The Village of New Paltz
2008 EnCC Annual Report
Executive Summary
Outreach
Tabling events: NYPIRG Earth Day, HRC Earth Day, Rock Against Racism, Go Green Day, COTA, Global Warming Teach In, Internship Fairs
Meetings with related groups: SUNY Environmental Task Force, GreenWorks, Committee for Wetlands and Open Space Preservation[ 1]
18 Letters and Reports
Community Improvement
Planted and tended garden in front of Village Hall, planted sunflowers throughout Village. Participated in New Paltz Clean Sweep.
Training
Biodiversity Assessment Training – 10-month program with Hudsonia- both co-chairs completed it.
Organizational objectives
Elected liaison to the Village Planning Board
Had code changes passed to formalize status of EnCC as advisory to Village Planning Board
Goals for 2009
January
EnCC sent out a press release for passage of resolutions in support of S3835 Marcellino as the Town and Village of New Paltz both unanimously passed resolutions in support of state wetlands law as per the recommendation of the EnCC in late 2007.
This is a Clean Water Protection/Flood Prevention Act, proposed statewide legislation authorizing amendments to the New York Freshwater Wetlands Act by reducing the size threshold for state jurisdiction from 12.4 acres to one acre and streamlining the wetland mapping process. The EnCC notes that the Town of Wappinger passed a law adopting the provisions in Marcellino July of 2005 and this could be used with some modifications by the village. Both Mayor Terry Dungan and Town Supervisor Toni Hokanson wrote letters to their representatives, urging them on behalf of the citizens of New York to support the state legislation. Both the Town and Village boards understand the necessity of protecting wetlands, but as yet have not enacted any protection.
February
EnCC began Biodiversity Assessment Training with a grant for materials applied for and won in 2007. This was a 10-month training with a group assembled by the EnCC that included 2 members of the Lloyd EnCC and participation from the Town and Village Planning Boards, the New Paltz High School, and Ulster County. The report was completed in November and is available on the EnCC website at http://vnpencc.org/BAT/BAT_Report_20090120.pdf
EnCC helped recruit artists to paint the recycling bins, and assisted GreenWorks with this project. The EnCC purchased a bin which resides in Peace Park. Beavers were painted on it by local artist Andrew Kaminsky.
EnCC co-chairs met with deputy mayor about legal protection for New Paltz wetlands.
EnCC wrote a letter in support of the acquisition of grant money to repair the sidewalks in the Village. We encourage pedestrian traffic as the most environmentally friendly form of transportation and would like it to be as safe as possible.
EnCC reported to the building inspector that Woodland Ponds did not remove the debris (garbage and tires) prior to bulldozing, despite stipulations in the FEIS that they were to remove the debris and the junked cars.
March
April
EnCC commissioner Alice Andrews' design completed for anti-pesticide signs, and ad donated by Chronogram. Local stores surveyed for the pesticide products they list for sale.
EnCC wrote a letter to support the moving of HVME to New Paltz.
EnCC tabled at the Hugenot Reformed Church Earth Day and the NYPIRG Earth Day and at Rock Against Racism, distributing sunflower seeds and educating the public about local environmental issues.
EnCC removed garbage and recycling from the Wallkill River as part of the town wide clean up.
EnCC reported another violation at Woodland Ponds--the beaver pond had been silted by construction run-off. Village engineer David Clouser confirmed that the developer had left a manhole cover off the pipe that was supposed to drain the dirty water into a detention pond. No penalty was given.
May
In response to questions about site visits, the EnCC responded that regarding propriety of on-site data collection: Article 12-f, Section 239, an Environmental Commission is created by the local legislative body for the specific functions outlined in 1 a-g “implies site visits and pretty much anything else in furtherance of providing advice.” http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/nycodes/c48/a36.html
EnCC wrote letter in support of commissioner Alice Andrews' efforts to ban lawn care pesticides. She has done the research and found that there are readily available non-toxic alternatives to the carcinogenic neurotoxins currently being used. We affirm that the risks of disease, especially to children, are not worth the dubious aesthetic benefits of a uniform grass monoculture.
