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Upper Nyack Become One Of Only 163 Certified Communities Statewide
The Village of Upper Nyack joins an elite group of Rockland County municipalities that have certified as Climate Smart Communities (CSC) at the Bronze level.
Upper Nyack joins the Villages of Haverstraw, Nyack, Piermont and the Town of Orangetown as recipients of Bronze Certification. Nyack received its certification in April.
The CSC Certification program is organized around the 10 CSC pledge elements with points awarded for each category. To achieve Bronze status, 120 point in varied categories are required. The program is designed to encourage ongoing implementation of actions that reduce greenhouse gas emission and help communities adapt to the effects of climate change. Upper Nyack, began its efforts to certify in August of 2021 and achieved its certification on September 10th. Its certification expires September 30, 2029.
“The Village achieved this coveted certification through the extensive efforts of the Upper Nyack Green Committee and Climate Smart Communities Task Force,” said Upper Nyack Mayor Karen Tarapata. “It is difficult for a village as small as ours to accomplish the high impact actions required. I don’t see how this would have happened without their consistent hard work.”
Participation in the program is voluntary, but Certified Communities get higher scores on grant applications for some state funding programs, like the DEC’s CSC Grants. There are only 163 Certified Communities in New York State.
“Communities all across New York State – including small villages like ours – are stepping up to do what they can, helping to create models for local climate action. It can be enormously empowering to see how much we can get done to address climate change at the local level. It has also been particularly rewarding to work with neighbors to create a cleaner and greener community together,” said Peggy Kurtz, Co-Chair, Upper Nyack Climate Smart Communities Task Force.
The Upper Nyack Green Committee and Climate Smart Communities Task Force welcomes new members. The group meets monthly, mostly online, to discuss local action on climate change and other environmental issues and can be contacted at ungc-leaders@googlegroups.com.
While municipalities like Clarkstown and the Villages of Wesley Hills, Montebello and West Haverstraw have registered as Climate Smart Communities, none has achieved a score high enough to receive certification.
Rockland County has no Silver Certified Communities. In Westchester, Irvington, Croton-on-Hudson, Hastings-On-Hudson, and White Plains are among Silver Certified Communities. Silver Certification requires 300 points in proscribed areas on climate actions. Standards for Gold Certification are still being developed.
In 2023 Rockland County was awarded a $75,000 CSC grant to complete a government operations climate action plan and a government operations greenhouse gas inventory in pursuit of CSC certification.
In 2021, the Town of Orangetown was awarded a $40,000 CSC grant to develop an update to its 2003 comprehensive plan to include provisions for combating climate change, increasing sustainability, and addressing environmental justice as well as assessing options for a stretch of Hudson river shoreline that has become a part of the town after the dissolution of the Village of South Nyack.
In 2019, the Village of New Hempstead was awarded $250,000 for the Union Road Sidewalk Enhancement project to improve over a mile of sidewalk, install concrete curbing, ADA accessible ramps, and high-visibility crosswalks, providing a better sidewalk level of service to stimulate reductions in vehicle miles traveled.
That same year, the Village of Nyack was awarded $20,000 to create it s Climate Action Plan including a local roadmap of prioritized goals and strategies to achieve aggressive targets for greenhouse gas emissions reductions and climate adaptation by 2030.
The CSC program is jointly sponsored by the following New York State agencies: Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC); Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA); Department of Public Service (DPS); Department of State (DOS); Department of Transportation (DOT; Department of Health (DOH); Division of Homes and Community Renewal (HCR); and the Power Authority (NYPA). DEC acts as the main administrator of the program.
