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Dan Kuper named Madison County Champion of Tourism By kate Hill Staff Writer
Madison County Tourism (MCT), the county’s official tourism promotion agency, recently named Cazenovia resident and business owner Dan Kuper as the 2024 Champion of Tourism for his dedicated service to the community and support of other small business owners. Kuper and his wife, Mary Margaret, have been partners in the Lincklaen House in Cazenovia since 1997 and the Hampton Inn & Suites Cazenovia since 2016. He became a MCT partner around 2002 and has served on the agency’s board of directors for around nine years. Kuper also serves as first assistant chief for the Cazenovia Fire Department and has volunteered on several Cazenovia boards and committees. Throughout the years, he has worked with the Cazenovia Athletic Association and Pop Warner, helped with youth sports, and served on the Village of Cazen-
ovia Historic Preservation/Architectural Review Committee. According to Kuper, the Lincklaen House has also assisted many local organizations, such as the Cazenovia Golf Club, the Cazenovia Country Club, the Cazenovia Club, the Cazenovia Public Library, and Lorenzo State Historic Site, with things like staffing, food service, getting things running, and redesigning kitchens. Kuper was announced as the recipient of the Champion of Tourism award during the MCT Annual Partner Meeting on April 11 at the Oneida Community Mansion House. A few past award recipients are Matthew and Juanita Critz of Critz Farms; Ray Brothers BBQ; Madison County Historian Matthew Urtz; Jimmy and Janine Golub of Our Farm; and Dr. Joan M. Johnson, who was an associate professor of travel-tourism and hospitality management at SUNY Morrisville and co-founder of MCT. Tourism l Page 3
Submitted photo
Madison County Tourism recently named Cazenovia resident and business owner Dan Kuper the 2024 Champion of Tourism during its annual partner meeting at the Oneida Community Mansion House.
County continues to review options for waste management system Waste management ad-hoc committee to be formed, public-private partnership no longer being pursued By kate Hill Staff Writer Madison County is continuing its extensive review of long-term options for the preservation of its waste management system. On April 9, the Madison County Board of Supervisors passed a resolution declaring the county’s desire to retain ownership and management of its landfill and management of its waste management programs. “The board recognizes that the current waste management program offers services that provide significant advantages for residents and is a point of community pride and an asset worth preserving,” the adopted resolution states. “[Based] on a thorough and ongoing review of available options, the board has determined that a
public-private partnership is not currently the best available option and is no longer a course of action currently being pursued.” Additionally, the resolution requests that Joseph J. Pinard, chairman of the Madison County Board of Supervisors, create a Madison County Waste Management Ad-Hoc Committee to perform indepth research and advise the board regarding the numerous variables and issues related to the county’s waste management programs. The committee will consist of “experienced and versed supervisors, peers, and employees as suggested by the full board to the chairman of the board and the chairwoman of the solid waste committee.” Members of the public who are interested in being part of the committee and may have relevant experience can apply by following the application link at madisoncounty.ny.gov/3037/Landfill-Options.
Applications should be submitted by April 26, 2024.
