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Greenburgh’s Feiner marches on

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Greenburgh’s Feiner marches on

Mary Sue Iarocci

Jul-24-09, 10:32 AM

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Topics: Government

Supervisor Paul Feiner’s hobby is seeking out – and implementing – innovative ideas.

The Greenburgh town supervisor was the first in Westchester to post online videos featuring town services and local businesses. Now, he is one of the first in the nation to have an electric car, rented to the town by MINI of Westchester.

“I’m going to be setting up, not at the town’s expense but I am going to fund it on my own, a new web site that’s going to highlight innovative ideas that work around the country,” Feiner said. “I thought if I had a web site that just focuses on big ideas that work here and could work elsewhere, we could become the focal point for other communities around the state and the nation. I’d like people to say, ‘Greenburgh’s the most creative.’”

The electric car, which Feiner said costs about $10 a month to rent, takes a full day to charge up for about 100 miles of travel.

“I think we’re only one of 500 communities in the country that have it, so I’m excited about that,” he said.

Nathalie Bauters, a spokesperson at MINI USA, said the company is renting the cars, which normally would lease for $850 a month, to “various individuals and organizations” around the U.S. and in Europe as part of a field trial.

“The reason we did that is we wanted to receive feedback from a wide customer and usage base,” Bauters said. “This is the first step to Project I, a team that worked to research and develop new mobility solutions for the future, especially for the growing cities of the world. Basically we’re doing this to get feedback on the viability of electric vehicles, and we can use the information before we start the mass production of electric vehicles.”

In addition to the electric car, Feiner drives his own car, a “mobile problem-solving unit” around town.

“Greenburgh is an interesting community because you don’t really have a downtown main street like White Plains or New Rochelle,” he said. “You have 119, you have Central Avenue, East Hartsdale Avenue … you have big-box stores and you have mom-and-pop stores and the biotech companies. It’s a whole variety.”

This summer, student interns videotaped interviews with local business owners and employees and posted them on Youtube.com and at Greenburghbusiness.blogspot.com, a web site designed to promote local businesses.

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