Eastern Suffolk BOCES Regional Occupational Safety and Health officials recently hosted a work session in Holbrook designed to offer individuals information to implement a compressed natural gas school bus program.

Featured speakers, some of whom are shown included Jonathan Hark, ESBOCES manager for administrative services; Pat Martell, ESBOCES regional transportation administrator, Ronald Gulmi, business national grid development manager, and Smithtown Environmental Protection Director Russ Barnett. Says Martell, "The sooner we free ourselves from oil dependency, the better our country will be," adding that using natural gas will reduce the thousands of gallons of diesel fuel currently used while eliminating diesel-related emissions that cause asthma and environmental concerns.