FREMONT – As electric car sales increase, the city will climb a trio of new car charging stations in 2021 to strategic problems around Fremont.
Fremont City Council last week passed an ordinance that allows the city to apply for a $100,000 grant for an Ohio Environmental Protection Agency Level 2 electric charging station.
Kenneth Frost, director of the city’s security service, said the city was looking to install 3 new charging stations.
He said parking at the Brady Building on South Front Street, birchard Public Library parking and some retail outlets along Ohio’s 53rd aisle were among the imaginable charging stations if the Ohio EPA granted Fremont the grant.
Frost said the application will be submitted until the end of September.
“We try to achieve this in our domain because a lot of other people move on to electric vehicles,” Frost said Wednesday.
If the stations are installed on municipal or public property, the subsidy would cover one hundred percent of the cost.
Charging stations installed on personal property or advertising grounds would require the city to pay 20%.
Frost said the city can simply ask retail institutions if they are willing to allow charging stations to be activated in exchange for corporations covering the 20% game.
The Presidential Library and Rutherford B. Hayes Museums have the Level 2 electric car charging station in Sandusky County, Frost said.
Kristina Smith, the museum’s communications and marketing coordinator, said Hayes installed the season this spring and officially opened it to the public in June.
Smith said there is a payment to use the station chargers, which are located in Hayes’ rear parking lot.
She said one advantage of Hayes’ museums and library having a station is that electric car owners see it and avoid Fremont recharging their vehicles.
“Of course, we would also like other people to visit our site,” Smith said.
City Councilman Chris Liebold said he recently bought a rechargeable car and recharged it at Hayes station.
Liebold users pay 50 cents plus 6 cents per kilowatt.
He said that, in the end, the city might be what he was looking for to rate terminal users, but Liebold added that using the Hayes charging station was cheap.
“I can quote there for $1. 12,” he says.
Liebold said he saw more people in Fremont driving electric cars and would like to see the city as a destination for motorists who want to recharge their cars.
The councilman said he thought it would be smart to have a station on the Ohio 53 corridor, near hotels, where other people can recharge their cars at night.
Frost, the Ohio EPA would allocate subsidies to charging stations in the first quarter of 2021.
dacarson@gannett. com
419-334-1046
Twitter: DanielCarson7