Lawn Mower Exchange Program (LMEP)

There is so much talk these days about air pollution and global warming. I think that most elected officials like to just sit around and talk about the perceived problems, sound important and inhale each other's exhaust. A few weeks ago, I purchased a 4 or 5 year old Newton rechargeable lawn mower from my father. He boxed it up and sent it to me. I feel guilty because it is replacing my old reel push mower that I use to cut about 1500 sf of lawn. I think I'm going backwards on my carbon credits, darn it. Today he sent me a link to Clark County's website. Apparently they are having a Lawn Mower Exchange Program (LMEP). Leave it up to the government to create an acronym that sounds like 'limp' -- I digress. It sounds like a great program. I think a new Newton lawn mower costs around $400. They have an exchange where you bring them your old gas-guzzling, air-polluting mowing pig, and they will exchange it for the green, dainty Newton. It only costs you $100.00. It's a first-come first-served program. They are only exchanging 1,000 mowers. At the time I'm writing this, they only have 80 reservations left. Hurry if you want one of these. I can say that it is a really cool lawn mower, especially after using my old push reel mower for a couple of years. It is simply a brilliant design. There is one very easy lever to operate the height adjustment, it is light, it's quiet, the bag is easy to change. What more can I say? It's one of those things that is just done 'right'. I take my son out with me when I'm mowing and can actually talk to him, not like the old days of the Snapper when my mother was yelling at me and I could hardly hear her, "Be careful!" If my math is right, 1,000 mowers at $300 per mower then Clark County is forking over about $300k. I'm not sure if they have a special deal with Newton or not but my hat is off to you Clark County. You're getting it done. This is a great example of how to stop pontificating and start acting. I hope that other jurisdictions take note and do similar projects. Good stuff. Maybe the Feds will start exchanging SUV's for the Volt, Tesla or this cool electric car I found on YouTube. Link to Clark County's Website