The Inside Press

Magazines serving the communities of Northern Westchester

Michael Gold

About Michael Gold

Michael Gold has had articles published in the New York Daily News, the Albany Times-Union, the Hartford Courant and The Hardy Society Journal, a British literary journal. He’s the author of Horror House Detective, a fantasy novel.

Smart Strategies for Combating Winter Chill

by

As the chilly, dark months of winter close in on us, many of us retreat to our homes seeking warmth, hot chocolate and Netflix. The last thing we want is to feel the omnipresent, icy fingers of old man winter reaching through cracks in the door, walls or windows with a draft of Arctic air.

Sustainable Westchester and Lauren Brois are here to help you make your home more comfortable and save money on your electric and heating bills at the same time.

Brois is the Director of EnergySmart Homes and GridRewards at Sustainable Westchester, a county-wide nonprofit organization devoted to helping homeowners lower carbon emissions and improve their energy efficiency. Pleasantville, Bedford and New Castle, which includes Chappaqua and Millwood, are members.

She wants Westchester residents to think about “the way our homes use energy, in terms of the cost of energy, comfort and carbon emissions.” The number one reason to winterize is to help “avoid drafty breezes and cold feet,” Brois said. She’s been told by various Westchester residents that there are “certain rooms they don’t even go inside in winter.,” she said. “You want to keep warm air in your house,” she explained.

The magic of insulation is that it “will keep the house warmer in winter and cooler in summer,” she said. The places most susceptible to cold air sneaking into the home include high hat lights, attic ceiling lights, the front door, the edges of windows, holes in the basement made by your cable TV installer, and rim joists, where the foundation walls meet the support structures for your floor. Air ducts and vents are also areas that may need attention.

For those people who have no idea how to stop the cold from infiltrating the house (that includes me), Sustainable Westchester provides homeowners with ways to figure this out.

You can sign up for Sustainable Westchester’s Energy Smart Home program, which can hook you up with a free home energy assessment, identifying where cold air leaks are coming in and providing recommendations on the best, and most cost-efficient ways to fix them.

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) offers, a free home energy assessment, with lists of contractors who can provide with you a diagnostic test which can assess where air is flowing into the house, so you can prioritize how to effectively upgrade your home, Brois explained.

The assessment “gives you a pathway to upgrade your home,” Brois said, so you can “prioritize your home energy upgrades” and either work to insulate your home on your own or hire a contractor who will “seal off entry places in the basement and the house in general.”

Sustainable Westchester offers residents a list of approved contractors who can do the work. Installing weather stripping under the door to close that gap is one of the most common ways to stop the flow of cold air, Brois explained. Caulking the windows helps too. Brois recommends putting in insulation on the floor of the attic and crawl spaces in the basement.

“The contractor will recommend different types of insulation for different spaces,” she pointed out. Insulation choices include cellulose, spray foam and rock wool insulation.

Additionally, Sustainable Westchester offers residents volunteer energy coaches who are building professionals to help show you how to best insulate your home and reduce your carbon emissions.

The organization provides on its website ways to learn about rebates and incentives for homeowners. For instance, Comfort Home, from NYSERDA, offers rebates of $1,000 to $4,000 to winterize your home, Brois said. Also, the Federal government has a tax credit program through the Inflation Reduction Act, to help homeowners pay for energy audits, new windows and insulation.

People on a fixed income who want to better weatherize and insulate their homes to lower their energy use can qualify for up to $10,000 in rebates from NYSERDA’s EmPower program, Brois pointed out.

Other home improvement options Sustainable Westchester recommends include installing air-sourced heat pumps, ground-sourced (also known as geothermal) heat pumps and heat pump water heaters.

Brois, who has earned certification from the Building Performance Institute, a non-profit home industry organization that develops and assesses standard practices for energy efficiency and weatherization, recruits high school students for both summer and school-year internship programs, so they can “learn about building science, and help residents learn about improving their home energy use, decrease their electricity use, and lower their carbon footprint.

The students help Sustainable Westchester get the word out about the organization’s work. “I’ve always been really passionate about the environment,” Brois said. “I hate waste. Wasting electricity means you’re not using resources efficiently. You can live more comfortably and protect the environment.”

For more information on how to improve your home energy use, go to: sustainablewestchester.org/energysmarthomes/.

