For the past 12 months, Verona had been seeking certification by Sustainable Jersey, a non-partisan statewide program to encourage towns and school districts to improve the environment. The Verona Environmental Commission had urged the Council in November 2013 to seek certification from Sustainable Jersey, which could make Verona eligible for grants to pursue more projects to improve its environment. Montclair won a $20,000 grant this year to build a bike garage at a train station for bike commuters and Lawrence Township won a similar amount for a food waste recycling effort.
On Monday, the coordinator of Verona’s certification effort, Steve Neale, informed the Council that Verona has been awarded Bronze status in the program. Of the 419 New Jersey towns that have registered with Sustainable Jersey since its inception, only 152 have received Bronze status. Verona was awarded 160 points for a series of steps that it has taken in the last decade to improve the environment. The Council congratulated Neale and his “Green Team” for their work and Councilman Frank Sapienza, who serves on the Green Team with Councilman Kevin Ryan, noted that Verona had already applied for one Sustainable Jersey grant and had a second application in process.
But at the same meeting, the Council tabled a resolution aimed at cutting air pollution in Verona. For several years, the Verona Environmental Commission had been seeking to have the Council approve a resolution in support of the long-standing state laws against idling by cars and trucks. Car exhaust is the leading cause of climate-altering greenhouse gas emissions and a key factor in asthma, which affects up to 25% of New Jersey’s school-age children. The VEC has raised awareness of idling in Verona by getting the Council to install “No Idling” signs by schools, making a video and holding an annual poster contest for school children. The Council recognizes the winners of that contest every year with a $50 check for each winner and a certificate signed by Verona’s mayor.
Sapienza had voiced reservations about the anti-idling resolution when it was introduced at the December 1 meeting, and repeated his concerns in an email to this reporter on Tuesday. “If in the middle of the winter a mom has a sick child and she’s going to pick up another one of her children and she needs to idle her car to keep the sick child warm she should have the right to keep her car running,” he wrote. “As well as the crossing guards around town that are there for the safety of our children. In the winter they should have the right to idle their cars while they are on duty. I do support the anti idling Reso. and what I said is that I have some questions as to how it is written.” Councilman Ryan said at the meeting that he would “trust the good judgement” of Verona’s police officer to enforce the law.
The version of the resolution that is before the Council is not the measure suggested by the VEC, which came from the state Department of Environmental Protection’s “Stop The Soot” campaign. The Verona resolution eliminated all references to the role of air pollution in asthma and the healthcare cost savings–$770 million to $10 billion statewide–that could result from lower pollution. It also eliminated a language to make “enforcing existing violations and penalties under New Jersey’s existing no-idling law a priority for all municipal Peace Officers pursuant to C. 39:3-70.2 and C. 26:2C-1,” to specifically enforce no idling at schools and to maintain municipal vehicles to cut their exhaust.
It is not known if the resolution will be re-introduced at the next meeting.
