Local News, July 12, 2023

- State Awards Tompkins County Over $9.5 Million For Bridge Repairs -

Tompkins County will get over $9.5 million in state funding to repair six bridges. The Ithaca Voice reports the money is from BRIDGE NY, a $516 million state initiative to repair bridge infrastructure. The largest allocation is $2.34 [and a third] million to the Town of Ithaca to fix the Town Line Road bridge over Lick Creek. The next largest, also over $2.3 million, is to repair the North Cayuga Street bridge over Fall Creek in the City of Ithaca. The county, the city of Ithaca, the village of Dryden, and the Town of Ulysses will each get over a million dollars for other bridge repairs.

- Onondaga Land Rights Claim Upheld By International Commission -

An international human rights commission ruled last month that the Onondaga Nation has the right to pursue land claims against New York State and the United States. Onondaga territory covers about 7500 acres around Syracuse. Before colonialism, WRVO Public Radio reports Onondaga land covered over 2 million acres from the Thousand Islands, along the eastern shore of Lake Ontario through central New York and the Southern Tier and including parts of northern Pennsylvania. An attorney for the Onondaga says they want that land back because it was taken illegally in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. A U.S. federal court dismissed a land cast brought by the Onondaga in 2005. The new ruling by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights means the tribe can sue the U.S. and the state over treaty violations. Attorney Joe Heath says the Onondaga have no say in environmental or other land use issues because there’s been no communication between the tribe and the U.S. government for 30 years.