Friday, October 16, 2026
A public hearing regarding Sea Cliff’s legislation on residential battery energy storage systems was held at the Board of Trustees public meeting on Tuesday night. Residents also asked questions about composting. The board presented Sea Cliff’s Emergency Medical Services and longtime Mini Mart organizers with citations. Here are three things to know.
1. Public hearing held on BESS law
The board has drafted legislation regulating battery energy storage system installation for residential use. Resident Roger Street Friedman argued that four provisions of the drafted law go beyond state standards for residential BESS system, citing the State Fire Code, the State Residential Code and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority’s model law.
The provisions of Sea Cliff’s proposed law Friedman raised as being more restrictive than state standards include the 30-foot separation from neighboring house and a two-hour fire proof enclosure, among others.
Friedman asked the board to address “the technical or safety basis for each requirement that goes beyond the state code” or send the draft to NYSERDA for review.
2. Composting revisited
Resident and Environmental Conservation Commission member Laura Russo thanked Mayor Elena Villafane for attending the ECC’s July meeting and meeting with her and resident Amy Marion regarding composting in September. Russo said she spoke to representatives at the Department of Environmental Conservation about next steps for implementing a composting program and that the next step would be to request a permit modification with Waste Management, the company that handles the village’s waste, to comingle fruit and vegetable scraps with yard waste.
Villafane said that the board is exploring an intermunicipal agreement with Glen Cove or another municipality to have composting contracted for at Glen Cove’s treatment facility because Sea Cliff does not have the capacity to manage on-site composting at its Department of Public Works.
3. EMS, event organizers recognized
The board presented Sea Cliff’s Emergency Medical Services with a citation for being named EMS Agency of the Year by the Nassau County Regional Emergency Medical Services Council.
The accolade is given to an agency that strives for consistency and excellence when providing prehospital emergency medical care. Sea Cliff, a strictly volunteer agency, sends an advanced life support provider to nearly every call and only receives mutual aid, assistance from other agencies, if it is managing multiple calls or the ambulance is out of service.
Residents Lisa Larsen Hill and Roger Hill were also given a citation for their work organizing Kiwanis Sea Cliff Mini Mart for more than 10 years, from finding vendors to mapping out the space. This year, they chose Vinny Labbate and Tony Consalvo to succeed them.
