NARROWSBURG — The Tusten Energy Committee, which is an entity of the town board, has completed many energy initiatives in the past such as installing solar panels for town energy use.

At Tuesday night's board meeting, Chair of the Energy Committee and Councilwoman Brandi Merolla announced three new initiatives.

The soft plastic recycling program, which began in August, has now collected 544 pounds of plastic to date. Merolla and Energy Committee members Star Hesse and Catherine Lewis take the plastic to Weis Market in Honesdale, PA where the company TREX will turn it into decking material.

They offer a promotional program where participants can collect 500 pounds in six months to receive a bench. The town will receive the bench after only five weeks.

For the past few years, the Energy Committee has worked on updating the town's streetlights to LED bulbs. Merolla announced that the Public Service Commission has approved the contract of sale between NYSEG and the town.

The New York Power Authority can purchase streetlights for Sullivan County towns participating in an aggregation program to save money. Installation will take six weeks to complete.

The third initiative is a compost system for town residents and businesses. The town received a grant of $138,100 for a HORSE (High solids, Organic waste, Recycling System with Electrical output).

They have one year to plan, purchase, install and learn to operate the HORSE system, which costs approximately $102,000.

The excess grant money, as well as a $5,000 grant for being a Climate Smart Community, might go toward building a housing unit and other costs.

The unit will be placed near the town solar array at the highway barn and can connect to the solar array. Tusten will be the first town in the United States to have a municipality food digester connected to a municipality solar array. It's also the second small-scale food digester on the east coast (the other one is in Hudson, NY).

The composter can accept food scraps including vegetables, fruit, meat, small bones, fish, bread, etc. It heats the scraps and breaks it down, producing methane gas and a liquid fertilizer. The town could sell those products.

Merolla thanked Energy Committee member Jennifer Porter for leading the project, as well as Senator Jen Metzger, Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther, Cornell Cooperative Extension, Good Find Farm, the Upper Delaware Council, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the Hudson Valley Regional Council, Damascus Citizens for Sustainability, Sustainable Bethel Committee and the Ecumenical Food Pantry.

In other news

The public hearings for noise and mass gathering zoning re-write were canceled. A new date will be announced.

Commissioner of Planning Freda Eisenberg from the county's planning department gave a presentation to the board and the audience about what her department does and their current projects.

Ed Jackson, Chairman of the Planning Board, said the town received a piece of a steel beam from the World Trade Center. They want to build a monument outside the town hall. Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther donated $1,000. They are still taking donations from the public.

Nico Juarez, Chairman of the Zoning Board and the dog control officer, said he recently took in a dog and paid $1,000 in medical bills out of pocket. He asked for donations to help cover the cost.

Councilwoman Jane Luchsinger said the town is applying for two Technical Assistance Grants from the Upper Delaware Council. One is to fund a new comprehensive plan for the town, and one is for costs related to hiring a planner for the zoning re-write.

A budget workshop was scheduled for September 17 at 6 p.m.

The town board voted to approve a road closure for the Narrowsburg Honey Bee Fest to be held on September 28 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

They also appointed Dan Paparella as the second alternative member to the Upper Delaware Council.