Mayor: Towns can lead fight vs. climate change Middletown enlists help of Stockton professor on twp.'s Green Initiative BY JAMIE ROMM Staff Writer MIDDLETOWN - Al Gore would have been proud. MIDDLETOWN Mayor Gerard Scharfenberger hosted the National Conversation on Climate Control at the Middletown Arts Center on Thursday, using the occasion to discuss his Green Initiative for the township. "The Green Initiative is something I feel very strongly about," Scharfenberger said. "We are also a part of the Cool Cities Program. This is just one part of the program, and it's something that there is no getting around." Earlier in the year, Middletown joined the Sierra Cool Cities Initiative, a program that is designed to make cities more environmentfriendly. "If you wait for the big guys to go and do something, you'll be waiting a long time," Scharfenberger said. "It's the little guys throughout the municipalities where all the change comes from throughout history. Before the Revolution in history, there were people from small towns going around raising hell. Today, we need to start with the grassroots for a change." Middletown is bringing in Stockton College professor Dr. Pat Hossay to work on the Green Initiative. Hossay spoke to the 20 people in attendance about stunning facts on how climates have changed over the years. He said that he didn't do it to scare people, just to suggest that a change is needed. "Our average temperature over the years has risen 9 degrees or more, up to 16 in the next 100 years," Hossay said. "That's greater than going from now since the last Ice Age." He made it a point to tell the audience that what is occurring should not be called "global warming" but "global climate change" due to the fact that the world is not just getting warmer but climates are changing. After Hossay's presentation, Scharfenberger spoke about what is going on in Middletown to help the environment. He said as an elected official during election season, making laws and passing initiatives can be tough, because no one wants to do something that could cost them an election. "Maybe if I were Ayatollah Scharfenberger, not Mayor Scharfenberger, I'd wave my wand and just fix things," Scharfenberger said. "But I'm not, so sometimes we have to deal with these things." He said that the Green Initiative is something that he feels very strong about and that it is being accepted on a wide scale throughout the country. "There's a little something for everybody," Scharfenberger said. "If you're Democrat, Republican, left, right, up, down, it doesn't matter, and that's how I tried to sell it." Some examples of what Middletown is doing are recent open-space preservation and what the mayor deemed as the cornerstone of his plan, the Dock & Roll shuttle bus. Dock & Roll is a free service that can take people to a number of stops between the Middletown train station and the ferry in Belford. The goal of the shuttle is to have fewer cars on the road. "It's not the hybrids that we're trying to get off the road," Scharfenberger said. "It's the Escalades and the Suburbans." Middletown owns 5,000 acres of open space that Scharfenberger said are less costly to maintain as a municipality than if there was something else there. He also said that he wanted to place green cleaning products in municipal buildings to be more environmentally safe. The mayor's favorite action being taken is at the Middletown Sewerage Authority. The authority uses a methane gas burner that effectively saves $40,000 a year and also heats the hot water heater. Scharfenberger is also working with Hossay on looking into placing solar panels on municipal buildings as well as placing wind turbines in the town. "When it comes to the environment, we are just getting warmed up," Scharfenberger said. "No offense to the weather."