Nearly one year after an appointed municipal body made the recommendation, the Board of Selectmen on Tuesday approved a contract to install two more charging stations for electric vehicles at the Town Hall parking lot.
The “dual pole level 2 charger” will be located in two spots alongside the former Outback Teen Center building on the south side (toward Elm Street), officials said during the selectmen’s regular meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference.
“This was in the works for some time and then there became a rebate available which will pay for basically half of this system, so we waited for that to come into play,” Joe Zagarenski, senior engineer with the New Canaan Department of Public Works, said at the meeting.
First Selectman Kevin Moynihan and Selectmen Kathleen Corbet and Nick Williams voted 3-0 in favor of a $15,960 contract with New Canaan-based Santella Electric.
“This lot is free for visitors to Town Hall,” Moynihan said. “How are we going to get reimbursed for the cost?”
Zagarenski said there are a few ways to do that, including through a mobile app or by assigning numbers to the two spaces in question and directing motorists to pay at the nearby Playhouse Lot machine.
Moynihan said he would work with the Parking Bureau to figure out the best plan.
New Canaan—which only has one charging station at Morse Court and three at Karl Chevrolet (that are for evening and weekend use)—has talked about creating more of the stations for years. Concerned that New Canaan is lagging behind other towns, the Parking Commission recommended adding at least two more stations last May. The Commission has also recommended that town’s zoning regulations be updated to require developers building multi-unit housing to set aside a percentage of parking spaces for electric vehicles, with charging units provided.
In September, town officials said they were working toward adding electric vehicles to the municipal fleet as part of its effort to achieve silver accreditation in the Sustainable CT program, which offers recognition and grants to towns that engage in a range of sustainability initiatives that meet state standards.