POUGHKEEPSIE – In light of last week’s Lung Association report, which graded Dutchess County’s air quality as a “C”, County Legislator Joel Tyner said the county needs to do more to clean up the air that we breathe.

Tyner, who is chairman of the County Legislature’s Environment Committee, said all one need do is look across the Hudson to Ulster County, which was rated an “A”.

“There are over 30,000 people who have asthma, bronchitis or emphysema, and if you look an hour south of us, there is a Republican County Executive, who has really shown the way,” he said, pointing to Scott Vanderhoef of Rockland County, who secured a three minute limit on the idling of diesel engines and has asked the federal government for help in funding hybrid buses. Tyner said those initiatives should also be underway in Dutchess.

Tyner said he will also seek the phasing out of outside wood furnaces.