The barricades signaled that on June 5, when I stopped by, Linn County’s new public EV charger was not yet available.
Suppose you have an electric car and serve on a jury at the Linn County courthouse in the coming months. You could charge your vehicle while you consider the fate of the unfortunate accused.
Linn County has just announced that it has installed two charging stations on the lot across Fourth Avenue from the Albany courthouse. Each can handle two vehicles at a time.
One station is for public use. It’s on the north side of the public parking lot at Fourth Avenue and Ferry Street. The one for county use is on the other side of the small fleet maintenance building there.
The county said it received a $53,000 grant from Pacific Power to install the chargers and was allowed to spend $10,000 of the grant toward the purchase of a new hybrid vehicle, a $41,000 Ford Escape.
County crews did some of the site work, and the total cost of the project was about $54,000.
The county’s public EV charger won’t be usable until the board of commissioners decides on a price per kilowatt hour for its use. It’s a ChargePoint device, and people will need to download an app for their smart phones in order to use it.
Two parking spaces in front of the public charger have been reserved for vehicles while charging. A sign above threatens fines, presumably for parking a non-electric vehicle there, or for charging longer than allowed.
How practical is all this? Maybe people with business at the courthouse for extended periods of time — such as being on jury duty — will find out.
This is the second public EV charging station owned by local government in downtown Albany. The City of Albany launched the first in September 2021. It was on the blink for a long time but seemed to work the last few times I checked. (hh)
Four hours maximum, says the sign above the county’s new public charging station .
When do we get E Bike charging?;)