After hosting a presentation on the issue, and a subsequent vigorous debate, the Walden Village Board voted 4-3 during its July 16 meeting to adopt a resolution to join the state’s Climate Smart Communities program. Kate Schmidt of the Orange County Department of Planning presented the council with the county’s arguments for joining the initiative during a presentation during last Tuesday’s board meeting. She noted that the county was part of a pilot program in 2011 and was the first in the state to be certified as part of the state program.

Schmidt said the initiative is designed to funnel state grant funding to local towns and villages who become a certified Climate Smart Community. “It’s an incentive program to get municipalities to become more green, more climate-sensitive, aware of what is going on with the climate,” she explained. “It’s free, it’s voluntary. The reason to do it is money. If you want grants, this is what you have to do.”

The Village of Maybrook, the City of Newburgh, the Town of Woodbury and the Village of Highland Falls have all signed up for the program so far. Walden Mayor Susan Rumbold asked Schmidt how much money in grants the four local municipalities have received as part of the program, and the county representative did not have the figure available.

The resolution ultimately passed with a 4-3 margin, with Trustees Faith Moore, Lynn Thompson, Larry Kraus and Dan Svarczkopf voting in favor of the measure, with Rumbold and Trustees John Ramos and Brian Sebring voting against the resolution.

Setting up a climate task force and identifying a liaison for the initiative are the only two mandatory steps required to become certified, and the village already has those two steps in place. “There are only two things that must be done, after that we can pick and choose anything we want to do,” Svarczkopf said during the meeting. Village Manager John Revella noted that joining the program would give the village points on its Consolidated Funding Application (CFA) for state grant funding.

The pledge to join the program states that the village will work toward a series of green goals, such as building a climate smart community, decreasing energy use, shifting to clean, renewable energy and supporting a green innovation economy. “The task force is already created, the coordinator is already there, so the vote changes nothing, except possibly giving us grant money,” Svarczkopf said to the board. “I think all of us on this board have said we’re in favor of doing some of these things. There’s low-hanging fruit on here.”

Before the vote, Rumbold expressed her skepticism about the program, which is a joint operation of numerous state agencies, including the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. “I think this is so disingenuous that it’s really laughable,” Rumbold told the board. “We’ve been under consent order from the DEC for years. We’ve fulfilled that consent order, and instead of releasing us from it, they gave us another one. So if the DEC has anything to do with this, I don’t want any part of it. I’ve dealt with them since I’ve been on this board and they’re so totally disingenuous. That’s what I asked. If you think that grant money is low-hanging fruit, there’s only four communities in this area that want to be involved in low-hanging fruit. That’s why I asked who has gotten grant money in this area, probably nobody. How much money is available? Nobody knows. Who’s handing it out? Who’s getting it? Nobody knows. So it’s just another state funded program that nobody knows anything about or how it’s distributed. It’s all to entice people to do these things, and yes I agree we should be looking to do energy savings, but I’m not voting to sign anything that has to be accepted verbatim. Because I think, at some point, what’s going to happen is these communities are going to be judged by this and it will influence DEC decisions in these communities.”

Thompson argued in favor of adopting the resolution, saying the village must deal with the long-term issue of climate change. “To me it’s the bigger picture, it’s not just about getting money, it’s about doing the right thing for our community,” Thompson said during the meeting. “So that our children and grandchildren and their children will have a clean, decent place to live. Because if we keep doing some of the really horrible things that we’re doing to our water, our soil, our air, where are we going?”

Kraus argued that joining the program was worth the risk, while Thompson added that the village has outside groups ready to help in implementing the program. “The Conservation Advisory Committee is very supportive and they’re willing to do anything we need as far as help with the task force and getting the project done,” Thompson told the board. Ramos argued that the village could include green measures in its comprehensive plan instead.

During his report to the board during Tuesday’s session, Revella told the board that the long-awaited Ulster Avenue sidewalk project was on the verge of receiving final approval from the New York State Department of Transportation. Six days later, the state approved the permits and the village received them on July 23.

There is a projected timeline of three to four months to complete the project once the road work gets underway, which is expected to be imminently. “It’ll be a relief, not only to myself but to the community,” Revella said. “I know a lot of residents that live in the area have been anticipating this for several years and it’s really been heart-wrenching for them not to see any progress.”

During last week’s meeting, the board voted down Introductory Local Law No. 7 of 2019 pertaining to animal waste by another slim 4-3 margin. Trustees Sebring, Ramos, Moore and Svarczkopf opposed the proposed law, while Rumbold, Thompson and Kraus voted in favor of the legislation, which would have strengthened the village’s law regarding animal waste on local properties.