BEDFORD, N.Y. - Bedford took time out this month to celebrate the achievements of the Katonah Village Library and Westmoreland Sanctuary in helping to maintain and improve the environment.
In a town hall reception and ceremony, the Conservation Board presented those organizations with its Green Awards, both for what they had created in-house and for what they taught to the community.
The event coincided with the May 6 Town Board meeting. Supervisor Ellen Calves said she was “glad we get to do [the presentations] as part of a meeting, so that our words and efforts go into the minutes, which last well beyond our years.”
Marina Kubicek, who chairs the Conservation Board, said the Green Awards, established in 2012, recognize organizations that preserve and protect Bedford’s natural resources by promoting waste recycling and conservation of energy, land and biodiversity resources. The awards also encourage elimination of nighttime light pollution and the safeguarding of open space, scenic vistas, native landscapes and historic landmarks.
In presenting the KVL award, Conservation Board member Koren Jones Beaulieu said the library was being recognized for “its outstanding contributions to environmental education and sustainability in our community.”
KVL created a seed library and vegetable garden and provided community-education opportunities related to native plants, gardening, seed harvesting and tree identification.
Westmoreland Sanctuary, a 669-acre nature center covering parts of Bedford, Mount Kisco and Armonk, was cited for its new Environmental Education Center and greenhouse. It built the 2,500-square-foot geothermal building, which includes a rain garden to manage roof runoff as well as serve as a teaching garden.
Simon Skolnik, a Conservation Board member and its former longtime chairman, filled in for Alex Grodner, who had chaired the Green Awards committee. In a message read by Skolnik, Grodner said Westmoreland Sanctuary “has become a special place for me and my family over the 2½ years we have lived here.”
In accepting the award, Ann Paul, the sanctuary’s executive director, was accompanied by four members of what she called her “crew.” They were Steve Ricker, director of conservation; Alice Roosevelt, naturalist administrator; Alex Mintz, environmental administrator; and Glenn Ticehurst, vice chair of the board of trustees. One team member, environmental educator Joshua Cohen, could not be at the ceremony.
Paul thanked them and said “we all really believe in what we are doing. We know that we’re doing the right thing. We know that we’re moving things forward.
“I think it makes a big difference,” Paul said. "When you go to work each day knowing that you’re helping people.”
The Katonah Village Library award was accepted by the library’s director, Mary Kane. She credited two residents—“garden guru” Leslie Dock and “native-plant-species whisperer” Maura Rosenthal—with transforming a “bald patch of dirt” into a community attraction.
“They both had a vision,” Kane said, “and now it is a thriving garden that everyone stops to look at.”
New promoter
The Town Board unanimously approved the hiring of Jennifer Wege of Bedford Hills to continue a two-year town effort to revitalize Bedford’s business community.
She succeeds Laurie Hilliard, who resigned as Bedford Business Promoter last month.
Wege will be paid $30 an hour, up to $3,200 a month, out of $1.8 million in Covid-relief cash. The town received that funding as its share of 2021’s federal American Rescue Plan Act.
Calves thanked Hilliard for her service, saying she “did a great job for two years. . . . She interviewed every business owner and property owner she could possibly talk to.”
Going forward, Calves said, “We will be working with the new promoter to develop a more-specific scope of work . . . throughout the town.”
Sewer allocations
After a public hearing at which no community members spoke, the Town Board approved an additional 12,000 gallons a day in sewer capacity for commercial properties in Katonah and Bedford Hills.
Public Works Commissioner Kevin Winn had proposed the increase, telling the board’s April 15 meeting that the Bedford Hills-Katonah Business Sewer District was at that time allocating 25,000 gallons daily for commercial properties. Since those amounts had already been used, Winn said, no new opportunities that required additional sewer capacity were possible.
Despite the increase to 37,000 gallons a day, Winn pointed out, the district’s sewer plant will retain a still-unallocated capacity of 28,401 gallons.
