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Two communities show leadership in climate actions

Under New York State’s Climate Smart Community program, both the Town of North East and the Village of Millerton are now certified Bronze Communities, each qualifying with well over the threshold of 120 points. They join only 11 other Dutchess County municipalities to earn this important designation. Climate Smart spurs grassroots efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions individually and community-wide, reducing New York’s contribution to rising CO2 levels and building local resilience to the climate turbulence to come. It works to engage the community about the climate crisis and inspire local efforts to adopt solutions.

“North East and Millerton have done an exceptional job at developing projects that promote a cleaner and more resilient environment,” stated Kathy Chow, Coordinator of Millerton and North East’s Climate Smart Task Force which provided the teams of local residents shouldering the largely volunteer effort. Task Force members working with the Village Board and staff identified and spearheaded over 50 separate actions to achieve the certifications. Congratulations are in order!

This accomplishment is especially impressive as most municipalities have a town center within a wider rural boundary. Rural North East and “downtown”  Millerton are separate municipalities and were highly successful in working collaboratively to achieve this award. Only Millerton has sidewalks and streetlights. Only the Town has a landfill. Some actions were unique to the Town or Village, others were joint projects. Among North East’s Climate Smart initiatives have been the greenhouse-gas inventory; an inventory and inspection of all culverts in the Town, with the aim of prioritizing deteriorated structures and enlarging inadequate ones; a simplified permitting process for solar installations provided by the state; and this website, which Climate Smart evaluators singled out for praise, writing “The Town of Northeast and Village of Millerton have gone above and beyond to create a full website dedicated to their climate work.”

Millerton earned compliments for “a great reuse initiative” with the North East/Millerton Library’s Book Sale Room which accepts donated books
from the community to sell for $1 or less in the Annex on summer Saturdays. Another notable Village project is composting. This curbside yard waste pick-up program is run by Millerton’s Highway Department which picks up residents’ brush and leaves about three times weekly from Memorial Day through Labor Day, and Christmas trees in January. In 2023, 40 loads of compacted brush and leaves were taken to McEnroe Organic Composting in North East. The same year, 50 truckloads of leaves were delivered to Silamar Farm on Route 22 to use on their fields. Millerton also received points for the installation of new sidewalks
encouraging a more walkable downtown. Newly installed water meters in the water district were another plus, as leaks and problems can now quickly be identified, and each customer can track their own water usage. Also notable are the EV Charging Station on Century Boulevard, support of the Farmers Market, and the annual Earth Day Festival in April.

The Climate Smart program began in 2009 and added certification levels in 2014. It has spurred New York communities of every size to take actions that lessen their outputs of greenhouse gasses, increase their efficient use of energy, and build resiliency to climate mayhem. The carbon footprints of the state and nation benefit, and so do the energy costs of affected consumers. 

The larger state effort, led and benchmarked by the New York Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act of 2019, has made New York the national leader in aggressively addressing climate-warming issues and reducing the human production of such greenhouse gasses as fossil-fuel emissions. The Act requires that all electricity generation in the state (or used within the state) be carbon-free and renewable by 2040, and that the burning of fossil fuels cease by 2050, including for uses such as home heating and cooking, power tools, recreational vehicles, and general transportation.