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Romaine Outlines Green Initiatives For Brookhaven

Among topics covered in Supervisor Ed Romaine's State of the Town Address, some forward-thinking environmental iniatives.

Brookhaven Town Supervisor Ed Romaine delivered his first State of the Town Address on March 26 at Town Hall in Farmingville. During his speech Romaine laid out some forward thinking strategies the town is looking into regarding environmentally friendly, or green, initiatives.

Noted in the speech as revenue-generating measures, Romaine discussed the recently approved Green Energy Project, as the largest renewable energy project on Long Island. The supervisor hopes the project will generate up to $2.5 million per year for the town, while conserving energy, reducing harmful gases and creating 675 construction jobs for the town.

In addition to the Green Energy Project, Romaine's other initiatives include:

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  • Upgrading the recycling center and a move to single stream recycling in 2014. This will increase recycling by 20%, improve efficiency and reduce the Town’s cost of waste disposal.
  • A recent law that gives tax exemptions for new residential and commercial construction, or improvements that meet qualified green building certification known as LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design).
  • The Town’s new Wind and Solar codes.
  • A proposed code to encourage the use of geo-thermal energy sources. 
  • Proposal to implement an energy audit for several town buildings in an effort to save money and improve energy efficiency.

The supervisor also spoke about preservation of open space by not only acquiring and rehabilitating available property, but by pressuring developers to generate funds that could help preserve open space. His initiatives include:

  • When a more intensive land use is undertaken, the developer should mitigate the loss of open space through a formula-based fee that could generate several million dollars to be used only for open space acquisitions and parkland improvement.  
  • Development of the former Nesenger property in East Patchogue into a new, environmentally friendly, passive recreation park with a New York State Parks Grant.

The entire text of Supervisor Romaine's speech can be viewed by visiting www.brookhaven.org.

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