New Castle Archives - Inside Chappaqua and Inside Armonk: The Magazines for New and North Castle

Diversity: A Key Focus at the 2018 Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival

August 29, 2018 by The Inside Press

The sixth annual Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival comes to town on Saturday, September 29th with more of everything–new authors, food trucks, activities and special attractions like the Bubble Bus.

Food trucks will include Mobile Pie, Walter’s Hot Dogs, The Melt Mobile and Three Little Pigs. Dessert will be available at the Great Chappaqua Bake Sale and also at Penny Lick Ice Cream’s cart which will feature a custom CCBF flavor in homage to author Bernard Most: If the Dinosaurs Came Back for Ice Cream. The Mike Risko Band and the Random Farms Kids’ Theater will provide entertainment.

Ninety-four authors including favorites like Victoria Kann, Rosemary Wells, Nick Bruel, Jane Yolen and Mark Teague will sign books and chat with their fans. Books are available through Best Book Fairs (cash or credit cards accepted). The festival, an all-volunteer effort, will also feature 18 new authors. A focus for the festival’s organizers was bringing books to a more diverse audience in 2018.

Dawn Greenberg, founder and executive director of the festival, noted: “Each year the author selection committee attempts to find books that will offer our visiting families the opportunity to be transported by our authors to different and diverse worlds, giving them a window on all kinds of characters and experiences–real and fictional. We are thrilled to bring in a wide selection of authors and genres this year who are getting great buzz in the children’s publishing world for their riveting stories and fresh voices.”

Snapshots from 2017

Tony Abbott with kids
PHOTO BY BO ZAUNDERS

How New Castle Is Leading the Way To a Sustainable Westchester

August 29, 2018 by Tracy Stein

BY KATHY SCHREIBER AND TRACY STEIN

The Town of New Castle is leading the way in promoting a sustainable Westchester. Galvanized by the United States withdrawal from the UN Paris Climate Agreement, the Town joined hundreds of cities and states pledging to uphold the Paris Climate Accord’s commitment to reduce carbon emissions, an important step in the fight against the consequences of climate change. The Town of New Castle is working to define and implement measurable goals to reduce emissions 26% by 2025 (based on 2005 levels) as part of its action plan.

Guiding the Town’s initiative is the New Castle Sustainability Advisory Board (“SAB”). This group, comprised of eleven dedicated Town appointed members and many additional volunteers, works behind the scenes to advise the Town on best practices for leading local environmental and conservation efforts, all with an eye on cost savings measures. While broad emission reductions require Federal and State leadership, SAB has promoted and been the driving force behind implementing a number of actions, empowering a local commitment to reducing New Castle’s carbon footprint.

Composting Pilot Program

The SAB is currently spearheading a voluntary recycling program to reduce food waste, one of the largest components of our trash. A win-win as the town’s food scraps are turned into compost at a commercial facility becoming something useful, rather than a contributor to waste and pollution. The Town’s food scrap recycling program provides an alternative to those residents who don’t compost at home. Participants in the pilot program purchase kits (comprised of two collection bins and compostable liners) for $25. These kits are available at the New Castle Recycling center where the food scraps, stored in approved compostable liners, can be dropped off during regular business hours.

Barbara Cardone, a Chappaqua resident recently purchased a compost kit for her four-generation household. She is glad she did because her garbage disposal now will hardly be used so the impact on her septic tank will be less. She keeps both the small container and the large container in her kitchen. “There is absolutely no odor with either of them. Disposing of the food waste at the recycle center is quick and easy,” Cardone said.

The program also provides an opportunity for residents who compost to recycle food waste like bones, shells, meat, napkins and even junk food that are unsuitable for home composting. As commercial composting becomes more widespread and efficient, New Castle may ultimately be able to offer curbside pick up. The Town’s food scrap recycling program will pay for itself and is predicted to even save New Castle money through reduced waste and hauling fees, which is becoming increasingly important as rules on recycling plastic and metals become more restrictive.

