East Grand Forks could soon have two places to charge electric cars.
City council members on Tuesday had no objection to East Grand Forks Water and Light’s plan to install a Juice Pedestal electric vehicle charging station in a city parking lot behind the “Row of Restaurants” and the River Cinema complex on DeMers Avenue. The utility would pay for this station and the Minnesota Municipal Power Agency, a regional electricity company, would pay for a second one at the Fairfield Inn on Highway 2.
Each station would occupy two parking spaces and charge a car with a range of about 250 miles in four to six hours, according to Kevin Hatcher, an energy and customer service specialist at the water and light company. The hope, he said, is that electric vehicle drivers will go to a movie theater or a restaurant while their car is being charged.
“We want these EV drivers to enjoy the convenience of East Grand Forks,” Hatcher told council members.
Each charging station costs about $ 10,000 to install.
“We want to get them out so we can see what kind of use they have,” Keith Mykleseth, the general manager of Water and Light, told the Herald. “We know it’s likely the future, and we’re just trying to get ahead of the game and learn from the first two stops.”
In related news, councilors:
- Preliminary considered a development agreement with Judd Stauss, a former hockey star of the East Grand Forks Green Wave, which figuratively would pave the way for a new housing estate at the intersection of Bygland Road Southeast and 13th Street Southeast. Such agreements are common when a developer wants to build a new neighborhood. The provisional between the East Grand Forks city government and Stauss has an unusual fold for the city: it stipulates that Stauss will pay for the construction of new roads there, rather than the more typical agreement that the city will pay for the roads and then be repaid via “special levies”, which are ultimately billed to the new homeowners.
- Gave the city staff the green light to charge $ 15,000 for a plot of land on 20th Street Northwest dating from 1920. A property owner north of the property is looking to buy it, and an appraisal commissioned by the city has determined that value for the property.