown core, which encompasses the area between state Route 227 and South Street.

“How can we best manage the diversity of uses for buildings we have, while still respecting who is there in a residential capacity?” Darfler said of the question the village is trying to solve.

Ulysses Connection appears every week in Tompkins Weekly. Send story ideas to editorial@vizellamedia.com. Contact Eddie Velazquez at edvel37@gmail.com or on X (formerly Twitter) @ezvelazquez.

In brief:

Town searching for recreation activity specialist

The position is year-round, and part time at 15 hours per week. The duties of the role include providing important, free and direct positive youth development programming to students from fifth to eighth grades after school and during the summer.

Positive youth development, according to the town’s job posting, focuses on providing an inclusive, supportive environment for youth. Programmatic priorities and specific activities will be developed in cooperation with youth, the town’s Youth Commission and other town staff.

Administrative assistance will be provided to this position, allowing the employee to primarily focus on direct service provision. Experience working with and engaging youth is strongly preferred and additional training and support will be provided. Residents can contact Town Clerk Carissa Parlato at (607)387-5767 ext. 221 and e-mail: clerk@townofulyssesny.gov for more information

Voter registration

March 8 is the last day for village of Trumansburg voters to register to participate in the village election on March 19. Instruction on registration can be found here: https://tompkinscountyny.gov/boe/howtoregister or with the Tompkins County Board of Elections. 

Voters in the village will choose among the three candidates vying to fill two seats on the village board of trustees. The candidates are incumbent Marcia Horn, running as an independent candidate under the Community Party line, and Jhoanna Haynes and Anthony Hanson — both running under the Democratic Party line.

Trumansburg Farmers Market

The application to become a vendor at the Trumansburg Farmers Market is now live and will be available on the farmers market website until March 15. Interested parties can find it here: https://www.tburgfarmersmarket.com/?fbclid=IwAR2BrE1LQM8KbP8eGgKdfp4gn7JZw61hwTCnIOqF01VJ39YLJ8KEcD38Twg

The farmers market is set up every Wednesday on the corner of state Routes 96 and 227 and will run from May 1 to Oct. 30 from 4 to 7 p.m. It features fresh produce, baked goods, meats, honey, dairy products, soaps, plants, dry goods, and beer, wine and spirits all made by local producers. Additionally, the market will welcome local musical acts every week, as well as food vendors.