By Lauren Young
On Monday, Oct. 1, in cooperation with Clean Communities of Central New York, the Town of DeWitt hosted a ribbon cutting event at the DeWitt Town Hall to unveil three newly installed electric car charging stations now available to the public at its parking lot on 5400 Butternut Drive.
Electric technology, is the technology of the future, said Town Supervisor Ed Michalenko, and it is “about time we all start to embrace the technology and push our leadership to make sure that charging stations and centers like this are a regular occurrence.”
“The technological changes that I’ve seen over the last 50 years has been phenomenal,” said Michalenko. “So we have to ask ourselves the question why we’re still operating on a combustion engine that’s over 100 old in technology.”
In a press release, Michalenko said “energy efficiency is a key component of our ongoing commitment to build community and promote energy efficiency and sustainability,” and thanked Clean Communities, the Regional Planning and Developmental Board and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) for supporting the purchase and installation of the charging stations via grant funding.
“These grant funds from NYSERDA support sustainable initiatives for local governments like DeWitt and will save taxpayer’s money in the long run,” said Sam Gordon, Town of DeWitt Director of Planning, Zoning and Sustainability, in a press release. “NYSERDA has also approved grant funding for the Town to purchase two Chevy Volt electric cars. Now we can offer the public these charging stations and also save on fuel costs by driving electric cars for town business.”
The three double-port, Level 2 Chargepoint electric vehicle charging stations, capable of charging up to six vehicles total, were made possible via grant funding through NYSERDA.
Barry Carr, coordinator of Clean Communities of Central New York, said these new stations are part of the implementation of 26 charging stations along I-94.
Next to California, New York is leading in the nation when it comes to putting the most money toward electric charging initiatives, he said.
This last summer, the state governor’s office committed up to $250 million through 2025 for EVolve NY, its electric vehicle expansion initiative. The initiative will complement other state efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2030 and to help accelerate the Governor’s Charge NY 2.0 program to launch 10,000 EV charging stations by 2021, according to NYPA.gov.
