West Windsor was recognized during the League of Municipalities conference in Atlantic City in November for receiving silver certification for the Sustainable Jersey program.
To become certified at the silver level, West Windsor Township submitted documentation to show it had completed a balance of the required sustainability actions, meeting a minimum of 350 points. In addition to reaching the required points, township officials had to create a “Green Team” and select at least three of the six priority actions for silver level. West Windsor completed five of the six priority actions by implementing energy audits for municipal buildings, a municipal carbon footprint, a sustainable land use pledge, a natural resource inventory, and a fleet inventory.
“It’s quite an accomplishment to become Sustainable Jersey certified, especially at the silver level,” said Fred Profeta, chair of the New Jersey League of Municipalities’ Mayors’ Committee for a Green Future, a Sustainable Jersey program partner. “The 2010 certified towns have joined an elite group of municipalities that are leading the way with impressive sustainability initiatives in New Jersey.”
Engineering Award. The township was also recognized at the League of Municipalities for the improvements the township made to Meadow Road and to the Duck Pond sewer treatment facility. The township won the New Jersey Society of Municipal Engineers’ (NJSME) Project of the Year award for 2010 in the Municipal Construction Management Project category.
“This was a large and complicated project that corrected a dangerous road alignment therefore enhancing public safety, and provided extended sewer infrastructure enhancing public health,” said Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh.
“By straightening Meadow Road and constructing bike lanes, sidewalks, and shoulders, township residents now have easier and safer access to Route 1 and to additional future recreational facilities,” he added. He said the new roadway also improves access for emergency and utility vehicles.
The project also included the installation of a new sewer interceptor and nearly a mile of sewer pipe employing a horizontal micro-tunneling apparatus that utilized technology similar to that used in the construction of the “Chunnel” that connects England and France under the English Channel.
That technology “allowed the Township to install this much needed sewer pipe without causing the typical major disruption to a church, park, and residential homes in the area,” said Township Engineer Francis Guzik.