EnCC writes letter in support of the Village of New Paltz Shade Tree Commission to receive a grant from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, entitled, “Urban and Community Forestry Grants Program.” To create a tree inventory and management plan and to purchase, plant and maintain trees.
Sunflowers planted near municipal buildings, at businesses on Main Street and on campus to beautify the Village and reduce the carbon footprint. Flowers in Peace Park and Hasbrouck Park destroyed by DPW in spite of letter sent asking them not to.
EnCC organized a boat to be repaired and crewed in the local event. Letter written to DPW asking for permission to store boat on village property. Permission granted by mayor but denied by DPW.
June
EnCC submitted comments about this town project that would compromise an important water source and have a deleterious effect on traffic and downtown businesses.
July
EnCC relays reports of local residents of trucks traveling up Horsenden Road 20 times a day with fill from Woodland Ponds in violation of their FEIS.
August
Report of violation sent to building inspector and mayor. EnCC estimated 80,000 gallons of water was pumped from the detention ponds into a concrete container with a pipe from which it ran underground just before the silt fence. The silt fencing was inundated and the whole hillside seeped and had braided water channels running down, meeting a second stream and joining the smaller old beaver pond which then runs into Tributary 13 of the Wallkill. The developer brought the Building Inspector to the wrong side of the site, and the Building Inspector then told the DEC everything was OK.
EnCC brought up our concerns about adequate buffers and enforcement duly noted by town attorney.
After 2 years of urging the New Paltz Post Office to provide recycling bins in the lobby, a new postmaster placed bins, but they are small and not clearly marked. People are putting their recyclable paper in the garbage can right next to the recycling bin--- the opposite of what was feared by the former postmaster who had refused to put out a recycling bin!
September
Recruited new member Maurice Weitman who subsequently agreed to be the liaison to the Planning Board.
This is zero-net-energy development that is installing geothermal, and is adjacent to the Millbrook Preserve. The people who buy these houses will never have to pay an energy bill, except perhaps replace the solar panels in 50 years. The developer thought that the idea of requiring and subsidizing biodiesel for construction equipment in the village was a good one, and that cellulostic diesel should be used (made from wood and dead leaves that are cleared from the site and elsewhere). He thinks that New Paltz, Lloyd, and Gardiner should get together and build a plant at the old Central Hudson site. He said that he would find investors for this if he had the support of the three governments.
Pointed out that the Millbrook Preserve was not on their map as a possible asset worthy of some of the bond money; it was put on the map.
Planned in advance with DEC. Village liaison failed to get EnCC on the list of people permitted on the site, had to sit in the trailer. Received some training from DEC nonetheless.
http://www.gflrpc.org/Publications/Canandaigua/Report/Appendix%20F-NYS%20Stormwater%20Model.pdf
And the following recommendations for local planning and regulations from the Walkill Watershed Conservation and Management Plan created by the Ulster County Soil and Water District for the DEC.
http://ucswcd.org/Mgmt%20Plan_dpr.pdf
October
Presented work on completed the Hudsonia Biodiversity Assessment Training course mapping and field verification of habitats in upland forests, hardwood swamps and meadows surrounding the Swartekill and the Plutarch swamp, a rich and important biological resource shared by New Paltz and Lloyd.
EnCC reports hole in strategic location in the silt fence separating the storm water detention from the beaver pond on the Woodland Ponds site. Pictures sent to building inspector.
EnCC points out that three additional wetlands were detected on the Stoneleigh Woods property by remote sensing but were not field-delineated because the property owners denied scientists mapping wetlands for the village access to their property.
November
with the comment that the fines seemed too low.
http://www.gflrpc.org/Publications/Canandaigua/Report/Appendix%20F-NYS%20Stormwater%20Model.pdf
EnCC asked Village and Planning Boards again for permission to do on-site inspections, and for open communication and shared information among the EnCC, the building inspector, and the DEC.
