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March for city climate change plan to take place Oct. 20

Date: 10/16/2014

SPRINGFIELD – Arise for Social Justice and the North End Outreach Network hope Springfield residents will participate in a march to the Oct. 20 City Council meeting to support the creation of a climate change plan for the city as well as the hiring of a person to coordinate various energy saving and carbon-reducing efforts among city departments.

The march will begin at 5 p.m. from both the Northgate Plaza, 1985 Main St., and from the Arise Office at 467 State St. The participants will meet at Center Square between Bridge and Harrington Streets and then walk to City Hall, where a rally will be conducted on its steps. Marchers will then enter the council chambers and speak out in support of the resolution and its sponsors.

Michaelann Bewsee of Arise explained to Reminder Publications the city is missing out on potential grant money.

“What really needs to happen is to have someone in the city of Springfield whose sole purpose is to coordinate across the departments,” she said.

She noted that recently the city did not apply for a grant from Solarize Massachusetts because of “too steep a learning curve [of the application process].”

In 2008, Bewsee, explained Mayor Domenic Sarno during his inaugural address stressed the importance of the environment and said he would designate a staff person to oversee such issues. Bewsee believes the economic crash of 2008 sidetracked that position.

“I’d like him to go back to his original pledge to coordinate efforts,” she said.

Bewsee cited examples of how an environmental staff person could assist the city. She noted the city passed an ordinance that allows residents to lease vacant lots owned by the city for use as community gardens, but that few people know about it. A designated staff person could alert the neighborhood councils and civic associations about the program.

Traffic lights could be re-calibrated in the city to allow for more right turns on red, which she said would be efficient.

She also believes that now the city has placed signs at city schools informing bus drivers and other motorists about the ban on idling at schools, a voluntary program encouraging people across the city to avoid using drive-throughs could be designed and out in place.

The marchers will also support a People’s Climate Action Plan Resolution that will be offered by City Council President Michael Fenton.

In the last two months two months, the two groups have conducted two community meetings in Mason Square and the North End to obtain citizen input into the creation of the Climate Action Plan. Among the recommendations are: “promotion of pedestrian and bicycle transportation through bike lanes and stations and more and better-maintained sidewalks and community lighting would benefit result in less accidents and violence as well as a decrease in obesity with its severe health consequences; expanded public transportation – more frequent and accessible buses –would mean both fewer cars on the street and more access by the car-less to jobs and stores; access to fresh food through local farmers’ markets and community gardens would mean decreased food transport costs while providing healthier, nutritious foods; composting and recycling by major institutions and households would cut garbage burning and trash in neighborhoods; insulation of housing and the provision of roof solar panels would translate into lower electricity and heating bills; and new jobs in all these areas to be filled by the men and women now jobless throughout the city.”