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The commissioners have been asked to 23 consider pursuing a state grant to buy such vehicles . The county already has plans to the replace five nonemergency vehicles in the chapel county s fleet during the next fiscal year. Why a not replace them with vehicles that would do less harm to the environment but still get county employees where they need to be ? r The recommendation is, to buy six vehicles that burn compressed natural gas and one ' electric vehicle . The vehicles would cost the county about $50,500 more than standard ones, but that cost would be covered by the $ 81 ,500 grant that the county could receive from the rY state's Mobile Source Emission Reduction program . The only real cost to the county would be David Hughey, Publisher about $22,000 that the leftover grant money William E . N. Hawkins, Executive Editor wouldn't cover for building a refueling station Zina B. Almers, General Manager. near Hillsborough, buying Catherine Wright, Editor g ying electrical Gerald McEireath , Assistant Editor recharging equipment and training mechanics Tris English , Circulation Manager on how to repair._the vehicles .Two years ago, Chapel Hill applied for a similar grant to buy four compressed natural gas vehicles, two electric vehicles and ■ refueling equipment. It has bought a Crown Victoria sedan for the i a town's Parks and Recreation Department, an F150 pickup truck for utilities uses * and a 16- passenger van to transport groups of police F � MI ki , , officers . - "So far they've been very reliable, " said Bill Terry, internal services superintendent in the • town's Public Works Department. "They're as good as anything we've got in the fleet for the & cost topurposes we need them for. " ffle The county leaders already have shown they're interested in protecting the • environment by establishing a work group to w sho , dvehicles .esIrstudy alternative fuel and low-emission The group has been meeting since January to try to find ways to reduce emissions • for the county's . vehicle fleet and improve fuel ® � clean efficiency, atr i The county can go the extra stepin actually Y doing something to clean up the air — and at little cost to taxpayers — by heeding the very year we see changes in our county, group 's recommendation to buy the alternative- More houses and buildings stand where fuel vehicles . trees once stood. More waste is produced as we buy items of convenience to make our lives simpler. And more pollution is added to our air as we drive more vehicles on growing numbers. of roads . But increasingly, people are- becoming aware Wednesday, November 29, 2000 of the need to preserve our environment. Ora%nge County leaders can help raise that awareness by showing a true desire - to protect the environment — as a number ' of them pledged to do in their campaign platforms . And so we urge our county commissioners to take a leadership role in protecting the land we live on' and the air we breathe . We urge them to S.! D U try to buy alternative-fuel vehicles . i