January 23rd, 2008
Suozzi pitches "green" home project in Levittown
(Newsday)
Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi jump-started his greening of Levittown yesterday by starting the canvassing of the community's 17,000 homes to sell residents on the project's saving of energy, money and the environment.
"It's a win-win situation for everybody," Suozzi told Anthony and Tracey Rivezzo as the three sat talking in the family's living room at 12 Shield Lane. They were surrounded by half-a-dozen television camera crews, private partners in the program and news reporters.
The Rivezzos, six-year residents with two elementary school-age children, said they had bought energy-efficient appliances but were still interested in other possible savings, through updating their oil burner and windows.
The program, a public/private partnership, is aimed at encouraging residents to be more energy efficient through upgrading their homes, thus reducing carbon emissions.
"We've done quite a bit and would like to do more, like put in more windows, but I really don't want to go into any more debt right now," Rivezzo, a truck driver, said afterward.
Next door, a resident known only as Bob, who officials said earlier had expressed an interest in solar panels, did not respond to Suozzi's knocking.
But the next neighbor, Margeret Cawley, at 6 Shield Lane, a widow and retiree living on Social Security, told him she would consider replacing her 39-year-old oil burner.
Suozzi, whose kickoff stopped after three houses, said the program could be a national model for suburbs, citing national magazine coverage.
"We're trying to make it easy for people to express their concern for the environment and at the same time save money," said Suozzi, who has been touting Green Levittown since November. "We can do it in Levittown, then Long Island, then the state and then the nation."
Partners in Green Levittown include Alure Home Improvements, Bethpage Federal Credit Union and P.C. Richard & Son.
Adrienne Esposito, who heads the Citizens Campaign for the Environment, which is providing a dozen canvassers, said they would visit all Levittown houses within 16 weeks.
Esposito also said: "I just got a call this morning from an environmental engineer in Levittown, Pa., who had seen the magazine article, asking if we could assist him in starting a similar project there."