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Idle Free New Jersey

Municipalities

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Steps to Passing the Pledge in Your Municipality:

  1. Find allies and champions that will help promote the "Idle Free Zone" resolution. This could include friends, neighbors, concerned parents/groups, neighborhood associations, businesses, environmental commissions, and town managers.
  2. Gain support from elected officials, mayor and your environmental commission. Call them and/or attend one of the regular public meetings and give a five minute "pitch" during the "public comment" period (usually at the end of the meeting, but sometimes at the beginning) and suggest that they consider signing the "Idle Free Zone" resolution and no-idling pledge.
  3. Bring the Idle-Free Zone Resolution to the meeting.
  4. Download no idling brochures and materials. Hand them out at the meeting.
  5. Schedule a vote on the diesel resolution and no-idling pledge! Ask your town when the resolution or pledge can be scheduled for a vote. Clarify what other steps need to be taken to get that to happen.
  6. Conduct a letter-writing campaign! Handwritten letters and/or emails to the mayor and council and environmental commission or a phone call blitz can get things moving! See a sample letter.
  7. Turn your letter into a letter to the editor (LTE)! To find your local paper, visit the NJ Press Association Website. It contains contact information for daily newspapers and weeklies. It's important to submit your LTE to a statewide paper, as well as your local newspaper (weekly).
  8. Thank the municipality for passing the resolution and contact the media. Your letter should praise the municipality for its forward action to improve public health and air quality. Follow instructions on how to write a LTE in number 5 above.
  9. Once the resolution is passed, the municipality should begin an education campaign informing the public and local officials on the new "no idling" policy. "No Idling" signs should be installed at all idle frequent locations in the municipality, such as schools, drive-through windows, business and shopping centers, etc. Use these sample no-idling materials to develop brochures, signs, and other educational materials.
  10. Order "No Idling" and "Idle Free Zone" signs. Order from the NJ Department of Environmental Protection at www.stopthesoot.org or call the Garden State Highway Products, Inc. at 1-800-338-5685. Ask for Joe McCracken and the Chatham No Idling sign.