Yonkers Green Policy Task Force Reports On Last Week's SWEAC Meeting
Monday, February 06, 2012 10:31 PM
More than 100 Westchester residents attended the Southern Westchester Energy Action Consortium (SWEAC) Sustainability Forum on January 28 at Sarah Lawrence College.
SWEAC is a consortium of municipal officials and volunteers from different communities who have joined together to address energy and other sustainability concerns on an inter-municipal level in southern Westchester. Bronxville, Dobbs Ferry, Eastchester, Greenburgh, Hastings, Irvington, Tuckahoe, Tarrytown, White Plains, and Yonkers are currently participating.
Their mission is to reduce reliance on fossil fuels, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and save money for municipalities and taxpayers.
Break out groups on transportation, municipal energy efficiency, waste, and models for municipal collaboration followed opening remarks by Nina Orville, executive director, and Peter McCartt, chairman of the advisory board.
Croton Mayor Leo Wiegman, who is part of Northern Westchester Energy Action Consortium (NWEAC), a group of communities that applied together and recently won a $3 million grant from the federal Department of Energy said, "The time to act is now." Yonkers City Council President Chuck Lesnick, who also gave opening remarks, discussed how municipalities have to do more with less. "This forum provided an excellent opportunity for our county's municipal leaders to discuss ways to save the taxpayers' money while promoting environmental policies. In these difficult times, all levels of government must go beyond our traditional boundaries to create new efficient and effective opportunities that benefit the people of Westchester."
Attendee Brad Tito, Yonkers environmental and sustainability manager, said, "Under the leadership of Mayor Mike Spano, Yonkers is undertaking a number of energy-saving initiatives to save taxpayer dollars, protect our environment and make Yonkers an even better place to live and work. The Southern Westchester Energy Action Consortium (SWEAC) is an exciting forum for regional collaboration on energy issues."
Transportation was big on everyone's minds as they discussed the concept of complete streets or roadways designed and operated to enable safe, attractive, and comfortable access and travel for all users, including pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists and public transport users of all ages and abilities.
Tarrytown Mayor Drew Fixell is a big supporter of the concept which was discussed during the breakout session on transportation. "We need to invest in the infrastructure of bus mass transit to improve the environment and to help the lower income population who use mass transit in greater numbers in Westchester than higher income residents." He is also still very interested in developing a mass transit option on the Tappan Zee Bridge.
Groups also discussed municipal energy efficiency, transit, leaf mulching, reduction and recycling and identified models for collaboration.
Click here to read the local news story.
Here's an abbreviated list of some of those initiatives:
* Bronxville installed geothermal heating and cooling in their Village Hall.
* Dobbs Ferry is replacing existing street lights with LED and generously wrote the contract so other municipalities can purchase from it.
* Eastchester shared information about the results of its streetlight audit and resulting savings.
* Greenburgh is co-managing the Mid-Hudson Valley Cleaner Greener Communities Sustainability Planning Grant that includes seven counties.
* Hastings is the only participating municipality that has successfully reduced from a twice to a once a week trash pick-up schedule.
* Irvington, one of our smallest municipalities, has developed a leaf mulching program that could ultimately help save the county and its municipalities millions of dollars.
* Tarrytown engaged its merchants to get recycling bins on downtown streets.
* Tuckahoe runs its sanitation trucks on vegetable oil.
* White Plains has generously shared its innovative, smart practices related to energy efficient municipal fleets with local governments throughout the country.
* Yonkers is embarking on substantial energy efficiency retrofits of many municipal buildings.
Photo: Leo Wiegman, Chuck Lesnick and Nina Orville. Photo credit: Mel Goldstein
