Schoharie Becomes Climate Smart

By Joshua Walther

SCHOHARIE - On Tuesday evening, the Schoharie Village Board presented the Climate Smart Initiative from the state, pledging to support the reduction of emissions contributing to climate change.

The pledge, which was started by New York State in 2009 and a website launched in 2018, states that it “serves to acknowledge the reality of climate change and commit to take action,” being free with no requirement of regulatory obligation.

As read by Mayor Colleen Henry, the pledge encourages Schoharie to inventory emissions, decrease energy use, shift to renewable energy, support a green innovation economy, and inspire the public to do the same.

She explained that if the Village takes on the initiative, they get bumped up on the waiting list for certain grants, saying “There’s a lot of grant money out there for green energy, and some of these funds go to not just the municipality, but elsewhere as well.”

When member Jeffrey Palmer asked if the pledge would impact future development or construction, Mayor Henry replied that it would not, stating that it was more about joining a network of like-minded municipalities.

With no reason to deny the initiative, the Board unanimously voted in favor of taking on the pledge. “We are now a climate smart community ourselves,” Mayor Henry concluded.

In other news, the Board was happy to announce that the Parrott House finished their installation of electricity last week, meaning that the repairs are on schedule for a fall opening.

“I talked with the owners, and they seemed very excited,” Mayor Henry said, and further elaborated that they plan to open the restaurant portion in October of this year, while the hotel rooms will still be further out.

Finally, the Board discussed a potential amendment to two local laws, those being the lawn mowing requirement and a potential alternate to the Village Planning Board.

Mayor Henry said that she saw a business that had high grass yet was adhering to the number of mows required each month, and floated the idea of making it a maximum height requirement instead of number of mows.

As for the alternate, it was brought to the Board’s attention that one member of the VPB is in the army reserves, and will need someone to fill in for them when they are gone.

For both cases, the Board will convene with experts on how to tackle drafting the new amendments, and tabled the discussion until they could come back with more information.