Dietz Street Lot Gets

Electric-Car Charger

By LIBBY CUDMORE • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com

ONEONTA – Looking for a “Clean Energy Communities” designation, a ChargePoint Level 2 electric vehicle (EV) charging station has been added to the Dietz Street parking lot.

“Over the last two years, there was a joint effort among City departments and the Council to takes steps to earn the Clean Energy Communities designation,” said Council member Melissa Nicosia, Second Ward. “I am proud to have been a part of being able to complete this initiative. Clean Energy can only benefit our community in the future.”

The EV charging station is a pier-mounted console which will allow EV drivers to recharge their batteries over time.

The charging station is equipped with two ports, allowing two vehicles to charge simultaneously. Initially, the City will not apply a fee for drivers to use this EV charging station. However, drivers must be a member of the ChargePoint network.  Two parking spaces, adjacent to the charging station in the Dietz Street Parking Lot, will be reserved for electric vehicles only.

The installation of the EV stations marks the fourth action in The Clean Energy Communities Program, a NYSERDA initiative to reward communities for accomplishing high-impact actions toward becoming more energy efficient as a whole. To earn the designation of a “Clean Energy Community”, four of ten high-impact actions must be completed, and, in addition to the EV station, the city has completed Benchmarking (Council adopted a policy of tracking municipal energy usage in order to limit excessive use where and when able), Unified Solar Permit (Council passed legislation to adopt the NYS Unified Solar Permit to reduce costs and delays for solar projects in the City), and Energy Code Enforcement Training (training of code compliance personnel in best practices of energy code enforcement).

The City is now eligible to receive future grant funding to implement additional actions.