By Shelby Stewart-Soldan
Staff Writer
Ortonville —The village council will be given a presentation on electric vehicle charging stations in the village at their Aug. 22 meeting. During their regular meeting Monday night, the village manager brought a proposal from State Contracting, Inc to give a presentation on the possibility of installing EV chargers in the village.
“We’ve talked about EVs a couple times in a couple different ways,” said Ryan Madis, village manager. “DDA director Jenkins and I have discussed a couple times with EV chargers in the downtown district and all the benefits that could yield for the village as well as for the DDA. Placing EV chargers is encouraged by places like Southeastern Michigan Council of Governments and other entities, like the county. Getting on an EV map has all kinds of benefits, the next step if we choose to pursue this path, is to invite SCI to come present to the village council.”
SCI is a company based in Holly, with a headquarters on Dixie Highway. While most places installing chargers have a years-long waitlist, SCI is able to install much sooner if the village were to further peruse them. The cost would be about $1,500 for one charging station that could charge two cars at once, but the money would be recouped overtime.
“It would also put us on the EV map, which is very helpful. I know people have a fear of running out, so they’re always looking at ‘where is the next closest space where I could charge my car’ and so it would get us on the map which is a big deal at this point in time,” said Madis. “We were looking at one charging station that could charge two at the same time and depending on how much it’s used, consider more in the future. Having stations in your downtown means people are parking in your downtown for an extended period of time.”
If the village were to put in a charger, the first parking lot would be the one on the corner of Pond and Mill streets downtown.