The Finance Committee met 01/20/2025. One of the items they took up was a request to approve a budget amendment related to a $134,180 Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) the city had been awarded. City staff outlined plans to use that money to purchase an electric vehicle for city use and install an electric vehicle charging station.
The committee voted 4-0 to approve the request.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download:
Per the US Department of Energy, the EECBG program “is designed to assist states, local governments, and Tribes in implementing strategies to reduce energy use, to reduce fossil fuel emissions, and to improve energy efficiency.”
The city was awarded $134,180 in EECBG funds. Director of Parks and Recreation Dean Gazza told the committee that they had initially intended to use that money for the solar panels that are part of the library project; however, that use was rejected [presumably by the Department of Energy] because the solar panel project was already in the works and was part of a larger system.
As a result, city staff tried to figure out what else the money could be used for and decided to use the money “to get introduced to an electric vehicle to see how that would work for the City of Appleton.” They wanted to use the money to purchase an electric vehicle that would be used in a pool by multiple people for local trips and possibly going down to Madison. The Central Equipment Agency has regular fuel vehicles that are ready for replacement. This electric vehicle would take the place of one of them. The funds would also be used to install an electric vehicle charging station in the lower level of the yellow parking ramp where city vehicles are parked; members of the public would not have access to this charging station.
Alderperson Denise Fenton (District 6) asked if the charging station would be a traditional charging station or if they could install a solar charger. Director Gazza said that they would be looking to install a commercial quality traditional charger because solar chargers took a long time and was dependent on light. They wanted something that would be reliable and could charge the vehicle every night.
He said that one recommendation that they received was to install a dual charger right away versus a single chargers even though they were only going to start out with one vehicle. Additionally, they were going to get a commercial grade charger not a residential grade charger. They also needed to make sure that they installed a charger that was newer and could handle larger batteries so that it did not become obsolete quickly.
Director Gazza also thought they would have money left over after purchasing a single electric vehicle and installing a double chargers, but it would not be enough to purchase a second vehicle. It might be enough to allow them to install additional chargers at other locations in the city. They did not want to let any of the grant money go by the wayside.
He finished up by saying that this would help the city meet some of their sustainability goals regarding lowering emissions and saving money on utilities. Beyond that, “[T]his at least gives us a—I don’t want to say the word free—but a way to introduce the city to electric without us having to put out a big outlay, you know, using taxpayer money, so to speak, took for an experiment where this—and we realize that too. We think that, you know, there’s going to be a niche for electric vehicles, because we have such small trips throughout the community, but there are certain vehicles that just won’t be able to ever go electric, or, you know, not for a long time until technology comes along. But there’s a there’s a niche right now for us to capitalize on them.”
The committee voted 4-0 to approve the acceptance of the grant and budget amendment allocating it toward the purchase of an electric vehicle and charger.
[It’s a little crazy to me that the city is purchasing an electric vehicle not because it actively wanted a vehicle and thought it would be best for the city but because they pursued a grant that they had wanted to use for an existing project and were awarded the grant but then told they couldn’t use it on the existing project and had to use it on something new. That decision by the Department of Energy seems to have artificially created a demand for an electric vehicle that would not otherwise have existed. Grant dollars are taxpayer dollars even if they originated with the Federal government and not City of Appleton residents, and it’s difficult to see how the decision by the Department of Energy that prevented Appleton from using these dollars on the Library project ended up resulting in those taxpayer dollars being used responsibly.]
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1274609&GUID=F0C27E0B-56B0-4310-9AAD-5B59841CF1FC
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