Isramart :Exiting councilwoman urges adherence to ‘carbon neutral’ pledge

Isramart news:
Councilwoman Liz Simonson is leaving office with a request that future town officials lead by example, staying on course with efforts to reduce municipal energy use.

In farewell comments at a Town Board meeting last week, Simonson said a 6-month-old plan to make the town “carbon neutral” has gotten off to a slow start.

“There were some immediate recommendations that have never been implemented,” she said. “There are a lot of midterm things that have never been implemented. If we are going to be serious about our carbon-neutral initiative, I think it’s time to go back to that report and peck away at and see what we can do.”

Simonson is completing her third four-year term as town councilwoman. Rather than seek re-election last month, she opted to challenge incumbent Jeff Moran for the town supervisor’s job and was defeated, 1,174-1,033.

Simonson encouraged other board members to regain the momentum that had been lost following an energy inventory of town buildings and vehicles.

“The recommended action plan for reducing greenhouse gas emissions is to assess the efficiency of all town-owned buildings and make the necessary energy-efficiency improvements,” Simonson said. “The priorities are going to be the buildings that we use 24/7, meaning the wastewater treatment plant, Town Hall and wherever we site police, dispatch and justice court.”

Simonson said the plan also includes encouraging town employees to practice energy efficiency when using town-owned vehicles and equipment.

“The second (priority) is to convert the use of passenger vehicles to hybrid vehicles as soon as possible and to obviously begin that implementation with vehicles in the police department,” she said.

“I have some contacts with the New York City division that handles this conversion. They have converted to some hybrid vehicle use down in the city,” Simonson said. “I will make sure that, up to the end of the year, that I get ... information to whoever is going to make that decision, but I think it’s a very viable option for the next vehicle purchase in the police department.”