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As the cost of
gasoline continues to eat away at the town budget, Town of North
Elba officials have decided to put a fleet of electric vehicles back
on the street.
The town has six small
electric cars, which look like golf carts, that were purchased with
grant funding several years ago.
But they haven’t
been used for some time and have essentially been “sitting
around” in storage, Supervisor Roby Politi said at Tuesday
night’s town board meeting.
He said the Lake
Placid Police Department has asked to use two of the vehicles. Under an agreement with the town, the police department will
upgrade the vehicles and make them ready for the road at their own
expense.
The Lake Placid Essex
County Visitor’s Bureau is also requesting permission to use one
of the electric cars and is willing to pay to have the vehicle put
in condition for daily use, Politi said.
He suggested they put
another one of the cars into working order for use by employees at
the town hall. “With
the cost of gasoline it makes sense to try and utilize them,”
Politi said.
Councilman Chuck Damp
suggested they get all three of the remaining vehicles fixed up.
They could be used by the highway department or employees at
the Lake Placid Airport. “Let’s
identify potential uses and see if they’re practical,” Damp
said. “It certainly
puts the right message out.”
The board approved a
resolution allowing the police department to use two of the electric
vehicles.
The move comes as the
town has already used 80 percent of its budget for gasoline, and
it’s only the month of July.
Luckily, Politi said,
they have a fund balance that should be able to cover their fuel
expenses when they surpass the budget.
But many other towns and villages are facing the same
situation and don’t have that luxury, he said.
In other business, the
board agreed to ask the state Department of Transportation to
consider making a section of Northwood Road a school zone that would
carry a lower speed limit.
Board members said
they’ve received complaints about people driving too fast and too
much traffic on the road, used by many drivers as a bypass of Main
Street. The speed limit
is 35 miles per hour on the road, which is home to the Northwood
School.
The school zone would
extend from the road’s intersection with Mirror Lake Drive to the
end of the school’s soccer field.
“I never could
understand why it wasn’t a school zone anyway,” Politi said.
“It makes sense.”
Board members also
agreed to borrow more money to cover additional costs associated
with building a series of soccer fields near the airport.
The town will bond for an amount not to exceed $150,000 to
cover the costs of installing an irrigation system, re-seeding and
building a series of roads.
And the winner of a
contest to rename the road to the North Elba Transfer Station was
announced by Councilman Bob Miller.
Previously called Dump Lane, the road will now be known as
Recycling Circle Lane, a name suggested by Mitch Goroski.
A total of 61 entries had been submitted for the contest
-Chris Knight, 7-9-08
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