County turned green in ‘07

Sustainability is at the local level

By FRITZ MAYER

SULLIVAN COUNTY, NY — The year 2007 may well be remembered as the year when the county moved in serious ways to encourage sustainability at the local level. Coming off a commitment in late 2006 to spend $7.5 million on a green -technology park at Sullivan County Community College, county lawmakers voted in July that, from that time on, all new county buildings must be green wherever possible.

The resolution extends to the state-mandated construction of the new county jail, which is due to break ground in 2009. The jail and other facilities must meet LEED certification standards. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, and is the nationally accepted standard for design and construction of green, energy-efficient buildings. The resolution could lead to the adoption of geothermal heating and cooling and other sustainable technologies at the jail.

The green resolution mandated that the county promote sustainability with 15 separate initiatives, such as conducting regular energy audits on all county buildings, encouraging stepped-up recycling efforts at the landfill and transfer stations, encouraging the development of sustainable industries in the county and gradually replacing the county’s substantial fleet of vehicles with hybrid and alternative-fuel vehicles.

The county also moved ahead with the creation of the aforementioned green technology park. Lawmakers approved $30,000 in seed money to get the project going. In a separate but related development, the county negotiated an agreement with a Japanese company called Environmental Technologies, Inc. to install two experimental vertical-shaft windmills, with the expectation that they would generate not only electricity, but also world-wide interest among wind-energy experts and thus help turn the college into a center for sustainable energy development.

As of this writing, the permits for the installations have not yet been issued by the Town of Fallsburg, but Allen Frishman, the code enforcement officer, said the permits should be coming soon.

Also, some of the county lawmakers sought to educate themselves about sustainable energy by undertaking a tour of existing green facilities in the county, including the college, The Discovery Center and the Apple Pond Farming Center. The tour was arranged and hosted by sustainable energy activist Dick Riseling, who, as both a private individual and a founding member of Sullivan Alliance for Sustainable Development (SASD), has been aggressively promoting the use of wind, solar and geothermal energy in the county.

But the green momentum did not stop at the county. There were green moves at the town level as well. The Town of Forestburgh passed a green resolution to promote the use of sustainable technologies at town facilities, and may extend it to require builders to use a certain amount of green technology in new construction there.

And four other towns, Callicoon, Fremont, Delaware and Rockland, have joined forces and, with guidance from SASD, are attempting to create a windmill farm that will be owned by the municipalities, and generate revenue that could be used to offset taxes in those towns. Officials have met with executives from several companies about the development of such a facility.