Communities are thinking Green

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It was last Tuesday May 22, 2007 The Town of Irondequoit held a public meeting to discuss sustainable green strategies for their community. The Supervisor had invited people to come and be ready to volunteer to a task force that will study this issue and come up with action plan for the Town. The town hall meeting room was full and charged with positive energy as people listened to a presentation by myself and the Town Supervisor Mary Ellen Heyman on Sustainability and what communities or individuals could do help the environment and deal with Climate change.

As soon as the presentations were over a local farmer stood up and said that he has a family farm which has operated for a long time, and he is glad to see a discussion on this issue. He was willing to volunteer his resources to help the Town. There was restlessness in the tone and a desire to do something now and not later. People wanted to get moving and not wait for a slow process of action. This level of support was not anticipated by the presenters but was a welcome sign of people interest in this topic. So as a group 12 areas of locals interested were listed and assigned an alphabet so people could mark the area of interests on the sign up sheet. A local bank HSBC had a booth supporting green and gave away motion-powered flash lights to the attendees. One had to be present to sense the cooperative energy in the room. One out of Town visitor commented that they have not experienced such a spirit before since normally hostility or opposition is present at the town meetings.

The Town officials were encouraged to move forward and plan to meet again on June 6, 2007 as the individual groups launch their cooperative journey with Town department employees to assess the current status, set up goals for improvements and chart a strategy for achieving results.

More to come after we meet at this upcoming meeting in June.

Ram