New Castle, NY

Mayor: Supervisor Barbara Gerrard

Date of Adoption:
2008-02-26

Primary Contact:
Stephen Mezias

Why My City is Cool

The Town of New Castle is located in northern Westchester County and it has two hamlets, Chappaqua and Millwood.

In February 2008 the New Castle Town Board was the first in the state to form a partnership with the New York State Office of Climate Change. An article in the Town's newsletter (April 2008) says that "The Office of Climate Change was created last year to help governments and institutions respond effectively to the impacts of greenhouse gases through the development of policies and community assistance to help reduce emissions and prepare for unavoidable warming impacts. “We need to adopt measures to help our community adapt to the changes we are seeing already and we need to enact policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” said Supervisor Barbara Gerrard." The Town Board also voted to join ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability.

A press release (May 7, 2008) from the Town says that "In a six month pilot project, the Town is using B-20 bio-fuel in two large roll-off trucks used by the Town’s Recycling Department, which are similar to dump trucks, but have interchangeable containers. The B-20 label refers to the mixture of 20 percent bio-diesel fuel with 80 percent traditional diesel fuel. The advantage of using this blend is that there are no alterations needed to the trucks, and the fuel is stored in the same way as traditional diesel fuel. The trucks that use the bio-diesel fuel are used to transport mulch and compost." "The Town has made a commitment to combat climate change, and reducing carbon emissions from Town vehicles will help to make a difference,” said Town Supervisor Barbara Gerrard."

An article in The Journal News (August 17, 2008) says that a greenhouse gas emissions inventory for municipal government sources of emissions has been completed and that the town government is planning reduce these emission to a target level that has yet to be determined. It was found that in 2005 a total of 3,446 metric tons of carbon dioxide were released. The single biggest user of energy was the water filtration plant. The second biggest user of energy was the fleet of municipal vehicles. The article also says that the town government plans to do an emissions inventory for the entire town.