The Croton Conservation Advisory Council welcomed Shiloh Shea as its newest member at its Feb. 17 meeting, then settled into a spring agenda stacked with a repair café, Earth Day planning and early work on a village lighting code. Mayor Brian Pugh, Trustee Nora Moriarty Nicholson and Planning Board member Steve Krisky sat in on the session as liaisons.

Repair Café set for Feb. 28

First on the calendar: the Repair Café opens Saturday, Feb. 28, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Croton Free Library. Sherry Horowitz and Halle Clarke, who provided the update, reported a strong response from volunteer repair coaches — and 39 people already registered in advance for repairs, according to the minutes. Coaches will cover mechanical, electrical and tech items, jewelry and watch-battery replacement, clothing and textiles, soft toys, upholstery, bikes, kitchen-knife sharpening, window screens, wooden items and things that need gluing. Guests will get tea, coffee and cookies; coaches get lunch. The library is printing flyers and doing much of the promotion, and council volunteers were asked to show up 15 minutes early for their shifts.

A zero-waste Earth Day

This year's Earth Day event is set for Saturday, May 2 — rain date May 9 — at Vassallo Park. Council chair Eva Thaddeus, John Ealer, Rachel Bernstein and Clarke are drafting a planning guide for the Recreation Department, to be circulated to the full committee for comment by email before it goes to the department by the end of February. According to the minutes, the event will host a smaller roster of participating groups than last year, with the focus shifted toward environmental engagement — the vision is that attendees of all ages leave with a commitment to do something, locally. The Recreation Department is to coordinate a bike ride with a bike shop. Waste is a particular emphasis. The village can bulk-buy compostable utensils, plates and serviceware for vendors to use, volunteers will be recruited to monitor disposal cans so waste is sorted into recycling, compost and landfill, and registration forms are to explain the zero-waste guidelines and goals. Planned and possible council tables include a tree giveaway, CLEAN, children's activities, dark skies, leave-the-leaves and the leaf blower law, native gardens, pollinator pathways and the Mayor's Monarch Pledge. Publicity will be split: the village will update lawn signs and print flyers, while council members place signs and hand out flyers, with a list of online and press outreach prepared for the village's use.

Toward a dark-skies code

Jason Mencher led a discussion of the lighting codes adopted in Cortlandt and Yorktown, continuing an effort the council launched in January to propose a dark-sky code for Croton. The Yorktown model — simpler, with fewer detailed regulations — may be the better match for the village, the minutes indicate. Ideas in play include a fulsome introductory paragraph laying out the case for the code and what the village has been doing; DarkSky.org has model language. For existing homes and businesses, the council is inclined to start with guidelines rather than detailed requirements, with education accompanying any adoption — while regulations for new construction, which would be required to submit a lighting plan under detailed standards, are seen as more tenable. A limit on light trespass, under which existing lighting is exempt unless it is extremely visible to neighboring properties, and time-of-day restrictions that might include a 60-day cap on holiday lights, were also floated. From the Planning Board's perspective, having some code language on lighting would help; not much exists now. Mencher is to investigate, summarize and circulate something for further discussion at the next meeting, with the goal of sending the trustees a letter of general recommendations.

Trails, inventory and Garden Club

David Daly reported that the updated trail map is done, and the council is working to get it published on the village website. One complication: the map is generally part of a larger guide, and its text — which dates to 2013 and does not mention Gouveia Park — needs reviewing and updating. Members were asked to flag other needed changes, and the council is reaching out to the Recreation Department to coordinate on park descriptions. A schedule for spring trail cleanup and work is in the works. On the Natural Resources Inventory, Mencher and Madalyn Bozinski said draft GIS files have been received; the council is giving feedback, with the next session set for March. Thaddeus also reported that the Garden Club is exploring Green Living programs for winter activities — a first event could screen the documentary "Extraordinary Caterpillar," on the role caterpillars play in biodiversity, part of the Homegrown National Park movement — and that the Mayor's Monarch Pledge has been re-signed for this year, with related activities still to be settled. Thaddeus encouraged members to consider volunteering as recording secretary, to spare the council the constant challenge of rotating the job and making sure it gets done. Mencher's dark-skies summary is due for discussion when the council reconvenes on March 17, and the eventual target is a letter to the Board of Trustees with the council's general lighting recommendations.