Responding to Madison County’s Planned Purchase of Reisman & Sigety Halls, Properties of the Former Cazenovia College
Overview of the Initiative
Members of the Cazenovia and wider community are joining a growing coalition who have concerns about Madison County’s plan to purchase Reisman & Sigety Halls for a Sheriff/emergency hub in the center of Cazenovia's school and business district.
Our goal: Ensure that residents have a real say in the future of our community. We’re tracking information, sharing updates, and pushing for transparency, because this deal advanced without public input, and it could permanently change public safety, our school zone, business district, historic village, and impacts on Central New York.
We are asking for a public planning process for Cazenovia College properties that explicitly includes:
Members of the Cazenovia and wider community are joining a growing coalition who have concerns about Madison County’s plan to purchase Reisman & Sigety Halls for a Sheriff/emergency hub in the center of Cazenovia's school and business district.
Our goal: Ensure that residents have a real say in the future of our community. We’re tracking information, sharing updates, and pushing for transparency, because this deal advanced without public input, and it could permanently change public safety, our school zone, business district, historic village, and impacts on Central New York.
We are asking for a public planning process for Cazenovia College properties that explicitly includes:
- A fully transparent comprehensive planning process that encourages public engagement so all residents can understand what’s being proposed and shape what happens.
- A resulting update to zoning and land-use laws that are aligned with current values and concerns (walkability, historic character, business district, school zones, equity issues).
- The possibility of County or other large municipal uses (Sheriff’s office, emergency services) so that the community can consider their impacts ahead of time (traffic, safety, visual redesign, zoning, school zone impacts, tourism impacts, pedestrian and long term business district character).
Community Forum
On September 16, 2025, more than 100 community members gathered in person and over Zoom to learn the information that was verifiable and available in the public realm at the time and to collect questions and concerns in order to develop the foundation for an informed response from both residents and leaders.
Blog post: Read More about the Forum.
Meeting Documentation
On September 16, 2025, more than 100 community members gathered in person and over Zoom to learn the information that was verifiable and available in the public realm at the time and to collect questions and concerns in order to develop the foundation for an informed response from both residents and leaders.
Blog post: Read More about the Forum.
Meeting Documentation
Action Community Members Can Take
Sign Petitions
Our community is organizing around two complementary petitions. Both are important. Together, they cover the regional urgency and the local accountability we need.
Volunteer
Let us know via this email [email protected] if you want to participate in planning upcoming actions. We are growing our advisory group with folks who have interests and are savvy about the legal, policy, equity, public information, community, and historic aspects of this issue.
Write a Personal Letter or Email
Send your concerns to the Village Board, Town Board, Madison County Supervisors, and 9 Fresh leadership. Even a short, respectful note that asks for transparency and a pause in the process makes a difference.
Share Verified Information
Use ARC-C blog posts as your source when talking with friends, neighbors, or online groups. This helps counter misinformation with facts gathered from community meetings.
Get Our Updates
If you'd like to receive emails about this matter, please email [email protected] and we will add you to our list.
Updates are also posted to the ARC-C blog.
Grow Our Network
Forward this email to at least three friends or neighbors and invite them to join the list by emailing [email protected]. Every new voice strengthens our collective call for accountability.
Together, these small steps keep momentum building while we prepare our next actions.
Sign Petitions
Our community is organizing around two complementary petitions. Both are important. Together, they cover the regional urgency and the local accountability we need.
- Petition to the NYS Attorney General: This petition asks the AG to pause their review of the sale due to a lack of formal community input and withholding of public information from January 2025.
- Petition to the Village Board: This petition asks for our local board to uphold the existing education zoning, initiate a comprehensive and public planning process (last one was 2008), and ask the AG to pause review of the sale until the process is complete.
Volunteer
Let us know via this email [email protected] if you want to participate in planning upcoming actions. We are growing our advisory group with folks who have interests and are savvy about the legal, policy, equity, public information, community, and historic aspects of this issue.
Write a Personal Letter or Email
Send your concerns to the Village Board, Town Board, Madison County Supervisors, and 9 Fresh leadership. Even a short, respectful note that asks for transparency and a pause in the process makes a difference.
Share Verified Information
Use ARC-C blog posts as your source when talking with friends, neighbors, or online groups. This helps counter misinformation with facts gathered from community meetings.
- Stay factual: Use the ARC-C blog and shared documents as verified sources.
- Stay inclusive: Keep framing this as a matter of public process, equity, and accountability, not as anti-police rhetoric.
- Stay neighborly: Remember that many in our community may not know the details. Invite them in, don’t push them away.
- Stay clear: Our united message: Pause the process, open public planning, honor zoning, and let residents shape our future.
Get Our Updates
If you'd like to receive emails about this matter, please email [email protected] and we will add you to our list.
Updates are also posted to the ARC-C blog.
Grow Our Network
Forward this email to at least three friends or neighbors and invite them to join the list by emailing [email protected]. Every new voice strengthens our collective call for accountability.
Together, these small steps keep momentum building while we prepare our next actions.
Media
ARC-C Statement on organizing around Madison County in Cazenovia
Centering Equity in Cazenovia’s Moment of Change
As the Anti-Racism Coalition of Cazenovia (ARCC), we stepped into this organizing process because neighbors asked for clarity, transparency, and a way to bring community voices together. That is our role: to help ensure that decisions with lasting impact are not made behind closed doors, but with input from those most affected.
We also want to be clear: our coalition is made up of people with a range of opinions about the proposed county purchase of former college properties. Some of us focus on concerns about public safety, others on government accountability, and others on the impact to the character of our village. We do not all agree on every detail.
But we always return to the same north star: equity and inclusion.
Whose voices are being heard in this process?
Centering Equity in Cazenovia’s Moment of Change
As the Anti-Racism Coalition of Cazenovia (ARCC), we stepped into this organizing process because neighbors asked for clarity, transparency, and a way to bring community voices together. That is our role: to help ensure that decisions with lasting impact are not made behind closed doors, but with input from those most affected.
We also want to be clear: our coalition is made up of people with a range of opinions about the proposed county purchase of former college properties. Some of us focus on concerns about public safety, others on government accountability, and others on the impact to the character of our village. We do not all agree on every detail.
But we always return to the same north star: equity and inclusion.
Whose voices are being heard in this process?
- Who may feel unsafe, unwelcome, or unseen if decisions are made without community input?
- How do we ensure transparency and accountability from leaders at every level?