State DEC recognizes Sea Cliff for 'Climate Smart' initiatives

Twice a year as the seasons change, Bruce Kennedy climbs a ladder to twist and turn a series of valves and levers that control Sea Cliff Village Hall’s more-than-a-half-century-old heating, ventilation and air conditioning system.

“There is no energy efficiency in this system whatsoever,” Kennedy, the village administrator, said Friday, standing among the burners and pipes in the Village Hall basement that he estimates will cost $400,000 to replace. “You can’t turn the heat down. It only comes out one temperature. It warms the building, too warm.”

Acquiring a modern, easily controllable, energy-efficient HVAC system is a top priority for the Village of Sea Cliff; one elected officials believe may finally be financially possible following several environmentally conscious decisions in recent years that have been recognized by the state.

On Sept. 19, the village was designated a “bronze status” participant in the state’s Climate Smart Communities program, which calls on local governments to make plans and take actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and confront local impacts of global warming, such as sea level rise and the effects of extreme weather events.

Communities that achieve bronze or silver status — meaning they've earned a high number of “points” by completing plans and actions — receive additional points on the separate scoring metric the state Department of Environmental Conservation follows when reviewing applications for annual, similarly named but not intertwined Climate Smart Communities grants.

Sea Cliff officials hope the village’s bronze status will lead to “more — and hopefully bigger — grants,” Deputy Mayor Nick Pinto said.

33 LI communities signed the pledge

The Climate Smart Communities program, an initiative between various state agencies, began in 2009 when municipalities were asked to voluntarily sign a pledge consisting of 10 objectives, according to a state website dedicated to the program.

These goals include developing and acting on plans to reduce energy usage, converting to renewable energy technology, bolstering community resilience and improving solid-waste management practices. Completing actions across each of these goals earns communities points. They achieve bronze status with 120 points, and 300 points earns silver status.

Since the program’s inception, 33 Long Island municipalities — including towns, villages and both Nassau and Suffolk counties — have taken the pledge, according to the state website.

In addition to Sea Cliff, the towns of Babylon, East Hampton, Huntington and North Hempstead, as well as the Village of Sag Harbor, are currently listed at bronze status. Suffolk County reached silver status in 2020, a rank that was set to expire Tuesday.

To reach 120 points, Sea Cliff performed energy audits across its facilities. It also updated light fixtures from fluorescents to LEDs through a tax-exempt lease program; updated the fire department’s HVAC system; hosted public outreach sessions regarding recycling; updated its comprehensive plan; and forged an agreement with an energy aggregator to power the Sea Cliff Children's Library with solar energy, village Mayor Elena Villafane and Pinto told Newsday.

The upgrade to LEDs was “a tremendous economic boom,” Villafane said. She added that “the energy savings that we are experiencing are more than paying for the monthly lease payment.”

Other measures have saved the village “not huge numbers, but it’s something,” Villafane said.

“When you have a village where you only have 2,200 residents and you’re managing a budget of around $6 million,” officials seek “every place that you can save a penny, a nickel, a dime,” she added.

Dollars and sense

The Climate Smart Communities program is “an investment in ourselves” beyond an economic sense, Pinto said. “This is being responsible as a municipality” to address climate change. 

The annual grants the DEC administers act as “a parallel supporting tool that helps [municipalities] implement many of the actions that they have committed to taking” as Climate Smart Communities, DEC Commissioner Amanda Lefton said.

Any community, regardless of whether they took the Climate Smart Communities pledge, can apply for these grants, but participating communities and those that reach bronze or silver status incrementally receive additional points on grant applications.

Of all Long Island communities, the Town of Brookhaven, which participates in the program but does not have a medaled status, has received the most money — more than $2.2 million — in Climate Smart Communities grants for myriad projects, according to the state program’s website.

Brookhaven officials were not made available to comment prior to deadline.

The Town of Huntington submitted a Climate Smart Communities grant application in May seeking $422,000 to install solar panels on the roof of the John J. Flanagan Memorial Activity Center, where the town provides senior and youth services, said Jonas Wagner, the citizen advocate from the town supervisor’s office who coordinates grants. Wagner hopes to hear back regarding that effort in the coming months.

Like Sea Cliff, Huntington has spent years checking off Climate Smart Communities actions, including the ongoing replacement of 1,500-watt traditional light bulbs at town parks with 850-watt LEDs, the installation of electric vehicle charging ports throughout town and the purchase of seven electric vehicles to replace older cars and trucks in the town’s fleet, Wagner said.

Each of these initiatives sets “a standard not just for ourselves, but for the citizenry,” Aidan Conway, the town’s energy coordinator, said. He noted the LED conversion has already resulted in a “significant” reduction in energy usage. He believes that once the conversion is complete, the town could save tens of thousands of dollars annually.

“It’s good for the environment,” Conway said of the switch. “But it’s good for our energy costs, too.”