Southampton Town's Sustainable Advisory Committee Pitches Earth Day Hybrid Car Expo

Southampton Town officials plan an electric car exhibition on Earth Day in April to help promote the town’s efforts to move the municipality toward renewable energy sources exclusively by the year 2025.

Lynn Arthur, a member of the town’s Sustainable Southampton Green Advisory Committee, presented plans to the Town Board at last week’s work session on Thursday, February 8. She said she envisions an afternoon where local distributors of hybrid cars would set up at Good Ground Park in Hampton Bays to show off their energy-saving vehicles.

A handful of local car dealerships—including Ford, Lexus, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Nissan and Toyota—already have expressed interest in participating in the car expo on Saturday, April 21, she said.

The event also would bring foot traffic into Good Ground Park, the new $4 million park sandwiched between Montauk Highway and Squiretown Road in Hampton Bays that officially opened last year.

“It would be a kickoff event for the park,” Deputy Supervisor Frank Zappone, who spearheaded efforts to build the park, said of the car expo.

The Town Board appeared to be in support of the event, noting that it ties in well with efforts to turn Southampton into a more energy efficient town.

At the same work session, Mr. Zappone, Director of Municipal Works Christine Fetten, Assistant Town Planning Director Janice Scherer and Town Planner Michelangelo Lieberman discussed other ways the town could become more green in 2018.

The group of town officials pitched some short-term goals to make the town more energy efficient that could be accomplished during the next year—including the installation of charging stations throughout town for electric vehicles, using solar panels paired with batteries to provide electricity for buildings, and updating the town’s fuel management plans to be more energy efficient.

Ms. Fetten added that the town’s initiative to convert all of the streetlights in the town to LED lights is expected to be complete by this summer.

The LED lights are expected to last at least twice as long as the regular high-pressure sodium bulbs currently on the town’s highway system. They also are brighter and better for the environment because they use significantly less energy.