Town board approves electric charging station

SAUGERTIES, N.Y. » Town Board members on Wednesday approved a $7,498 contract with Kansas-based LilyPad EV to install an electric vehicle charging station near the Kiwanis Ice Area at Cantine Field.

Officials said that 75 percent of the cost would be covered by a state Department of Environmental Conservation grant.

“We won’t have any out-ofpocket cost because our share will come out of in-kind service,” Councilman Fred Costello said.

Officials expect the station, which can charge into two vehicles at a time, will be operating in about two weeks.

Costello said the station is intended to be a tourism draw that attracts people who own electric vehicles.

“If you’re an (electric vehicle) user, you need to plan where you’re going to stop in the places where your opportunities to charge are,” he said. “After talking with (an electric vehicle owner), it was enlightening to me because now I understand the economic impact this potentially could have and also the importance as a tourist destination of getting it as close as possible to the village center.”

Costello said a second charger is being considered because there will be funds remaining from the grant was approved for $11,350.

Special projects coordinator Vernon Benjamin said the charging station has a medium rate of charge.

“A slow one is one you plug into your house outlet,” he said. “A really fast one, which would be $25,000 to $28,000, (takes) an hour and you’ve got a full charge. This one will take three hours, maybe four hours for a full charge.”

Benjamin said the grant covers the cost of electricity for two years, with car owners to pay when the funding runs out.