Editor, The Spotlight,
I wanted to share with you some exciting news about Colonial Acres. We are a community of 113 homes located off of Feura Bush Road in Glenmont in the Town of Bethlehem. The Colonial Acres Homeowners Association has been approved as an ISC-Audubon Certified Neighborhood (for Bird and Wildlife Sanctuary).
The application we submitted documented our Colonial Acres practices in 10 key areas that creates and maintains a bird and wildlife sanctuary environment and next steps we are taking throughout 2015 to maintain and improve our environmentally sensitive practices.
Our website, www.colonialacresglenmont.com, has a “Green Acres” section dedicated to environmental information. It includes the detailed certification submission and mapping of the community on wildlife matters.
We are a unique community for a number of reasons. This certification documents and highlights some of these strengths: mature and diverse trees and plant growth based on being a 50 years+ community; wild areas both within the community as well as based on bordering ravines, farmland, right of way and a golf course, which creates a positive environment for birds and wildlife; environmentally sensitive and aware community members (as documented from the survey conducted during the certification process); and a single entrance to help control traffic volume and speed.
We are also uniquely positioned next to the Audubon certified golf course and have formed a tight relationship to work closely on nature projects and programs that will benefit both the Colonial Acres and the broader Town of Bethlehem community.
This certification was one of our goals for 2014. We believe we can be a model for other neighborhoods in the Town and elsewhere — and we can learn from others as well.
We appreciate all your support to our community from the Town of Bethlehem, including the recent sidewalks that were installed to create a more walkable environment in our surrounding community. We also thank Dale Ezyk and John Andrews from the golf course, who are great neighbors and partners to us; Sam Messina, who is helping us develop the nature model; and Ron Dodson, our ISC Audubon mentor. We could not have obtained this certification without their support and the support and involvement of the Colonial Acres households themselves.
Colonial Acres Homeowners Association President Joe Benoit, of Glenmont
