Roslyn Village eyes state environmental designation

Max Zahn
The Roslyn Board of Trustees meeting on Tuesday. (From l to r) John Gibbons, village attorney; Craig Westergard, trustee; Sarah Oral, trustee; John Durkin, mayor; Marta Genovese, trustee.

The Roslyn Village Board of Trustees approved two resolutions on Tuesday that further its effort to gain state accreditation as a clean energy community.

If attained, the designation will allow the village to get additional grants from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, or NYSERDA, for environmental improvements, village Trustee Sarah Oral said.

“This is a good project,” Mayor John Durkin said. “I’m glad we took the lead.”

In order to attain the designation, the village must complete four of 10 “high-impact” actions that reduce its carbon emissions or its use of fossil fuels, according to the agency’s website.

Oral is an engineer and project manager at Cameron Engineering & Associates, which contracts with NYSERDA, she said.

The village has already completed one of the high-impact actions, having recently completed an upgrade of its street lights to energy efficient light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, Oral said.

The village is in the process of completing a second action, which requires its compliance officers to undergo energy code enforcement training, Oral said.

The resolutions passed on Tuesday enable the village to complete the two additional high-impact actions required for it to receive the designation.

First, the trustees approved benchmarking at Village Hall, which satisfies the accreditation requirement for reporting energy use at all local government buildings that exceed 1,000 square feet, Oral said.

“Setting up a system for measuring and sharing data on building energy use over time will allow owners and occupants to compare energy usage against other buildings, and better identify opportunities to cut energy waste,” the NYSERDA website said.

A second resolution approved the village’s use of a New York Unified Solar Permit when processing all applications for small-scale solar installations, which are defined as those costing less than $23,000. The permit is a statewide standardized document “expected to cut costs by creating a uniform permitting process in municipalities across the state,” the agency website said.

Oral said the village trustees have been discussing grant opportunities that may result from the designation. They will announce such grants later.

Deputy Mayor Marshall E. Bernstein was not in attendance at the meeting. 

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