“Climate Smart Communities is part of New York State’s overall strategy to address climate change, to try to mitigate it from getting too bad and to adapt to whatever change we have to adapt to as it happens over the next few years and decades,” Columbia County Climate Smart Communities Coordinator Don Meltz said recently.
Meltz assumed the post on Feb. 1, taking over as coordinator from county Solid Waste Deputy Director Wendy Madsen.
Meltz brings years of experience into this new role. He is a certified planner with the American Institute of Certified Planners, and he’s worked for Columbia County as the planning department’s senior planner since 2018. Before that he was a self-employed planning consultant working with communities across New York State developing comprehensive plans, zoning laws, and other land use policies. Meltz is also part of the adjunct faculty at Marist College in Poughkeepsie.
“It’s a pretty big program,” Meltz said, speaking of Climate Smart Communities. “It’s been put together to help local municipalities, because it is such a big issue and it’s not something the state or the federal government can handle on their own. It’s an all hands on deck situation.”
CSC is designed to “help identify specific things that local municipalities can do to help address climate change in some way. There’s a list of 115 different actions that any municipality can work on. You can pick and choose the ones that best fit with your municipality,” said Meltz. Technical assistance is available through regional coordinators
Actions are assigned a point value, he continued. With the accumulation of a certain number of points, communities can make themselves eligible for various NYSERDA and DEC grants.
Among the actions completed by the county to date include installing a building energy management system, begun a residential organic waste program, developed a natural resources inventory, and conducted a climate carnival, among others. Meltz notes the next climate carnival is set for September 2024.
The county Climate Smart Communities website can be reached on the county website at https://www.columbiacountyny.com and following “Your Government” to Departments to Planning Department/Environmental Management Council.
The county Climate Smart Task Force meets virtually on the first Thursday of every month at 10 a.m. The public is invited to attend and can access the YouTube link through the CSC website.
The task force is — along with Meltz — composed of Brenda Adams, Canaan town supervisor; John Bradley, CSC Task Force Coordinator; Donal Collins – Chatham town supervisor/Farmland Protection Board; Terence Duval, Columbia Land Conservancy representative; Suzan Flamm, CSC Task Force Coordinator; Dan Haas, Copake representative; Tistrya Houghtling, New Lebanon town supervisor; Cara Humphrey, EMC (Austerlitz); Claudia Kenny, Little Seed Farm; Ron Knott, Stuyvesant town supervisor; and Wendy Madsen, deputy director, Columbia County Solid Waste Department.
Also, Bill Mancini, CSC Task Force Coordinator; Matthew Mercier, CSC committee chair; David Newman, EMC and Columbia County CSC Taskforce Chair; Michael O’Hara, EMC chairman; Patrice Perry, director, county planning; Jennifer Phillips, Bard Center for Environmental Policy; Steve Powers, CSC Task Force chairman; Jolene Race, director, county Solid Waste Department; Jody Rael, Sundog Solar; Bruce Shenker, EMC/CSC Task Force Coordinator; and Matthew Stinchcomb, Partners for Climate Action Hudson Valley.
Reach Matt at matt.murell@columbiacountyny.com.
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