Mission, History & Members
NWEAC Mission Statement
The Northern Westchester Energy Action Consortium (NWEAC) consists of 14 municipalities in Westchester County, New York. Consortium members collaborate to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, save money for our residents and businesses, increase energy efficiency in our communities, enable renewable energy generation, increase economic activity, and align our local efforts with county, state, and federal initiatives.
Adopted by the Board of Directors on 21 October 2010, six months to the day after our Interdependence Day signing of the intermunicipal agreement that formed the Consortium.
Member Municipalities
- Bedford
- Cortlandt
- Lewisboro
- New Castle
- North Castle
- North Salem
- Ossining
- Pound Ridge
- Somers
- Yorktown
- City of Peekskill
- Village of Croton-on-Hudson
- Village of Mt. Kisco
Our initial coalition phase: 2009
The elected officials in fourteen municipalities in northern Westchester County (NY) in mid-2009 created the initial cooperation that blossomed into the Northern Westchester Energy Action Consortium by Earth Day 2010.
As the first American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 dollars began to flow in early 2009, our collaboration began as a loose coalition of volunteers and elected leaders, trying to grapple with this massive, new set of programs. Significantly, the federal government stimulus package sent automatic dollars to municipalities with populations above 35,000, such as Yorktown among us. All other towns, cities, and villages with fewer than 35,000 residents had to compete against each other for the remaining funds. The Department of Energy (DOE) had not yet defined a consortium of allied municipalities as eligible to apply for the Energy Efficiency Community Block Grants (EECBG), which were of greatest interest to us.
As a result, in 2009 individual municipalities, e.g. Bedford or Croton, developed our grant applications as a lead proposer with its partner municipalities signing on by adopting individual resolutions of support. As a coalition, we rapidly discovered the great advantage of pooling our local technical, managerial, and social capital for the brainstorming that goes into a successful grant application, and scaling our implementation efforts across neighboring municipal boundaries. In early summer 2009, we specifically requested that the Department of Energy allow a consortium of municipalities to file a joint application, reducing the number of applications that DOE would need to review and allowing smaller municipalities, like ours, to share the work of grant writing, administration and the benefits.
To their great credit, within a few months by late 2009, the officials at the DOE had expanded the list of who would be eligible to apply for grants to include a consortium of like-minded municipalities, exactly what we had sought. The fact that a consortium was now eligible to apply for grants spurred our coalition to begin the process of officially establishing an on-going partnership on a more formal basis. The Consortium formed a Leadership Team to ensure the group’s efforts addressed the needs of the elected officials’ and their individual communities. Our Team began to work out the language for an intermunicipal agreement each partner would sign and a set of by-laws for the new consortium to allow it to establish its own decision-making and operating structure. This Leadership Team is comprised of the following individuals from both the elected offices and from the communities’ volunteer committees on energy/environmental/sustainability:
| Municipality | Elected Official | Citizen Volunteer/Liaison | Member Status | Population (2009 est.) |
| Bedford | Lee Roberts | Mark Thielking | Charter member | 18,576 |
| Buchanan | Sean Murray | Richard Funchion | Observer | 2,247 |
| Cortlandt | Linda Puglisi | Dani Glaser | Charter member | 30,254* |
| Croton-on-Hudson | Leo Wiegman | Susan Lunden | charter member | 7,965 |
| Lewisboro | Charley Duffy |
Dan Welsh | charter member | 12,550 |
| Mt. Kisco |
Mike Cindrich |
Ed Campbell | charter member | 10,400 |
| New Castle | Barbara Gerrard |
David Brito | charter member | 17,774 |
| North Castle |
Bill Weaver |
Adam Kaufman | charter member | 12,162 |
| North Salem |
Warren Lucas |
Amy Rosmarin | charter member | 5,232 |
| Ossining (Town) |
Catherine Borgia |
Catherine Borgia | charter member | * 5,015 |
| Ossining (Village) |
Bill Hanauer | Bill Hanauer | charter member | 23,945 |
| Peekskill | Mary Foster | Rick Finn | charter member | 24,724 |
| Pound Ridge | Gary Warshauer | John Maddocks | charter member | 4,950 |
| Somers | Mary Beth Murphy | Herb Oringel | charter member | 20,031 |
| Yorktown | Susan Siegel |
Jerry Robock | member |
37,955 |
| 234,000 |
* To avoid double counting among members, the population figure for Towns count only those who reside in the Town outside Villages within the Town.
Our consortium phase: 2010
By late March, 2010, our work on energy issues to save municipalities and citizens money had begun to attract attention. As we prepared to sign our consortium agreement, we learned the Town of Bedford had been awarded the first of its Energy Efficiency Retrofit grants by the DOE on behalf of the Consortium and that Consortium projects had been awarded at least two other significant grants. When it rains, it pours! On April 21, 2010, Interdependence Day, thirteen of the municipalities came together in Bedford’s Town Hall to sign our new Intermunicipal Agreement, officially creating the Northern Westchester Energy Action Consortium.
Within the Consortium, the thirteen original members of dues paying municipalities comprise circa 194,000 citizens and 50,000 homes, with a total population of 234,000 including observer municipalities, based on 2009 census data.
The by-laws designate Consortium’s Board of Directors will comprise of the elected leader of each dues-paying member, or a person designated by this elected official. Hence, the Board comprises 13 members at this moment, with each charter member municipality holding one seat. Within a few weeks on May 12, 2010, the new Board of Directors conducted its first meeting at Peekskill City Hall, adopting the by-laws and appointed officers and a fiscal agent in its first marathon session. Minutes of the meeting are available here.
- Chair: Herb Oringel (Chair, Somers Energy Action Panel)
- Vice chair: Leo Wiegman (Mayor, Croton-on-Hudson)
- Secretary: Mary Foster (Mayor, Peekskill)
- Treasurer: Amy Rosmarin (Councilwoman, North Salem)
- Fiscal Agent: City of Peekskill
Hitting the ground running: Fall 2010
The Board’s Strategic Plan retreat in early autumn 2010 will develop a road map for the next phase of the Consortium, now that numerous members have been awarded EECBG grants, must conduct the work, and have other projects in the wings. With the addition of Yorktown–the most populous northern Westchester municipality–as a full member in September 2010, the Consortium now represents more than 234,000 citizens.
