Pact has Valley leaders thinking green

By Denise Dick

Some communities already have implemented changes that coincide with the pact.

YOUNGSTOWN — Twenty-two Mahoning and Trumbull county entities pledge to implement green practices in their operations.

The Green Pact from the Environmental Planning Advisory Committee of Eastgate Regional Council of Governments calls for participants to grow a greener economy, encourage the purchase of green products, encourage recycling, reduce waste, preserve green space and provide alternative transportation among its tenets.

The communities that signed are saying they support the goals.

“We started working on this about one, one and a half years ago,” said Rachel McCartney, community development program manager for Eastgate. “Now it’s up and running with the majority of the two counties signed up and really committed.”

The committee will schedule workshops to inform the involved communities about ways to implement the practices, she said.

The pact not only encourages environmental consciousness but also how to develop those methods in a way that saves money, officials have said.

Tim Sicafuse, Poland village mayor, said the village may be able to examine purchasing green products.

“We’ll look at several different ways of doing things,” he said.

Charles Tieche, Canfield city manager, agreed.

“I think it’s something we need to explore,” Tieche said.

David Imbrogno, executive director of Mill Creek MetroParks, said the pact is a good guideline to work from and also provides a catalyst for developing environmentally minded procedures.

It’s also good that the pact was instituted among a large group. Working together may enable the participants to secure better prices on materials, he said.

Boardman already is examining the possibility of installing energy-efficient lighting and solar panels on some buildings; and in many township buildings in Liberty, incandescent light bulbs have been replaced with compact fluorescent lights, which require replacement less frequently.

denise_dick@vindy.com