| January 2009 George “Pat” Mazuzan Oakmont Committee Treasurer and 40-year resident of the town, Pat Mazuzan, died on January 12. Pat lived at 5506 Oakmont with his wife, Marilyn, who serves the Oakmont Committee as liaison to both NIH and Suburban Hospital. With her agreement, the Committee has appointed Marilyn to complete Pat’s term of office, which ends in April 2010. To local voters, Pat and Marilyn have been familiar faces at the local polling station on every election day for many years. As our Democratic Precinct Chairman, Pat greeted voters at the door, thanking everyone who came for turning out to vote. Marilyn works at one of the stations inside to help voters through the process. Pat also kept Democrats in the precinct updated on party-related local and national events with regular email alerts. Pat and Marilyn raised their two children, Johnny Mazuzan and Marsie Mazuzan Helms in Oakmont, and they have two grandchildren, Brendan and Dakota. A memorial service is being planned for late January or early February. The family has asked that contributions in Pat’s name should go to the National Fund for Cancer Research, the American Lung Association, or the Williamsburg Foundation. Oakmont Power Goes Green The Oakmont Committee has voted to become carbon neutral by purchasing electricity for lighting streets and Daley Lane from wind power. This will be done through the purchase of Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) from Clean Currents. RECs were created by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a tool to track the clean energy being put on the grid. One REC equals a specific amount of energy, 1000 kWh. You can learn more about Clean Currents and RECs on their web site at http://www.cleancurrents.com/default.asp?contentID=1. Oakmont will benefit from this change. Oakmont’s annual non-rewewable electricity usage is now approximately 11,000 kWh, so we will purchase 11 RECs a year. For doing so, we will get a discount from Bethesda Green and a rebate from the Montgomery Clean Energy Rewards program. With these savings, our total cost will be approximately $33/year compared with our current bill of nearly $88/year. The switch to wind power will also mean that Oakmont will offset 17,257 pounds of carbon dioxide each year. |