Local News: September 28, 2023

- A Tompkins County town’s park plan is headed to a voter referendum -

Plans for the first public park in the town of Ulysses are on hold. The town includes the village of Trumansburg. Town leaders planned to purchase 30 acres of farmland on Krums Corners Road to create the park. Instead, the purchase will be decided by voters in a referendum. The Ithaca Voice reports that a group collected over 300 signatures challenging the purchase. They have concerns including the location and townpeople not knowing about the purchase until it was announced. Ulysses plans to spend over $200,000 of federal COVID relief money to buy the site. The town says if the funds aren’t spent by the end of 2024 it will have to be returned to the federal government. The date for the referendum hasn’t been set.

- DEC declares Broome County Superfund Sight Clean-up Completed -

The New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) says the cleanup of a Superfund site in the Town of Fenton has met all requirements. The DEC says the 15-acre site is no longer a threat to human health. Eleven thousand tons of sludge and soil were dug out and replaced with clean soil. It used to be an aviation product and electronic component manufacturing facility. It is still a manufacturing facility and zoned for industrial use.

- Cornell gets $5 million federal award for space technology research -

A space technology consortium led by Cornell has gotten a $5 million grant from the Department of Defense to further its work. The money is paired with another $5 million to another consortium working to boost the defense manufacturing capabilities in central New York. The website for Cornell’s New York Consortium for Space Technology Innovation and Development says it is a collaboration between “industry, academic, and government partners”. It goes on to say their work is meant to spur the growth of "defense space technology, advanced manufacturing, and supply-chain capabilities" in New York state.