Knut Sauer, a town council member and chair member for Jay’s CSC task force, has been leading the town’s effort alongside a few town officials and a group of community members. He said Nancy Bernstein at the Adirondack North Country Association was instrumental in starting the town’s clean energy projects, but this role sort of fell into his lap. However, as a salesperson, the pseudo-competitive nature of the point system has motivated him.

“Achieving this milestone is really exciting,” he said. “Putting the town of Jay on the map as a small municipality — forward-looking and progressive as it comes to climate-smart initiatives.”

The DEC program first began in 2009, with the certification program starting five years later in 2014. A couple of years after that, the DEC made grants available to support municipalities in ongoing projects that “reduce emissions and build resilience to extreme weather,” according to a DEC statement.

To date, 439 local governments have adopted the Climate Smart Communities pledge and 148 communities have been certified bronze, according to a DEC statement. In the Tri-Lakes, Tupper Lake is registered as a Climate Smart Community and the villages of Lake Placid and Saranac Lake earned their bronze certifications in 2022 and 2024, respectively.

The CSC program is run by the DEC, but is closely related to another similar program, the state Energy Research and Development Authority’s Clean Energy Communities program. Sauer said many of the actions that earn points in the CEC program also apply to the CSC program. The town of Jay started out with the CEC program around 2020, Sauer said.

“You took, you know, no-brainer actions like converting your street lights to LEDs, for instance,” he said.

From there, they did all sorts of things, from code enforcement training to community campaigns, many of which didn’t end up costing the town anything because the points earned translated into small grants. They switched to LED lighting at the highway garage and community center.

One by one, the actions added up. Eventually, they realized the town had accumulated enough actions that would also earn them points and benefits through the CSC program. They received a $50,000 grant to install solar panels on the highway garage, a project that is still in progress.

It also turned out that some things the town had already done counted retroactively as points towards the program.

For example, the town took down a dam after Hurricane Irene, which earned them some points. In the end, they had about 40 points more than they would have needed to get their bronze certification.

“It’s a pretty extensive list of items,” Sauer said. “And we started going through it and we realized we were on a roll here.”

Some climate-smart actions pay off in multiple ways. The town installed heat pumps, which use electricity to transfer heat and offer cleaner temperature control, at the community center. This earned them some points but also allowed them to establish it as an official cooling center.

Sauer said he’s seen an increase in community engagement in recent years and it’s been gratifying to see community members willing to participate. The town has also arranged a sustainability and energy fair, which had a good turnout.

The bronze-level certification will continue to benefit the town. In the state’s general grant application process, this certification earns them points and makes it easier to land more grants for lots of different types of projects. Until this week, the town had received about $80,000 in grants of different sizes, Sauer said.

Jay’s most recent — and largest — clean energy grant was announced on Monday, April 21. Gov. Kathy Hochul announced $4.85 million in funding for communities around the state from the Municipal Zero-Emission Vehicle Infrastructure Grant program administered by the DEC. Jay is set to receive $206,403 for two Level 2 charging ports and one DCFC pedestal. Sauer said this would be specifically for the hamlet of AuSable Forks.