Anti-Idling Law Would Bring Borough Closer to Sustainable Jersey Certification

Chatham Borough will soon adopt an anti-idling ordinance that it hopes will bring it closer to achieving Sustainable Jersey certification.

Once municipalities are certified by the Sustainable Jersey program, they are eligible to receive certain grants and are recognized for making a major effort to go green.

To get certified, municipalities need to attain a certain number of points, which are assigned when one takes certain steps. By establishing an anti-idling ordinance, which makes it illegal for people to idle their cars when they are stopped, a municipality can receive 10 points, which goes toward the 150 one needs to receive the certification.

Borough Councilman Len Resto said the council is looking to pass such an ordinance at a Borough Council meeting July 12.

Resto said he was unsure how close the borough was to the 150 point benchmark. But he said it is now close enough that the 10 point ordinance would make a big difference.

There are already signs in the Chatham Post Office parking lot and the Chatham Station parking lot saying that idling is illegal. But the Borough Council never formally passed the ordinance, and once it does so, it will be able to be more easily enforced.

"Rather than have people stop there, park there and leave their car running ... we want them to turn off their car," Resto said.

He said the borough's environmental commission is also trying to get points for the municipality's resource inventory.

One environmental commission member will update the borough's information on migratory birds within the municipality.

The environmental commission will also host a green fair Sept. 11. It is trying to encourage people to come to the event and not show up with a plastic bottle of water.

Its efforts, Resto said, will slowly bring it closer to receiving the certification.