December
Pointed out that they recommend a local municipal overlay like the one the Village had prepared in May of 2007, and asked for support.
Adopted by Village Board; currently not using pesticides, functions to protect against pesticide use by future administrations
Surveillance camera installed by developer—trained camera on hole instead of fixing it.
12-22 EnCC website up
EnCC proposes and board unanimously votes to amend Section 9-3(a) of the Village Code by changing the membership requirements from nine members to five members and two alternate members, deleting the phrase “who shall serve at the pleasure of the Mayor and the Village Board of Trustees and the remainder shall be ex officio members as provided herein” and to adding the phrase “Who are interested in the preservation,” by adding a provision that will have the Environmental Conservation Commission to advise the Village Planning Board as well as the Board of Trustees by deleting the word “chairman” and replacing it with the word “chair.”
[ 1]No Petrol Day? I thought you were there
2006-2007
The Village of New Paltz
Environmental Conservation Commission
This Report is for 2006 and 2007
EnCC Mission Statement:
The powers and duties of the Village Environmental Conservation Commission are as follows,
1. Advise the Village Board of Trustees on matters affecting the preservation, development, and use of the natural resources of the Village insofar as beauty, quality, biologic integrity and recreation are concerned so as to enhance the long range value of the environment for the people of the Village and to protect it from destruction.
2. Develop and, after receiving general approval by resolution of the Village Board of Trustees, conduct a program of public information in the community which shall foster increased understanding of environmental issues and support for sustainable solutions.
3. Conduct studies, surveys, and inventories within the Village of New Paltz as may be necessary to carry out the general purposes of this commission.
The Village of New Paltz Environmental Conservation is fulfilling its mission in the following ways.
2006
2006 was a great year for the Sunflowers Project. This ongoing project involves the community in planting mammoth sunflowers in public places. The flowers beautify the village, reduce its carbon output, produce food and shade for humans and animals, and provide opportunities for study. The flowers were collected and drawn by the art students at SUNY. They thrived on campus and in the village. They did rather well on the median strip by Hasbrouck Park, all around the play structure there, and in various places in Peace Park. For Diversity Day Jakim built a structure out of the flowers which were then ready to be harvested. There were quite a few sunflowers in the neighborhoods, especially the New Paltz Gardens apartments.
Commissioner Andrews began to collect signatures and do research, and arrange for and publicize information about pesticides
2007
The Village EnCC submitted recommendations to the scoping document for Stoneleigh Woods
The EnCC continued to document the site with photographs, field notes, and maps. We brought village board and town and village planning board members to the site of Woodland Ponds using the EnCC waders.
Began work on a resolution in support of reducing the minimum size of wetlands under state protection from 12.4 to 1 acre which was passed by the village in January 2008.
Sent letters sent urging the village board to institute some kind of wetlands protection. Various options were offered. The focus will be on a management plan that includes the protection of the habitats of the beavers, turtles, and salamanders.
2007 was OK for the sunflowers. More should have been planted earlier. The DPW cut them down at the median strip and in Peace Park, but they thrived elsewhere, especially on campus. Seeds were given out at the NYPIRG and Reformed Church Earth Days and at the SUNY earth day and at the memorial day parade. Shari Osborn and her children put the seeds in cute little bags.
Co-chair Jakim oversaw an internship with student Frank Zeoli who conducted a macroinvertebrate study on tributary 13, following up Martha Cheo's consecutive years of studies. Jakim also prepared an herbarium of the Millbrook Sanctuary complete with a reference map, presented to the village in 08, yet to be digitized and posted on the web.
Rachel Lagodka and Jakim Applied for DEC grant to track turtle population in the Millbrook Preserve in order to protect the turtles from the effects of current and impending development. They received extensive support from the village, town, and campus, but no grant. In spring of 08 they are going to map a turtle protection area by making a more detailed and fieldwork supported habitat assessment than what we currently have.
