February 2023
Wednesday, February 15, 2023
Meeting chair: Bill Greene
Presentation by Cornell Cooperative Extension’s New Energy Advisor
Fernando Ahumada, Energy Advisor for Cornell Cooperative Extension in Orange County, talked about his role as the facilitator for households to access government support for improving their heating costs and making their homes more environmentally friendly. He can help people access NYSERDA benefits. For low- to moderate-income households there is government support in dollar terms towards the costs. For higher income households the benefits are in tax deductions. You can estimate the federal assistance you may receive by using the calculator at this address: rewiringamerica.org/app/ira-calculator; New York State offers further benefits on top of those.
Fernando welcomes your inquiries. Please reach out to him by phone
845-344-1234 ext.242 or his email faa53@cornell.edu.
New Wickham Woodlands Garden Project: Karen Emmerich of the Warwick Shade Tree Commission was not able to join us, but Geoff Howard talked about how SW could help support the Shade Tree Commission with the new project at Wickham Woodlands. The land between the two fences is owned by the Town, the DPW is keen to help clear it, and work has already started. The plans are to start an arboretum, a sculpture garden and a native wildflower meadow, which would be part of the Pollinator Pathway initiative. Once completed, this area of the park will be open to the public and the Town will be responsible for maintenance. Contact Geoff if interested in participating.
Bill congratulated Village Trustee Tom McKnight on the Village of Warwick achieving Bronze status as a Climate Smart Community. The next step is the Silver, but that requires a lot more points. Tom is already at work on that!
Tom announced a meeting with the Town and the Village to discuss Community Choice Aggregation on March 13th in the evening, time TBA. You may recall that Peggy Kurtz of Joule Community Power explained about CCA at our September meeting. More information and Peggy's presentation video are available on our website. Tom encourages as many people as possible to attend this meeting to ask questions and show support for implementing this great opportunity to save money and promote clean energy.
Christy reported on the February 2nd Recycle Coach webinar, which was a well-attended and informative session. We learned what we can and—most importantly—CAN’T put into the single stream recycling barrel. Don't be a Wish-Cycler! If you missed it, you can watch the video on our SW YouTube channel. You'll learn how to download and set up the app on your phone. The next step is to get more people to download the app. The Town and the Village have put energy into being local hosts of the app, and we want to get the word out. Please download the app and share it with those you know. Tom will promote this in the Village and we have it posted on the SW Facebook page.
Committee Updates
Green Screen: Bill updated SW on the upcoming Green Screen interviews for the vacant seat of Village Trustee. Two candidates have put their names forward and interviews with them will start next week with Bill, Geoff and Christina. The goal is to help voters hear about the candidates’ positions on sustainability issues. The election is on March 21st.
Zoom Garden Plot: Spring is around the corner, time to begin preparations for your garden! Zoom Garden Plot will resume meetings in March. If you would like to join us, contact Chad to receive the Zoom invitation. (GrowLocalGWL@gmail.com)
Sustainable World Book Club: Christina reported that their most recent book, Sounds Wild and Broken: Sonic Marvels, Evolutions Creativity and the Crisis of Extinction was a challenging read. Two members did succeed, and all agreed it was great for selective reading! It was very interesting to read about a new topic – sound.
The next book is Last Child in the Woods, Saving Our Children From Nature Deficit Disorder. BookClub@sustainablewarwick.org
Pollinator Pathway: Bill spoke about the Pollinator pathway initiative noting that as it is winter there is not a lot of activity here! Stay tuned for more plans for the Spring.
Upcoming Library Events
Albert Wisner Library: Teresa updated us on 2 upcoming library initiatives. Please reach out to the Steering Committee if you can participate in either of these events.
Meatless Mondays: Will take place the first Monday of every month and feature recipes and cooking with kids followed by a potluck dinner. She is inviting adults to come by and sample the foods the kids have prepared and encourage them in this climate friendly practice.
Earth Day: This event is scheduled for April 29th from 11.00am to 2.00pm and is an opportunity for the community to present all the options available locally to promote sustainability in Warwick. Teresa invited SW to talk about our composting initiative which has proved very popular. Teresa will need a quick reply as to whether we can man a table to field inquiries about this or other SW initiatives.
New Ideas
Ancient Trees: Christina presented a suggestion that we consider honoring the ancient trees in Warwick. This idea comes from outside SW but Christina is hoping we might join forces with the Shade Tree Commission on this. It was suggested that the STC might be able to identify the oldest trees for this project and then SW (perhaps with the help of the Scouts) could mark them by tying ribbons around them, for example. The goal is to demonstrate to the public how long trees can live and encourage more plantings. This would make a nice link to Arbor Day.