Environmental Efforts Lauded in Mendham Twp.

Mayor Richard Merkt accepted the bronze certification plaque last week from Sustainable Jersey for the municipalities 2012 efforts.

"I'm pleased to be here tonight to present Mayor Merkt with his certification plaque for a bronze certification that the Green Team achieved in the municipality in October of 2012," said Renee Haider, associate director of Sustainable Jersey. "In 2012, a Sustainable Jersey received 53 applications for certification; 36 towns were certified bringing the total number of certified towns in NJ to 110, or about 20 percent of the municipalities."

Haider said that Sustainable Jersey was impressed with the actions the township took, "the first and foremost was the inventory and upgrade of all your municipal facilities. A lot of times people think when we talk about going green or sustainability it’s going to cost money, but in actuality implementing that action saved, it was estimated in your application, the town $30,000 a year in energy costs."

Haider went on to praise the green activities, such as Community Shredding Day, among others, and said that more good things will come if the township keeps it up.

"We encourage you to continue all those actions and strive for silver certification," she said. "We're changing the program this year and there will be one certification cycle a year, so we'll be accepting applications for 2013 through the end of June and the next certification cycle will be June 2014. To support the towns, we're going to be announcing, probably in the next month or so, a small grants program for towns; certified towns will have priority in receiving the grants. There will be grants ranging from $50,000 to $2,000, depending on your efforts. You can start thinking now of a project to submit for $50,000, and there will also be $25,000 and $10,000."

Merkt said the township will continue to do their best to continue their green efforts going forward.

 "It's nice to have a green award," Merkt said.