Fred Costello Jr. and Greg Chorvas at the charging station. (Photo by Christina Coulter)
Recently, the Parks and Buildings Department of the town of Saugerties installed an electric vehicle charging station, in the south ice arena parking lot, off of Small World Avenue. The first of its kind, in Saugerties.
Unfortunately, there has been misinformation in media print and from communications the department and town has received.
The town of Saugerties did not fund the purchase, nor is the town paying for electrical charges for those who utilize.
The unit was purchased from LilyPad EV, under Ulster County bid award, with Prepaid Commercial Cloud Plan and installed in-house by the Parks and Buildings Department.
Both the procurement of the electrical vehicle charging station and the in-house install was done under terms of a NYS Department of Environmental Conversation (DEC) Grant Contract # DEC01T00298GG-3350000. All costs associated with both are being reimbursed by DEC, through the DEC contract terms.
Although, this is a NYSDEC Grant, funds are not tax-payer derived. Rather funding came via a Volkswagen settlement award, from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). EPA then allocated to the States, with New York State receiving $127.7 million. The State chose to allocate all of the settlement award, from the auto maker, on clean air projects.
Additionally, as part of the settlement award, there is no charge to users who utilize for two years. DEC will be reimbursing during the course of the two years and no public (taxpayer) funds are being disbursed.
The next round of DEC funding has been announced and we are hoping to install two additional units, in the Cantine Complex, within the next eight to ten months. One, at the Frank Greco Memorial Center, along with one other at the Large Pavilion and Conference Center, 10 Pavilion Street.
For further information, please email [email protected]. You may also phone the Department at 845-246-5890 x 310.
Greg Chorvas, Supt. Parks & Buildings
Saugerties
As usual, the grants only cover it for a temporary period of time. After that, taxpayers foot the bill for the electricity!!!! why don’t they also put in a gas pump so i can fill up my suburban?
Evidently folks in Saugerties have a penchant for jumping to uninformed conclusions. If you bothered to look up Lilypad EV or any of the other references in this story you would find you are absolutely wrong.
Lilypad EV installs ChargePoint charging stations. ChargePoint currently gets between $0.03 and $0.05 (3 & 5 cents) per 30 seconds of charging time in the state of New York. The rate varies by location and electricity provider. That money paid to charge EVs is paid by EV drivers themselves. People who use the service. No one else. Not governments or taxpayers. ChargePoint also pays a portion of the money it makes from each charging station to whoever owns the location where the charger is installed. Call it rent or whatever. It’s revenue for the city in this particular instance. Now if the city made it illegal to park at the charger without charging, they can make even more money. Additionally, people who’ve wanted to visit your town by EV (tourists) but couldn’t, now have a way to recharge so they can get home. That’s even more money for the local economy.
An hour’s charge on they type of charger pictured (Level-2) is about 30 miles give or take with a modern Nissan Leaf or Chevy Bolt. The average EV driver will only charge an hour or two on L-2 while shopping, eating, etc. Take out a map and draw a circle around Saugerties with a 60 mile radius. There are probably a lot of places you will see new people coming into town from.
After the 2 years of being reimbursed for electricity the Town can meter the charging station so it still will not be costing taxpayers anything.
The only thing I don’t understand is why it was put at Cantine, and not closer to Mainstreet. Now it might be fine in good weather, but in inclement weather, I don’t know how they can walk in to the village, go in and out of shops, and grab a bite to eat. I think it’s a good idea, but I think it’s a bad location.