Thursday, June 25, 2009

Too Rich to Seek Grants?

In fall of 2008 (and in the middle of the political campaign), the borough issued a press release launching their "Green Initiative" basically detailing all the wonderful things that the elected officials have been tirelessly working for, on our behalf.

I wrote an open letter to the officials involved. Receiving no response I wrote another letter. Councilman Manna responds with what seems to be a self-contradicting tirade. Perhaps being out of his element, I stepped into his (cue video to 39:53). As a result, it seemed to take the entire governing body, led by the borough administrator, to unilaterally dismiss my ideas seemingly without consideration.

Fast forward to June 2009. In Part 2 of the 6/15/2009 meeting, the borough administrator is heard in the first few minutes of the video reporting that the borough has resumed the pilot (of using a blend of filtered waste vegetable oil in diesel fuel), presumably to save money and appear environmentally conscious. It is apparent that, six months later, our elected officials have failed to do their homework, failed to set aside politics and failed to heed science, risking municipal funds to press on with this ill-fated experiment, probably achieving neither in the end. Even the Cedar Crest senior community seems to be on the right track... any active or retired chemical engineer willing to pitch in and volunteer to help the borough?

But it did not have to happen this way. The State of New Jersey offers grants to municipalities with no expertise required, yet our borough never appeared to apply for one. Why not? Dollar amount too small? Not worth the trouble? Terms too onerous?

It would appear that the borough's green initiative is starting to take a queasy tint...