Possible Ordinance on Leaf Blowers

The Town is also considering a measure that would have a large impact on emissions reductions – restrictions on leaf blowers. A SAB-recommended leaf blower reduction ordinance would be similar to laws already in effect in 17 other Westchester towns and counting. Most people are unaware that in addition to creating noxious noise and blowing hazardous dust particles and other pollutants into the air, gas leaf blowers emit large amounts of carbon emissions. One study estimates that a single half-hour use is equal to driving a Ford F-150 pickup truck from New York to Alaska.

Using leaf blowers to clean grass clippings is a relatively recent phenomenon while leaving grass clippings where they fall instead offers beneficial composting nutrients to yards and grasses, something that homeowners may not realize. The restriction under consideration would prohibit the use of gas and electric leaf blowers during the summer when air quality is at its poorest levels, but would not impact fall seasonal cleanup.

One SAB initiative helped to cement New Castle as a leader in sustainability. As the first town in New York State to pass a comprehensive bag law, the Town eliminated hundreds-of-thousands of single-use bags and is now a model for multiple Westchester towns. The SAB regularly consults with other towns and the efforts were rewarded when Pleasantville and Lewisboro recently passed bag laws modeled after New Castle’s.

The SAB’s website, newcastlesab.org includes additional information about these initiatives and ways for residents to lower their carbon footprint. The SAB welcomes volunteers. For additional information, email sab@mynewcastle.org.

New Castle United for Youth: Educating the Community on Substance Abuse Issues

August 29, 2018 by Deborah Raider Notis

Uniting the community and making our younger residents feel that they have a safe place to turn can be challenging, even in our welcoming town. Enter New Castle United for Youth (NCUFY). Formed in 2016 as an outgrowth of the Coalition for Youth (CFY), NCUFY is a supportive, encouraging resource that uses youth-focused strategies to promote a safe and healthy community.

The committee’s founding members, Steering Committee Chairperson Lea Barth and Steering Committee members Leslie Kuhn and Victoria Goodman, were originally members of the Chappaqua Central School District’s R21K PTA Committee. They started attending the monthly meetings of the Westchester Coalition for Drug and Alcohol Free Youth and soon realized they could re-invent the Town of New Castle’s drug prevention committees following this model. Working with members of the community, CFY applied for the federal Drug Free Communities grant which was awarded to CFY in 2016. This grant gives the Coalition $125,000 a year, renewable annually for up to ten years, to fund prevention work in the Town of New Castle.

“Our goal is to promote a positive message and help students and teens feel empowered to make positive choices. We want them to feel confident making social choices that are right for them,” says Barth. To achieve this, NCUFY brings together parents, youth, the Chappaqua School District, the Town of New Castle, police, local businesses, medical professionals, local media, religious organizations, and others to work together to apply data-based approaches to influence the way kids make social decisions.

“We are fortunate to live in an open and accepting community. Our kids have the capacity to accept the choices of others,” states Kuhn, who has helped to spearhead several initiatives to engage local teens. Last October, NCUFY partnered with the school district to bring the motivational speaker, Ty Sells, to Horace Greeley High School. Sells discussed the importance of developing positive relationships, and the value of open conversations between parents and children about drugs and alcohol. Dr. Steven Dewey, a NYU Medical School neuroscientist and researcher was another guest that NCUFY invited to speak at Greeley’s iLab and science research classes this spring. He helped elucidate the science behind the impact of drugs and alcohol on a teenager’s brain.

In addition to participating in Community Day, with a hard-to-miss, enormous “blow up” brain, and hosting a booth at the summer concerts, NCUFY funds a prevention specialist who splits time between Bell Middle School and Seven Bridges Middle School and hosts after school clubs and presentations. Goodman hopes this specialist will promote a “good culture shift and great prevention programs.”

Summer Interns Guide Future Programming

This summer, NCUFY hired two young professionals, a social worker and a counselor to run a summer teen internship program. With over 20 students participating, this group was charged with researching potential initiatives and information, as well as developing positive prevention messages that appeal to an audience of their peers. Barth enthusiastically notes that the “kids have been great.” Kuhn adds, “We have smart kids in this community, when you give them the information, they can process it and draw their own conclusions.”