Also, go to: www.nyserda.ny.gov/PutEnergyToWork/Energy-Technology-and-Solutions/Energy-Efficiency-Solutions/Seal-and-Insulate-Your-Building.

A Reminder from Nicole Asquith: The Future of Pleasantville Is Renewable Energy

by

Nicole Asquith
PHOTO BY CHAD KRAUS

Nicole Asquith has seen Pleasantville’s future, and it is renewable.

Asquith cares deeply about the town, so she’s doing everything she can to help reduce the village’s carbon emissions, to ensure a good life for Pleasantville’s future generations.

Asquith, a village trustee, currently serving a third three-year term, is the village board liaison to the town’s Climate Smart Task Force, the Conservation Advisory Council, the Pleasantville Recycles Committee, and the Pedestrian Committee.

The village has taken several steps to reduce its carbon emissions, including converting its street lights to LED lamps, which use much less carbon than incandescent bulbs, reducing electricity usage, lowering Pleasantville’s utility bill.

She’s working to help the village government transition to electric vehicles. The town recently purchased a Ford F-150 Lightning truck for the parks and recreation department, with the help of a $10,000 grant from New York State. The village is helping the department to buy electric landscaping equipment, including electric leaf blowers and a ride-on mower.

Pleasantville’s Climate Smart Task Force instituted a rebate program for residents to hand in their gas-powered leaf blowers, lawn mowers, snow blowers, and weed whackers/trimmers and purchase electric units, getting partial reimbursement of $125, or 50 percent of the cost of a lawnmower, or $75, or 50 percent for a leaf blower, whichever amount is less.

Residents who don’t own a gas-powered lawn mower or snow blower, and who want to buy a new electric unit, can get a rebate of $75, or 50 percent off for their new purchase, whichever is less.

Residents have turned in 56 lawn mowers, nine leaf blowers, eight weed whackers, and six snow blowers, for a total of 79 rebates paid.

Asquith was the driving force in getting the village to enroll in a community solar program.

“Community solar customers typically subscribe to – or in some cases own – a portion of the solar energy generated by a solar array and receive an electric bill credit for electricity generated by their share of the community solar system,” the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency website states. Community solar programs enable subscribers to support local renewable energy while earning up to 10 percent of their electric bills.

“A lot of people can’t do solar,” Asquith said. With community solar, “you subsidize creation of solar generated electricity. You are increasing the amount of solar energy in the system.” Community solar “allows the increase of production of solar energy. It saves money on your energy bill.”

Working with the town’s Climate Smart Task Force and the Mt. Pleasant Conservation Advisory Council (CAC), Asquith and others in the village presented an educational event at the local library in the Spring, 2023, to promote geothermal heat pumps, reducing homeowners’ energy use, and improving their insulation. Installing geothermal heat pumps allows homeowners to heat and cool their homes more cheaply, because the pumps use no fossil fuels and require less electricity than traditional methods.

Asquith and other members of the town’s committees have also presented events on conducting home energy audits to find ways to save money on energy costs and help residents lower their carbon emissions. One of the easiest, cheapest things homeowners can do is participate in the town’s composting program, Asquith said.

“Composting reduces the waste stream, so less goes to the incinerator,” she explained. Pleasantville’s program allows residents to compost meat and bones, which you can’t compost in your backyard, because animals may get to them.

Composting’s benefits include “returning nutrients into the Earth,” Asquith pointed out. “You’re completing a cycle nature used to do on its own.”

In 2021, the first year of the program, the village composted 41.1 tons. In 2022, 41.9 tons was composted. The approximate 2023 figure is 42.8 tons.

Asquith is working on increasing the town’s tree canopy too. “Increased heat means trees are increasingly important,” she said. “Ideally, more trees” are needed in the village, Asquith explained. “Part of the identity of Pleasantville is it’s a leafy village. Trees give shade. They also capture carbon. Native trees support a lot of different species – caterpillars, moths, butterflies. They’re important components of the food web for birds. Baby birds eat hundreds of caterpillars.”

Asquith, who has a doctorate in French literature, is also a podcaster, with a program called “In The Weeds,” https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/in-the-weeds/id1467455250, focusing on “how culture shapes our relationship to the natural world.” She has interviewed scientists, artists, cultural critics, and theologians. “In doing our part to address climate change here in Pleasantville, we’re helping to secure a safe and sustainable future for our children and generations to come.,” she stated. “Pleasantville is a uniquely caring community, in which we all pitch in to help each other. Taking action to address climate change is part of this effort – it’s a responsibility we owe to safeguard the future of this community we love.”

