LAMBERTVILLE: Volunteers are given credit for local sustainability work

By Linda Seida, Staff Writer
   LAMBERTVILLE — The city got a chance to shine when Mayor David Del Vecchio appeared as one of five panelists invited by Congressman Rush Holt to talk about sustainability in their communities.
   The forum, hosted on Aug. 27 by the nonprofit Sustainable Jersey and coordinated by the Municipal Land Use Center at the College of New Jersey, also featured Housing and Urban Development Deputy Secretary Ron Simms.
   Mayor Del Vecchio spoke about a number of Lambertville’s environmental-impact projects, including its hazard mitigation plan, traffic calming, the South Hunterdon Renewable Energy Co-Op, Connaught Hill redevelopment, single-stream recycling, stormwater management and climate protection.
   Much of the work on these projects was performed by resident volunteers, and also sparked by residents’ concerns, the mayor said Monday. “If we had to pay for it, we couldn’t afford it,” he said. For example, other towns paid “tens of thousands of dollars for their hazard mitigation plans; we did it all with volunteers.”
   He said the changes that occurred in recent year on Connaught Hill are a good example. In this case, residents wanted change and worked together with the city — and another community — to make it happen, according to the mayor. “We came together, we figured out the needs of the neighborhood,” he said.
   In the 1960s, the first lady, Lady Bird Johnson, launched the war on poverty from the hill. Over the past decade, an unwelcoming climate was reversed, with a cleanup of illegal drug trade, squatters and debris. Boy Scouts volunteered to take out trash and other eyesores. The city removed abandoned cars.
   Today, roads and drainage have been improved. A new pocket park sits on the hill, used by both West Amwell and Lambertville residents. The park spans the border.
   The city’s single-stream recycling program is the most successful in the county, the mayor said. And again, it was all done with volunteers, as the fledgling South County Renewable Energy Co-op was. The co-op consists of two municipalities, three schools and the local utilities authority, and all are volunteering to get the renewable energy co-op off the ground, Mayor Del Vecchio said. “No one who goes there gets paid,” he said.
   The goal of the group is to work with the private sector to power local and school buildings through solar energy, at no additional cost to taxpayers.
   ”Lambertville is a unique community, and the cornerstone of our foundation is the resident volunteers who are supportive of unique ideas that help to make our hometown special,” Mayor Del Vecchio said.
   Also represented on the panel were Lawrence, Hamilton and Hopewell townships and the city of Trenton.