GREEN: During the the fight against the deadly COVID-19 virus, Green businesses and residents have stepped up to aid the city with masks, free vehicles and other forms of support.
More than 5,000 masks have been made and donated by residents and city employees to go along with hundreds more from agencies and businesses to help protect Green residents, especially senior residents and those with underlying health issues.
And since March, Toth Buick-GMC owners and brothers Russell, Steve and Nick have bolstered the city’s vehicle fleet twice.
The dealership provided the service department six new pickup trucks to use for free until sold so workers could travel in separate vehicles during the pandemic.
“In March, Russell Toth called to offer the city the use of six pickup trucks out of their new-vehicle inventory,” Green Mayor Gerard Neugebauer said. “The city accepted the offer and used the pickup trucks in the service department to allow service workers to travel to work sites in separate vehicles.
“The trucks were returned to Toth one by one as they were sold over a three-month period.”
The dealership, which has been at the same location on South Arlington Road 1981, now is arranging for the city’s fire division to receive a free $26,000 GMC Terrain sport-utility vehicle.
“In July, Russ stated that Toth Buick GMC would like to do more to give back to the city and community,” the mayor said. “We discussed how the city needed a dedicated vehicle for our Community Health Initiative, including our Community Paramedicine Program and our Quick Response Team.”
The community programs serve patients with drug, alcohol and mental health issues; patients who regularly use EMS for rides or other non-emergency needs; and the elderly.
“Through the efforts of the Toths, the Northern Ohio Buick GMC Dealers and Toth Buick GMC provided a $26,000 sponsorship of the paramedicine program, which was used to purchase the new all-wheel-drive GMC Terrain,” Neugebauer said. “The sponsorship from Toth also includes the external graphs wrap for the vehicle.”
“We appreciate the civic leadership team at Toth Buick GMC for their focus on public safety and giving back to the community they love and serve,” the mayor added.
“Their efforts to provide a dedicated vehicle to our Community Health Initiative supports our mission to expand medical services beyond emergency response to prevention, providing the highest level of care for our seniors and the most vulnerable in our history.”
Russell Toth said the dealership came up with the idea during the COVID-19 shutdown.
“When the COVID thing reached us in March, we just had a lot of down time,” he said. “At some point it, finally dawned on us maybe we should be thinking about what we could do to help,which led to the pickup truck proposal.
“I just figured they’d be running supplies all around and didn’t even think of the concern from the drivers’ perspective.”
The brothers agreed the vehicle loans and subsequent donation were a way to thank the community, which they said “contributed greatly to our longevity.”
George W. Davis can be reached at: mediaman@sssnet.com.
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