Greening Briarcliff is the Environmental Advisory Council’s Mission

by

Amy Karpati, Ph.D., chair, Briarcliff Environmental Advisory Council (EAC)
PHOTOS BY DONNA MUELLER

Briarcliff Manor is getting more green. And more purple, yellow, and orange too.

The village recently planted a variety of pollinator plants, such as purple cone-flowered echinacea, black-eyed Susans, and orange-flowered milkweed to attract butterflies, in the area outside the Briarcliff Village Hall.

The plants “attract pollinators and they’re good for the environment,” said Dr. Amy Karpati, chair of the new Briarcliff Environmental Advisory Council (EAC). *The EAC was established by the village in Fall, 2022, succeeding the horticulture committee, with the mission of preserving and planting trees and indigenous flora in the central business district, in town parks and on walkways, walking trails and green spaces, and educating residents on garden cultivation, sustainable landscaping and pest control.

Working with the EAC, the village planted 30 to 35 native trees in parks and around the village’s youth center on Lu Van Lu Road and will determine where to plant new trees in the so-called “Tree Streets” neighborhood (including Oak, Maple, and Larch roads), to mitigate the potential for flooding.

“We need more trees to help with stormwater control and to help stabilize soils. Several tributaries of the Pocantico River run through Briarcliff and they can flood. Pocantico River goes through Jackson Road Park and the neighborhood bordering it.”

Possible tree species that could be planted include Swamp White Oak and River Birch, Karpati said.

These are trees “that can grow in areas that are intermittently wet and dry. There’s a general acknowledgement that we need more trees. The village asks us what species (of tree) we’d recommend,” she explained. “We’re collaborating with the village on future tree planting projects, providing guidance and recommendations on which species to plant and where to plant them.”

Karpati is an adjunct professor in the graduate sustainability management program at Columbia University. She earned a PhD in ecology and evolution from Rutgers.

“Briarcliff has a renewed interest in sustainability,” Karpati pointed out. “What I would love to see happen is to make Briarcliff a model of suburban sustainability,” she said, where the village makes “green spaces that are connected and walkable and bike-able. Briarcliff can remodel the streetscape and make it climate-resilient.”

In an email, Karpati described her vision in more detail: “I think it is important for the EAC – and the village – to really think outside of the box and think about what is possible regarding nature and natural resources in our community. We can bring nature into the places we live and work. In this way, we can have a two-pronged approach to conservation and sustainability, in which we, one, protect the existing forests, natural areas and green spaces and two, enhance biodiversity and ecosystem function within our built environment, reconciling our needs with the needs of other species, even in business districts and downtown streetscapes. We can protect what we already have and also create more nature. This would mean thinking about green infrastructure and nature-based solutions: green roofs, vegetated stormwater swales, street trees, rain gardens, pollinator gardens, etc.”

Another area of the EAC’s focus will be sustainable landscaping.

“We advocate for reducing the area of your lawn in favor of wildflower meadow habitat,” Karpati said. “We hope to provide more training in 2024 on how to get rid of grass, how to put in plants that are good for wildflower meadows, and how to make your yard more eco-friendly and sustainable. The blatant use of pesticides contributes to the decline in birds, bees, and moths,” she explained.

Native wildflowers and native grasses have roots that penetrate deep into the soil, which means they are more able to reach water sources. This makes them more drought resistant than turf grass, such as Kentucky blue grass, which has shallow roots. Turf grass needs more water and is susceptible to drying out.

“Lawns have so much potential for nature conservation,” she said.

One of the critical issues with current lawn care practices is the disposal of leaf litter every autumn. Firefly, butterfly, and moth larvae bury themselves in leaf litter, Karpati said. When homeowners gather up and throw away their leaf litter, they’re also throwing out the larvae. That’s how these species disappear from your lawn.

Moths and butterflies are important pollinator species. Concerning fireflies, “they have significant ecological and cultural value,” Karpati wrote in an email. “Ecologically, they are beneficial insects, as the larvae are voracious predators that gobble up snails and slugs, benefiting gardens and agricultural lands. Culturally, they are emblematic of childhood summers. Their twinkling bioluminescence is a source of wonder for kids and adults and connects us to the nature around us.

“They can be good ambassadors for suburban conservation, as their populations have been in decline, and it would be quite a shame to lose them from our neighborhoods,” she stated.