Background
Madison County has been working for the past two years to come up with a solution to concerns about the long-term financial sustainability of its current solid waste management system. According to an April 9 Madison County press release, the waste management program serves a population of more than 67,000 people in nearly 26,000 households in 15 towns, 10 villages, and the City of Oneida. It employs more than 30 people at the Buyea Road landfill, four transfer stations, and the Materials Recovery Facility, which has a decades-long partnership with the Madison-Cortland ARC. Collectively, the program manages 55,000 tons of garbage and 3,500 tons of recyclables generated in Madison County
each year. In late 2021, the Madison County Board of Supervisors passed a resolution to hire Cornerstone Engineering and Geology, PLLC to assess the current operations and then evaluate alternatives that could potentially improve the financial sustainability of the solid waste management system. The firm’s final report, which was released in February 2023, indicates that current waste disposal fees are not sufficiently covering the costs of operations, capital expenses, and the long-term management of the landfill. If changes are not made to the system, waste disposal fees will need to increase to fully fund the program’s annual costs, as well as the future costs of landfill closure and post-closure monitoring. The Cornerstone study evaluated the following three alternatives: maintaining the status quo with the implementation County l Page 5
School board approves proposed budget; plan to close budget gap outlined By kate hill Staff writer
On April 15, the Cazenovia Central School District Board of Education (CCSD BOE) adopted a proposed expenditure budget of $38,826,826 for the 2024-25 school year. The district was faced with a significant budget gap at the beginning of the 2024-25 budget development process. To close the gap, CCSD has proposed a 5.9 percent tax levy increase, fund balance use of $1,654,009, and strategic spending cuts totaling $399,295. The budget for the current 2023-24 school year is $36,529,529 and includes an appropriated fund balance of $1,100,000 and a tax levy increase of 6.9 percent. Before the BOE voted on the proposed 2024-25 budget, Assistant Superintendent/ School Business Official Thomas Finnerty delivered a brief presentation. He explained that at the start of the budget development process, the district’s draft revenue budget for 2024-25 totaled $36,760,210 while its draft expenditures budget totaled
$39,226,121. “Looking at the two together, the revenue and the expenditures [weren’t] lining up,” Finnerty said. “This is what we had to face right out of the gate this year. The revenue car was trailing way behind the expenditures. As we always talk about, there are really three ways of dealing with this. We can cut costs, we can raise revenues by raising taxes, or we can use more fund balance, which is the school district’s savings account.” Finnerty reported that the district opted to take all three measures to mitigate the $2,465,911 gap between revenues and expenditures. The district has proposed the following strategic cuts: reduce a foreign language position by attrition, reduce a library aid position by attrition, reduce an elementary school position by attrition, eliminate an on-site copy center, reduce BOCES printing, reduce Innovation Tech, and eliminate a mobile planetarium. “Attrition is when someone elects to leave the district [and] we don’t fill that position,”
Finnerty explained. “It could be a retirement, or it could be just someone resigning, and we opt not to fill the position.” Because the proposed 2024-25 tax levy increase is above CCSD’s calculated tax levy limit of 4.02 percent, a supermajority of voters — 60 percent or more — will need to approve the budget for it to pass. To give taxpayers an idea of the estimated impact a 5.9 percent tax levy increase might have on their bills, Finnerty presented examples using the median home assessment values in each of the municipalities in CCSD. For a home with an assessed value of $266,100 in the Town of Cazenovia, a 5.9 percent increase would mean an estimated projected increase of $310.90. For a home assessed at $210,300 in the Village of Cazenovia, the estimated increase would be $245.71. For a home assessed at $136,700 in the Town of Fenner, the estimated increase would be $175.92, and for a home assessed at $179,900 in the Town of Nelson, the estimated increase would be $231.51. Finnerty emphasized that the numbers
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business: Landscaping business continues to give back.
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sports: Cazenovia boys lacrosse contains J-E, Tully.
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he shared when discussing the impact of the tax levy increase were estimates. “The tax base generally increases every year and that’s a great thing for us,” he said. “As our tax base increases, the tax rate goes down, so the rates could go down from here. Other things that can happen to individuals, like assessment changes, STAR changes, and exemption changes, can completely throw this off for individuals. So, I just want to keep saying that these are estimates.” The district was recently notified by Sen. Al Stirpe that some state funding will be restored; those funds are included in the district’s budget proposal. Finnerty said it is possible that additional funds could be restored. If additional foundation aid is awarded to the district in the final New York State budget, the appropriated fund balance and the tax levy will be reduced equally to match the increase. During the meeting’s second public comment period, Mark Tugaw, a seventh-grade social studies teacher at Cazenovia Middle Budget l Page 13
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letters ������������������������ 4 Obituaries ������������� 9-10 PennySaver ���������������� 6 Sports ����������������������� 12