WESTERLO — Both Berne and Westerlo are considering options to apply for the Clean Energy Communities grant through the New York State Energy and Research Development Authority. Knox has already obtained a NYSERDA grant, for $130,000.

At its April board meeting, the Westerlo Town Board appointed Jill Falchi to the zoning board. She will replace Robert Beck, whose resignation the board accepted at its May 1 meeting.

Falchi, a sustainability planner for the Capital District Regional Planning Commission, also reviewed the town’s options for applying for a $35,000 grant through NYSERDA.

Falchi presented various high-impact activities that would make the town eligible for a Clean Energy Communities grant. One item has already been achieved, she said: town code enforcement officer Ed Lawson has received training in energy code best practices. Other items Falchi recommended included replacing street lights with light-emitting diodes and reducing 10-percent of greenhouse gas emissions in town facilities.

Falchi brushed past setting up an electric-vehicle charging station.

“Maybe not low-hanging fruit,” she said, of that particular action item. Audience members chuckled. An electric-vehicle charging station was rejected in Knox even after the prime mover for the grant had already obtained another grant to largely pay for the EV station.

The Westerlo Town Board also moved forward in applying for another NYSERDA grant that would fund 80-percent of the cost of repairs for the highway garage. The grant is being applied for by the town’s grant writer, Nicole Ambrosio.

At the April town board meeting, the board had agreed to move forward with a state environmental quality review application, which would allow the town to apply for the grant. The board approved granting a negative SEQRA for repairing the garage, although some in the gallery asked if salt runoff from the salt shed or truck bays would be considered. Town Councilman Anthony Sherman said that the repairs would not change salt runoff.

“The project is just renovation of the building,” he said.

The board also appointed James Loux to the town’s water board and Nicole Egan as a trustee for the Westerlo Public Library.

Berne will apply, too

In Berne, the town is also in the beginning stages of the Clean Energy Communities grant. Councilman Joel Willsey, who serves as the the conservation board liaison, said that the town is working with Todd Schwendeman, who also serves on the Berne planning board, as it begins the application. The town had previously worked with Robyn Reynolds of the Capital District Regional Planning Commission, who had presented the grant to the board last month.

Schwendeman will be working on a program to replace Berne’s streetlights with LEDs, said Willsey. About half the streetlights in town would need to be LEDs to count, he said. The town is also looking at having its code enforcement officer trained in “energy code best practices,” as well as benchmarking, or monitoring and decreasing energy use in town facilities.

Willsey said that the town may have completed one of the four necessary action items already, the unified solar permit, which streamlines the process for residents to apply for a permit. Willsey said that NYSERDA is currently reviewing the town’s permit process.

The grant will likely be around $30,000, he said. The grants are partly funded by companies that have been sued by the state for polluting, said Willsey.

Knox brought in more money than Berne and Westerlo are applying for because the larger grants were awarded on the basis of which municipalities completed the required action items first.