George Voutes was looking for an audience. 

The Barrington resident knew exactly what he was doing when he stood up during the financial town meeting in late May and pitched his idea for a battery-powered lawn equipment rebate program funded with $25,000 of taxpayers’ money.

Voutes said the electric-powered devices move people away from gas-powered, exhaust-emitting, ultra-noisy lawn equipment, and possibly toward yards that require less blowing, cutting, bagging, mulching and fertilizing. 

“This is a toehold in a very big problem,” Voutes said, referring to the passage of the rebate program.

Voutes is not sure how the town plans to administer the rebate program, and to be honest, he is not too interested in that detail. His focus is on how much attention the program will garner from people across Rhode Island. 

“The objective is to get the state to notice,” Voutes said. “There needs to be interest there.”

Voutes, a member of a group called Quiet Clean Rhode Island, wants the General Assembly and other top officials to better understand the issue and get involved. Voutes and his group have worked with legislators to promote similar programs statewide, but at times the effort has struggled to gain support. 

He referenced resolution S-0520 that was introduced in March by Senators Samuel Zurier, Dawn Euer, and Pam Lauria and would have appropriated $1 million to the Office of Energy Resources to fund a similar statewide rebate program. The rebate program would run in conjunction with an ordinance that would ban the use of gas-powered leaf blowers. 

Voutes said the resolution, which was referred to Senate Finance, never made it to the floor. 

“The main problem is that it’s not getting any visibility,” he said.

Voutes said there was push-back at the state level for the rebate program. He said some officials believed that a ban on gas-powered lawn equipment would hurt local landscaping companies, possibly put them out of business. 

Voutes said the data shows just the opposite. He said the rebate programs — each municipality would be afforded up to $250,000 — would allow for landscapers to make the switch to battery-powered equipment without taking a financial hit. Voutes said the argument against the move to battery-powered has been emotional and based on misinformation.

“I’m not trying to put people out of business,” he said, adding “We’re not trying to demonize the contractors.”

Voutes said the gas-powered engines have created the problem and he and others are working hard to address it. He said the move toward battery-powered equipment is “inevitable… we just need to go faster.”

Lead by example

Voutes did not have to travel far to experience the impacts of gas-powered lawn equipment. 

Standing in his backyard a few years ago, Voutes said he was overwhelmed with the fumes and noise of a nearby leaf-blower. 

“It felt like Mexico City,” he said.

He briefly considered speaking with the nearby resident about the leaf blower, but instead focused on a “lead by example” approach.

Voutes said a recent column by Hans Scholl, a member of the town’s Resilience and Energy Committee, offers people a roadmap on how to approach their own yard work.

“While the effectiveness of leaf blowers for removing everything unattached from surfaces is obvious, there are several side effects that get overlooked or treated with indifference,” Scholl wrote. “These effects are serious and impact everyone in town, even those who don’t even use leaf blowers.”

Scholl’s column further details “toxic exhaust,” “particulate matter,” “noise pollution,” “impact on landscape workers,” and “environmental impact.”

Voutes said he is hopeful that Barrington residents’ willingness to approve the rebate program will serve as an example to other communities. He said he hopes Bristol will adopt a rebate program and that maybe local towns approve seasonal bans on gas-powered landscaping equipment. 

“It’s not Nirvana,” Voutes said of Barrington’s rebate program, “but it’s a step in the right direction.”