Highway Committee Accomplishments

New Highway Superintendent
- We hired from within the Cortland County Highway Department to fill the position of Highway Superintendent, elevating Don Chambers to this very important position (Resolution 393-04)
- We promoted from within to fill the newly created position of Deputy Highway Superintendent; Bob Buerkle is the number two person in the Highway Department and acting Superintendent in Don’s absence (Letter of Appointment)
- We eliminated the Supervisor of Solid Waste position in the 2005 budget. In doing so, we were able to create a cost savings overall for the department

Improved scheduling of employees
- We improved our coverage on nights and weekends for snow plow routes in Cortland County. We worked with the Union and came up with better scheduling than before, and we have achieved this while reducing overtime.

Infrastructure
- Cortland County has 1400 culverts, 248 miles of roads, and 60 bridges. Our county has gone without sufficient funding for maintenance or replacement since 1962. Most of Cortland County’s box culvert structures were built in the 1930’s. We have developed a life cycle replacement plan to address the needs of the county’s aging infrastructure. Our plan will fix our culverts and bridges, as well as replace and maintain county roads to ensure that our vital infrastructure is protected. (Capital Road/Bridges Plan)

Landfill
- Remarkably, the Cortland County's landfill permit had lapsed more than 10 years ago. We made correcting this deficiency a priority. We took the necessary action to renew the permit, shielding us from noncompliance penalties and potential liability costs.
- Cortland County spends an inordinate amount of money to haul leachate (the rain water that filters through the landfill) to the City of Cortland’s Waste Water Treatment Plant. We have hired an engineering firm to design an on-site leachate treatment system or a leachate pipeline in conjunction with a needed capping project of cell 1A of the West Side Extension Landfill. By combining these two projects, we can get money from the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation to help fund a more economical approach to the disposal of leachate. (Resolution 168-05)

Recycling Center
- In May 2004, the county legislature authorized the expenditure of up to $2,985,000 toward construction and equipping of a new recycling center, to replace the one that had been lost to a fire in 2002.
(Resolution 148-04)
- In November 2004, the legislature approved the design for a new Cortland County Recycling Center and construction was completed on the new Recycling Center by May 2005, a mere 7 months later.
- During the design phase of our new center, we applied to New York State Department of Environmental Conservation for a grant in the amount of $900,000 to help reduce local taxpayers' cost of constructing the new facility.
- Through the diligence of our County Attorney, John Bardsley, we were able to negotiate a larger than anticipated insurance recovery from the 2002 fire (about $2 million dollars). (Announcements)
- We initially anticipated that local tax dollars to pay for this project would be about $800,000. In fact, if the NYSDEC grant is received, very little local taxpayer money (~$60,000) will have been spent to finance this project.
- We contracted with a third party commodity broker to maximize the return on our recyclables in the marketplace while saving money over the previous method. (Resolution 329-04)
- Operating our own Recycling Center has saved Cortland County Taxpayers $50,000 to date over what the county had been spending prior to opening the new Center. As more business is generated, more dollars are added to revenue, saving taxpayers even more money.

Little York Pavilion
- We added an elevator to make the second floor handicapped-accessible and a new sprinkler system for greater safety (Related resolution 211-04)
- We renovated the restrooms and added a handicap-accessible bathroom (Privilege of the Floor)
- We gave Cortland Repertory Theatre a long term lease so that they could plan for the future and invest in improvements and upgrades.

Airport
- The current airport master plan, created in the 1970's, was badly in need of an update; a revised master plan is currently in draft form and final adoption is anticipated by year's end (Resolution 254-04)
- The current Master Plan expands on the prior version by addressing not only the physical plant, but adopts a marketing strategy to make this county asset a greater revenue producer than it has been previously.
- We conducted a Bid advertisement for lease of Main Hangar #1, resulting in an additional Fixed Base Operator who is running both a flight school and a repair operation at Cortland County Airport. This activity results in increased fuel sales and revenues at the airport. (Resolution 14-05)
- We replaced the asphalt apron around the hangars and made other needed improvements to the hangars (Resolution 65-04)
- We are receiving higher lease payments from the T-hangars and Main Hangar #1 (Resolution 64-04)
- Through lobbying efforts, we received $419,400 in federal funds and $23,300 in state funds for the update to the Master Plan and the T-hangar renovations
- Through lobbying efforts, we received another $201,400 in federal funds and $5,300 in state funds for the replacement of the Automated Weather Observation System (AWOS) and upgrade of fuel sales metering and accounting computer system.

New York State funding
- Received increases in CHIPs money as well as Marchiselli funding for improvements to local highways and bridges.
- Lobbied successfully to increase CHIP funding for highway improvements. Cortland County legislators have been actively pursuing highway funding from New York State by direct lobbying of our elected officials in Albany. We have also worked with organizations such as NYSAC and NYSHSA to lobby for funding.

Federal funds
- Lobbied federal representatives successfully to increase the size of the Federal transportation bill known as TEA21.
- Increased Federally aided project requests
- Cortland County has worked with NACo to lobby for increased funding as well as by making annual office visits to our elected leaders in Washington, DC. One visit with Congressman Boehlert resulted in a request for help with the completion of Page Green (Phase III) being funded directly in the reauthorization of TEA21.

South Main Street/Page Green project
- This project had been plagued with politics and delayed to the point where not only did the previous legislature jeopardize losing our Federal funding on this project, but we were in jeopardy of not getting future Federal Aid projects as well.
- We made getting this project on track as soon as possible a top priority. We worked with the County Attorney John Bardsley, who obtained the necessary easements and executed the needed legal documents to allow the project to go forward. This preserved our access to state and federal funds.
- We have worked to create relationships at the state and local level to increase our share of federal aid projects.

McGraw-Marathon Bridge
- Project to rebuild the bridge has been completed, and the bridge was re-opened to traffic on September 2, 2005.