BUCYRUS — Erin Stine, Community Development Director of the Crawford Partnership presented a proposal to the Bucyrus City Council Health and Safety Committee to install a charging station for electric-powered vehicles in Bucyrus.
The proposed site is in City Lot Six.
“The Partnership has worked with and applied for a grant through AEP to install an electric vehicle charging station in a city-owned parking lot,” Stine said.
Stine said the Partnership has worked with AEP to secure $94,000 to provide the city with the charging station in City Lot Six near Picking Park on Washington Square with no cost to the city.
“Within the next five years, 25 percent all vehicles sold in the United States will be electric, so this gives us the opportunity as a city to get the charging station in place as we move into the future,” Stine said. “We will have the capability for not only people in our own community to charge vehicles, but visitors coming into our town to use the charging station who will buy coffee, shop, eat, whatever it may be while they are waiting for their vehicle to charge.”
She said it takes about 30 minutes to charge a vehicle.
“From what I understand from AEP, we are the only city on our stretch of U.S. 30 to take advantage of this program,” Stine said.
She said City Lot Six is the chosen area to place the station, which will only take up one parking space, due to the needed placement of a power pole.
Stine said a feasibility study was already completed by AEP before the decision was made that City Lot Six was the only place to install the station.
Council member Andrew Schoch said another location should be chosen because there is not enough parking in that area.
“Yes, we are going to give up a parking space, but it is going to promote for people to come into the central part of our town,” council member Bruce Truka said. “They are taking advantage of the service we are offering. If we were really worried about parking, we would do a better job at policing that lot so that people could only park there for two hours at a time.”
In the absence of committee chair Kevin Myers, committee member Mark Makeever acted as chair and decided to table the issue until the next meeting so more information may be obtained.
The grant deadline is Dec. 27 for the project to move forward.
Also during the meeting, resident Anthony Dyer arrived during the meeting to express his opposition to a proposed zoning change for Dane Kennedy to open a landscaping business in the Highland Avenue and Failor Street area. Dyer was present for the issue’s hearing and other debates over the issue that already had been approved for legislation to go before the council at the next meeting Nov. 19.
Council president Sis Love said Dyer, who claimed three other neighbors are opposed to the business opening in his neighborhood, will have a chance to speak to council before the issue is voted on.
City Law Director Rob Ratliff said the city’s firearms regulations are out of compliance with new state legislation that was enacted in March.
“This includes hunting and sporting activities that are currently banned within the city limits,” Ratliff said.
Ratliff said the new law states people can use a firearm within city limits but must follow the rules and regulations set forth by the new legislation, such as not shooting near houses or streets. He said the city could be open to lawsuit if the regulations are not corrected.
Love said this is another example of the state taking away “home rules” rights from cities throughout the state.
The issue was put on hold to allow more information to be obtained.
The two-hour meeting was adjourned after the finance committee approved several appropriations to clear up the end-of-the-year budget and to pay invoices regarding the breeching of the Pines Reservoir.
A short discussion on a possible 5G network being installed throughout the city was also discussed.