Twp. approves purchase of 2 hybrid cars
Council hopes to seek more environment and cost-saving measures
BY TOM CAIAZZA
Staff Writer

EDISON - The township is taking one small step to go green with the purchasing of two hybrid vehicles to be added to the municipal fleet.

The council passed two resolutions to allow the purchase of a 2007 Toyota Prius hybrid and a Ford Escape hybrid vehicle. The cars would cost a total of $47,554 and would put Edison in the ranks of municipal hybrid owners across the state.

Funded by a federal Community Block grant, the hybrids would not cost the township money and would be used in part, by the code enforcement department, among others.

"I know this is one of the feel good resolutions on tonight," Council member Robert Diehl said at the Feb. 15 council meeting. "I know 50 years ago it didn't seem like we paid too much attention to the environment and in the late '60s and early '70s we were paying attention to the environment but not a lot really happened in the '80s and '90s and now we're in a position where we don't have a choice."

Diehl said that the topic of global warming has made such a huge impact on the public, citing newspaper reports that used to be deep in the paper now making front page headlines.

"It's frightening and its certainly time for action," Diehl said.

Diehl said that buying two hybrid vehicles was really a small step in the fight against global warming, but that it should be the start of a new way of thinking about how people affect the environment.

"I think what we need to do is accelerate the pace of what we do," Diehl said. "I don't think we can afford to stall on this. This is a direction that we need to go into aggressively and it shouldn't be just the cars."

Diehl said that municipalities should look at the way they power their municipal facilities.

"Certainly I don't think a building should be built on public property without solar panels," Diehl said.

Councilwoman Antonia Ricigliano said that she was glad to see hybrid cars making their way into the municipality but that the administration should look into doing more to curb costs to taxpayers. She said that they should start by looking at how the administration uses the resources it already has.

"I'm going to support these two resolutions," Ricigliano said, "... but I think we really have to work as a community to make sure that if we're going to say we are saving, we truly are."

Councilman Anthony Massaro invoked an old adage to describe what buying these two hybrid vehicles represented.

"These are two good examples of thinking globally and acting locally," Massaro said. "It's a good sign for us and a good sign for the municipality. It's a small step obviously but it's a good step."

Councilman Salvatore Pizzi said that the buying of these cars was evidence of forward thinking and that "any further consideration with future cars should have that same forward thinking."