Woodbine Receives Awards Recognizing Their Community Leadership

WOODBINE— On behalf of his office and Borough Council the Mayor of Woodbine William Pikolycky proudly displayed three awards the borough received recently recognizing their community leadership.
The Borough of Woodbine was recognized at the Cape May County Chamber of Commerce Oct. 7., Annual Meeting and Installation Dinner with a Conservation Award for Community Leadership.
The Conservation Awards program began in 1992 to recognize businesses, organizations, and municipalities for their conservation efforts and commitment to protecting the environment by making significant efforts to Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.
Woodbine was presented with a plaque from the United States Census Bureau in recognition of their work in assisting with data collection necessary for the Bureau as it undertook the 2010 census.
“I applaud the hard work of my staff members who collated the necessary information and repeatedly made timely reports to the Census Bureau in order to establish the most recent and up-to-date data about the Borough,” applauded Mayor Pikolycky. “It required many hours of cross-referencing from various sources. I also thank the U.S. Census Bureau for recognizing Woodbine for its commitment to see that “everyone counts”.”
Woodbine met the rigorous requirements to achieve Sustainable Jersey Certification. Woodbine is one of 28 municipalities out of the 240 registered municipalities that have attained certification in the first year of the program. Woodbine will be honored at the Sustainable Jersey awards luncheon on Tuesday, November 17 at the Sheraton Hotel in Atlantic City with Mayor Pikolycky accepting the award.
To become Sustainable Jersey certified, Woodbine submitted documentation to show it had completed a balance of the required sustainability actions, meeting a minimum of 100 action points. In addition to reaching 100 points, each community had to create a Green Team and select at least 2 out of 4 priority action options.
Woodbine received 150 points for its actions in establishing a “Green Team”, doing an energy audit, making a sustainable land use pledge, having a woodland management ordinance, a community forestry management and tree canopy cover plans, creating a sustainable community plan, a long-standing recycling program, natural resources protection ordinances and a renewable energy ordinance. Woodbine, moreover, received one of the first-annual Sustainability Champion awards that recognize New Jersey municipalities that have made the most progress in the Sustainable Jersey program.
Woodbine won the Sustainability Champion award in the small municipality category (population of less than 5,000). Woodbine’s Rural Sustainability Plan is a bold step forward toward envisioning what sustainability means for rural Pinelands communities. Woodbine’s long standing work on community forestry, trails and bikeways gave the community a good foundation for their certification application.
“The 2009 certified towns are the Sustainable Jersey pioneers that can forever boast that they were the first, having achieved certification in the year one of the program,” said Fred Profeta, Maplewood’s Deputy Mayor for the Environment and Chair of the New Jersey League of Municipalities’ Mayors Committee for a Green Future. “We have more than two-hundred and fifty people attending the awards luncheon to salute the first-rate municipalities that have led the way in developing sustainability initiatives in New Jersey.”
Certified towns excelled in areas such as improving energy efficiency and health and wellness, smart land use and transportation, reducing waste, sustaining local economies, protecting natural resources, and addressing diversity and equity. “These are exceptional towns with outstanding programs that set an example for all of us because they have taken the responsibility to cultivate a better environment,” said Randall Solomon, Sustainable Jersey program partner and Executive Director of the New Jersey Sustainable State Institute at Rutgers University.
Sustainable Jersey program partner Donna Drewes, of the Municipal Land Use Center at The College of New Jersey, congratulated the certified towns. “Our winners are municipal leaders that are making extraordinary contributions toward the long-term goal of a sustainable New Jersey and world.”
In addition to the award presentations at the luncheon, key note speakers will include project partners Nicholas Asselta, Commissioner of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities and John Watson, Deputy Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection as well as David Grant, President and CEO of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation that underwrites the program.
“We are honored to receive an award for our outstanding work as a sustainable municipality while achieving our certification status,” said Woodbine’s Mayor William Pikolycky. “We know this is just the beginning. Our Rural Sustainability Plan and Sustainable Jersey certification will be the basis for new economic opportunity, green jobs, and an expanding eco-industrial park. Woodbine provides an exceptional opportunity for “green businesses” to locate in a Pinelands Growth Community with full access to public sewer and water, public transportation, rail, airport, and other environmentally compatible services. This recognition is just the first step toward achieving our long-range goals for a cleaner, more prosperous and sustainable environment.”