By Shelby Stewart-Soldan
Staff Writer
Ortonville — During the regular Monday night meeting, the village council voted unanimously to enter into a contract with State Contracting, Inc, 15045 Dixie Highway, Holly, to install electric vehicle charging station in the village. The first will be installed in the parking lot on Pond Street, with the potential for more in other locations depending on public use and interest.
“In addition to creating this agreement, I have discussed EV charging stations with neighboring municipalities, Oakland County leaders and lots of other entities, all have positive things to say and have encouraged our efforts,” said village manager Ryan Madis. “Oakland County’s Chief Sustainability Officer and I met to discuss EV adoption. She recommended a two track approach. To create an agreement to install chargers for EVs on village property, but also to create an ordinance for EV readiness.”
The planning commission will take on the EV charging station ordinance, which will document how long public charging stations can be used among other regulations and planning. The goal is to have the charging station installed before snow-fall.
“For now the goal is to install one EV charging station so we can see how it goes, maybe consider future locations down the line,” said Madis.
The level-two chargers would be compatible with all electric vehicles except Tesla, which require a Tesla charger or adapter. The power to the charger would also be shut off once the vehicle is fully charged, and the cost to the vehicle driver would be per kilowatt hour. The cost for electricity to the village is about 21 cents, and industry standard is to charge the user 42 cents per kilowatt hour of the battery.
The charging station would also put Ortonville on the map of EV charging stations, which would bring drivers into the downtown area.