For the first time, the New York Association of Towns has recognized 13 Towns of Excellence, which received bronze, silver, or gold designations.

Bethlehem was one of six to achieve the gold standard, largely because of its environmental leadership.

Supervisor David VanLuven attended the association’s annual convention in New York City to receive the award on Feb. 16.

“People who live here have always known Bethlehem is a special place. Now the rest of New York knows it, too,” VanLuven said in a statement. “This Gold designation reflects the everyday work of our town employees, volunteers, and community partners who are committed to delivering excellent services and protecting the quality of life our residents value.”

New York has 933 towns. The association did not immediately answer an Enterprise question on how many towns applied.

The association’s website includes an application for the inaugural awards and says the towns would be judged on areas including economic development, sustainability and sound planning, community engagement, quality of life, governance and transparency, and workforce development.

Towns can receive gold, silver, or bronze recognition. After three years of gold status, towns are eligible to be selected as the annual “Platinum Town of Excellence.”

Along with Bethlehem, the towns of Bedford, Clarence, Canandaigua, Stanford, and Ithaca received gold designations based upon their applications and three population tiers: small, mid-sized, and large towns.

Bethlehem received the gold designation in the large-town category; it has a population of about 35,000.

“Bethlehem stood out for its environmental leadership, through earning the Climate Smart Communities Silver Certification in 2025, protecting 700 acres of open space over the past eight years (including a 307-acre historic farm and a new 160-acre nature park), and operating a model compost facility that produced 20 million pounds of compost/mulch in 2025 while diverting 850,000 pounds of food scraps from the waste stream,” Association Counsel Katie Hodgdon wrote in an email, answering Enterprise questions.

“Additionally,” she wrote, “the town also demonstrated strong fiscal integrity, with a clean audit from OSC [Office of the State Comptroller], $920,000 in microenterprise grants, and an award-winning Comprehensive Plan.”

The other seven towns to receive awards are: Woodbury, Chili, Stuyvesant, Java, Camillus, Granby, and Chateaugay.

Asked how the selections were made, Hodgdon said, “NYAOT’s leadership team and membership engagement committee reviewed the applications and made the determinations.”

The website answers the question “Why apply?” by saying winning towns will get statewide recognition, be featured on an association webpage, can use the Towns of Excellence Badge on documents and websites, and will be honored at the association’s annual meeting.