Lagodka and Jakim applied for and received Biodiversity Assessment Training grant from Hudsonia. They brought together a study group consisting of members of the New Paltz Town EnCC, Town Planning Board and 2 members of the EnCC from the Town of Lloyd. …
Lagodka attended ETF meetings and some village planning board meetings.
Jakim led the Biology club—August 2007 through present.
Jakim attended Hudsonia's Blanding Turtles workshop and Phragmites Reed Workshop in August 2007.
Lagodka and Evan O’Brien attended the GWTF aka GreenWorks meetings
The EnCC worked with NYPIRG on earth day
The EnCC will have a recycling barrel in Peace Park that prominently displays a picture of a beaver, the keystone species of the wetlands
Jessica Albert turned the quest for a recycling bin at the post office over to Lagusta Yearwood who carried the torch for a year before turning it over to a new intern in 2008, Angela Blackman. In case the suspense is killing you, a recycling bin was finally put next to the garbage can. Two years and three commissioners later, what finally did it was that we got a new postmaster.
In August, 2007, commissioner Alice Andrews submitted a draft for a law to ban lawn-care pesticides in the village of New Paltz. To this end, petitions are circulating, both online and in hardcopy. Ads will be appearing in the local Hudson Valley magazine Chronogram to educate and to direct people to a website where they can learn how to become involved, and which also directs them to the online petition to support the law to ban lawn-care pesticides in New Paltz. Alice is also working on a yard-sign campaign, and hopes that sometime this spring yard signs saying: "We Love Our Children: Ban Pesticides in Ulster County" will be on many lawns in the area. Alice is also working on educating the community about the deleterious effects of pesticides. She brought the organization Grassroots Healthy Lawn Program to New Paltz and several members presented evidence to the Village Board about the harm pesticides cause and the viable alternatives we can use. She also has disseminated literature and DVDs to various NP schools. She continues to lobby SUNY New Paltz to stop using pesticides on the athletic field and had a recent success when the SUNY New Paltz Grounds Supervisor and three of his staff went to a course on Natural Turf Management at her urging. Recently she sent a request to the Superintendent of the New Paltz Cental School District to send home educational literature on pesticides; she is waiting to hear back. Alice is also working on a list of organic alternatives to pesticides to distribute to local businesses. And Angela Blackman, a new intern, is currently looking into area farms, golf courses, etc., to discover their pesticide practices.
Sufficient evidence of the harmful effects has been demonstrated and now there is a responsibility to act. The EnCC will continue to persist assist in the passage of a law banning harmful pesticides.
The EnCC brought the newly elected mayor and a professor from the biology department at SUNY to tour the reed beds at the sewage treatment plant and issued a report which concluded that the reed beds are a worthwhile investment in the community that is already paying off in terms of financial and environmental benefit to the Village.
Wish list for 2008
Get Trib 13 reclassified so it has more protection from the DEC.
Flows from established wetland so that should be reclassified.
Find an intern who wants to Solar intern
Hire a secretary
Attract new members and interns
Work more with planning board and the Open Space Preservation Commission.
Examine MCA's recommendation for a conservation overlay district collaborating the Town of New Paltz, Village of New Paltz and Town of Highland, Town of Gardener and Esopus.
2005
Meghan and I were very glad to serve as co-chairs of the EnCC in 2005. On behalf of all of us we want to thank you for your support. We have several new members who joined this year, John House Wilson, Evan O’Brien, and two more who have been attending meetings but have not submitted their letters yet, Lizette Edge and Amy Forstner. Amy is a freshman majoring in environmental science. Lizette will be leaving us because she is graduating and going to medical school.
This year $500? of the EnCC budget was spent on additional trees for the riparian tree planting project. Mayor West requested the remaining $2,000 for the Hudsonia Study and we agreed. We had a secretary, but he did not submit either his minutes or his hours so we do not know how this will affect the budget. He left for other considerations.
Some items we are considering purchasing next year are more trees, a GPS unit, and a soil testing kit. We would like to elect a new secretary from our ranks as stipulated by the code and then have that person appointed as the secretary if it works out.
Here is a list of some of our activities for the year.