Karpati grew up on Long Island and frequently went on camping trips with her family, which helped her develop a connection with nature early in her childhood. She has worked as a director of science and programs at the Teatown Lake Reservation in Ossining and a conservation biologist and environmental advocate in the New Jersey Pinelands.

At Columbia, she teaches how to create sustainable environments in urban areas, building green infrastructure in cities and enhancing biodiversity. She explained the presence of pigeons in cities, a question many walkers face every day as they make their way through New York City.

“The reason why they (pigeons) thrive is that tall buildings mimic the steep rock cliff sides that are their native habitats,” she said.

“I’m fascinated with how nature works. It’s cool to research how species adapt to their urban environments and how to bring ecosystem management back into disturbed landscapes.”

*Briarcliff Environmental Advisory Council: Dr. Amy Karpati, Brooke Beebe, Ernie DeMarie, Steven Kavee and Dawn Orza

Honoring Hawthorne’s Pasqualino DiSisto

by

From an Italian farming family, enduring the ravages of World War, to two children who earned college degrees, long time Hawthorne resident Pasqualino DiSisto encompasses the American ideals of improving your life through hard work and embracing the potential of education to open up your world.

His best teacher may have been a colonel in the U.S. Army.

DiSisto, well-known throughout the community, is a member of American Legion Post 112, serving on the post’s honor guard and its Medal of Honor Committee. The post worked to install a monument outside Mt. Pleasant Town Hall, with the names of all Mt. Pleasant Vietnam veterans.  (Editor’s Note: The monument was unveiled after our print press time, on November 11th, Veteran’s Day.) DiSisto is also a member of the Kensico Italian American Society and the Knights of Columbus.

His charitable work with these organizations includes giving scholarships to Mt. Pleasant students and making donations to the Pleasantville Ambulance Corps, plus donating food to the poor.

DiSisto was born in 1939 in the Molise region of Italy. The family grew wheat, potatoes, and hay for animals. His father was inducted into the Italian Army in 1941. He fought in North Africa, was captured by the Americans, and brought to the U.S. as a prisoner of war. Even as a war prisoner, his father was dedicated to work, volunteering for manual labor at more than a dozen Army bases.

“When the Germans came through Italy, I was four, five years old,” DiSisto explained. “I had a brother two years younger than me. We had to run away from home when the Germans came through, into the countryside. The Germans weren’t too kind to women and children. The Germans were bombarding and shooting at homes to scare people and give up.”

Concerning their father, “We didn’t know where he was for 18 months,” he said. The Americans “were very kind,” DiSisto explained. They “notified our family that he’s alive.” With the end of the war in 1945, DiSisto’s father got sent back to Italy, but “My Dad got a taste of what America was like,” DiSisto said. In 1955, father and son were admitted into the country. They became citizens in 1960.

“I was almost 17 years old and went to high school, without knowing one word of English, not even a letter of the alphabet,” he pointed out. “I had to do it on my own (learn English),” he said. “I forced myself to speak as much as possible, to read, by trial and error, and to write.”

During high school, he took a job working in a luncheonette. After graduation, DiSisto went to barber school and worked in the Bronx. Then he got drafted into the Army. He didn’t want to go. He had just purchased a Manhattan barber shop. An Army colonel at the Whitehall Street induction center talked with DiSisto.

The colonel gave him a “five-minute lesson to wise me up about the opportunities in the Army and to take advantage of it, to use it (the Army) wisely.”

“The Colonel opened up my mind,” he said. Stationed at Fort Carson near Colorado Springs, he took classes and “learned mechanics, electrical, carpentry. I even went to Colorado State College to study English, French, and math.” His educational work earned him a promotion to Sergeant.

After he was discharged, DiSisto got married and moved to the Bronx. He and his wife, Maria, had two children. He became a mail carrier for the U.S. Postal Service and took other jobs too.

“I worked as a mail carrier from 5 a.m. to 1 p.m. Then I cut hair for four hours and came home. I worked two jobs for 30 years,” he said. He did extra jobs on the weekends, as a house painter and working construction, mixing concrete, for instance. His dedicated work ethic was motivated by building a better life for his daughter and son and moving to a nicer neighborhood. DiSisto and his wife achieved their dream in 1976 and bought a home in Hawthorne. The kids graduated from Westlake High School.