The NCUFY Steering Committee lauds the efforts of the Town of New Castle, which they find to be exceptionally helpful to and supportive of NCUFY’s initiatives. The town raised age restrictions for buying vaping equipment and cigarettes to 21; smoking is prohibited in town parks; and the town has prevented vaping stores from renting space near Chappaqua schools. “Rob Greenstein is a doer. He is consistently supportive and responsive. So is Jill Shapiro,” notes Kuhn.

And NCUFY is growing. “When we applied for our initial grant, our objective was to change people’s perceptions about teen alcohol use, hopefully reducing the amount of teenage drinking,” notes Barth. Now, they are working to increase their social media traffic, to continue increasing partnerships within the community, and to get across their consistent, positive message of preventing substance use and abuse. Long-term, the Steering Committee hopes to build something that is sustainable; they want to build something that can be passed down to a new generation of New Castle’s parents, administrators, and influencers who can support this community’s youth.

While the Coalition has yet to determine whether they have encouraged a substantive behavioral change in New Castle’s youth, Goodman says, “All of this started a great conversation.” Hopefully, this conversation will resonate throughout the community.

New Castle’s Food Scrap Recycling Program Launches May 29th

May 25, 2018 by Inside Press

May 29 is National Learn About Composting Day!

Food waste is one of the largest components of trash sent to landfills and incinerators and composting provides a beneficial alternative. What exactly is compost? It’s science! Compost is the nutrient rich result of the natural decomposition of organic matter. Compost can be made from kitchen scraps, coffee grounds, newspapers, lawn clippings, leaves…almost any food or plant product. The high nutrient content in compost improves soil quality and stability and reduces soil disease-–some of the many reasons compost is also known as “black gold”.

On March 12, 2018, the New Castle Town Board unanimously authorized a food scrap recycling program that will enable more residents to participate in the composting process. Residents can reduce garbage waste and air pollution as well as recycle food waste not suitable for backyard composting (like bones, shells, meat, napkins, paper towels). The Town’s “scraps” are brought to a compost facility and turned into soil. New Castle is launching its food scrap recycling program on Tuesday May 29, in honor of National Learn About Composting Day! Recycling kits (required for participation in the program) will be available for purchase outside Starbucks in downtown Chappaqua and outside DeCicco & Son’s in Millwood between 9am-1pm. The Kit price is $25 and includes a kitchen collection bin, a locking transportation bin (to transport scraps to the New Castle Recycling Center), and compostable bags. After May 29^th, kits will be available at the New Castle Recycling Center and at announced town events like the Chappaqua Farmers Market, Town Board Meetings, etc. For more information about the program, see the New Castle Sustainability Advisory Board (SAB) website: newcastlesab.org/food-scrap-recycling

We all want to do our part to conserve natural resources and reduce our carbon footprint. Composting supports the three R’s of waste prevention: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. Compost is an environmentally safe fertilizer and an effective alternative to using commercial chemical fertilizers and mulch that are expensive and add toxins to our ground water. Compost helps make your garden safe and hospital for pollinators and other wildlife vital to protecting our ecosystem. New Castle is proud to join the growing number of nearby towns including Bedford, Greenburgh, and Scarsdale, in implementing a food scrap recycling program. For questions about New Castle’s food scrap recycling program, please e-mail Composting@MyNewCastle.org

“Before The Flood” – Community Screening

April 4, 2018 by The Inside Press

A call to action on climate change! Thursday, May 3 @ 7:00 – 9:00pm, Chappaqua Performing Arts Center (480 Bedford Road, Chappaqua). Community screening and discussion of the internationally acclaimed eco-documentary Before The Flood. The film, presented by National Geographic and filmmaker Fisher Stevens, follows Leonardo DiCaprio as he explores the effects of climate change around the globe with world leaders, and provides an in-depth look at the complex issues from all sides. Learn how individuals, communities, and countries can combat climate change through sustainable measures like waste reduction, renewable energy, and conservation. The screening and discussion are free and open to the public with seating on a first come basis. This event is being hosted by: the New Castle Sustainability Advisory Board, the Horace Greeley High School Environmental Club S.T.O.P., Friends of the Chappaqua Performing Arts Center, the New Castle Arts & Culture Committee, and the Chappaqua Central School District. For more information, please contact: sab@mynewcastle.org #BeforeTheFlood