DiSisto’s daughter, Lisa, went to Manhattan College, earning a degree in electrical engineering. She worked for IBM for 20 years. His son, John, earned a degree in accounting from Iona College and his grandson got a computer science degree. Of his children, DiSisto said, “They understand education. I’m glad I helped them in every possible way. They made me proud. America’s a beautiful country–the best in the world.”

Of his own life, he explained. “My road was not always smooth.” Confronting his obstacles, he said, “I managed to go over them or around them.”

At the Newly Renovated Jacob Burns Film Center: New Children’s Programs Are Designed to Delight the Eye and Enrich the Mind

by

Renovations PHOTO BY JESSE LOCASCIO

“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire,” wrote the Irish poet William Buter Yeats.

The Jacob Burns Film Center (JBFC) is trying to ignite the flame of kids’ imaginations in two ways this coming school year:  one, JBFC restarted its JBFC Kids programming in July, playing all kinds of fun, visually spectacular movies, including Mary Poppins, with the words to the songs on screen for singing along, The Muppet Movie and Where the Wild Things Are, showing a film every other Saturday a month; two, the center has created an emerging screenwriting fellowship program in collaboration with the NYU Tisch School of the Arts, for 10 students entering 10th and 11th grade, with the first class starting in October.

JBFC has also re-started its late-night weekend screenings, geared toward older kids and younger adults, called, “After Hours,” which was put on hold due to the COVID pandemic, with late night horror and cult films. Beginning in September, the movies the center will show include The People Under the Stairs, Teen Wolf, and Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead. Movies slated for the October Halloween season include Scream, The Exorcist, and The Wicker Man, said Monica Castillo, JBFC’s senior programmer.

The kids’ film slated for September 16th is Labyrinth, a film directed by Muppet Master Jim Henson, about a girl who wishes her baby brother would disappear. When he actually does, she has to find him, in the labyrinth. Many of the characters are puppets Henson’s shop built.

On September 30th, JBFC will show another Henson production, The Witches, a live-action movie based on a book by Roald Dahl about a group of witches who plot to turn all the world’s children into mice, but there is one brave boy who finds out about the plan and opposes them.

The October 14th movie is Coraline, an animated film about a girl who opens a secret door in her house and discovers an alternative reality that’s inviting at first but has a catch – just a little one. Coco is playing on October 28th, three days before Halloween. It’s about a boy who accidentally finds himself in the Land of the Dead, then goes on a quest there to find out why his family won’t let him play any music, which is a big problem, because he thinks he was born to do it.

Children who come to the show in costumes will get a “spooktacular” prize, said Denise Treco, JBFC director of communications and marketing. The prize during last Halloween’s showing, of E.T. The Extraterrestrial last year was a bendable monster figurine.

The screenwriting fellowship program offered slots to ten students, who had to apply by August 6th. NYU professor Jeremy Kamps will mentor the students as they develop their screen plays. Kamps has won several awards for his fiction and play writing. He’s worked with the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, the New York Theatre Workshop, the National Black Theatre of Harlem, and other theaters, from Los Angeles to Alabama.

There is no cost to the participating students or their families, Treco said. Students who earn a place in the program will receive a stipend for deferred wages and transportation to and from the JBFC’s Media Arts Lab twice a week for six weeks – 13 sessions in all. They will be able to use industry-standard equipment and software to do their work. Each student will be required to complete a screenplay for a short film. Professional actors will table-read the screenplays.

JBFC recently renovated its theaters and is opening up a wine bar in October. It will be in the Jane Peck Gallery on the third floor, which will have on display photography and poster exhibits.

“The idea is we will be serving wine and beer, cheese plates and other light fare,” Treco explained. “We’re trying to have a place where people can meet up before or after the movie to talk.”

“The theater renovation took three months,” Treco explained. “We started in January, and it went to the end of April.”

The center has installed new seats in its three ground floor theaters, and a new screen in Theater One. The center upgraded the lighting in the floors under the arm rests and improved its hearing loop technology in the ground floor theaters. People using T-Coil hearing aids will be able to tie into the movie’s sound system with their devices. JBFC also installed better sound acoustics in Theater Two, to block out exterior noise from outside the walls.

It all adds up to an improved experience for movie-goers and the possibility for kids to experience the adventure of a hero’s quest, defeat lots of bad guys, and in the process discover exciting new worlds or get a thrill, lighting the fires of curiosity within.