Brewster passed over for charging station funding

BREWSTER – It appears that it may be some time before the city has its very own electric vehicle charging station (EVS) like Pateros and Bridgeport have. 

Director of Finance Misty Ruiz informed the city council at its April 18 regular monthly meeting that a city application submitted to the Department of Commerce (DOC) for a portion of available EVS funding did not score high enough to make the cut this time around.

“Our charging station application was 328th out of like, 400 applicants,” said Ruiz. “So, obviously we did not score very well.”

Mayor Art Smyth said he believed the applications were evaluated on user density and with stations already installed at Pateros, seven miles west of Brewster and Bridgeport, 10 miles east, the area appears to be better served than many others.

Ruiz noted that of the 400 applicants, only the top 50 were funded.

“So, there were a lot that were not approved,” Ruiz said.”

Ruiz added that she intends to reapply when the next opportunity becomes available.

“They (DOC) are keeping our keeping our applications and if they get another round of funding then they will see if they can fund more,” said Ruiz. “But it would be a long way before they got to our application because we are so far down the list.”

Pateros chargers delayed 

Meanwhile Pateros encountered a delay in getting its chargers operational due to a miscommunication over components.

Jan Somers, with Pateros station installer EVCS, advised the city last month that a switch gear was not of the correct configuration for the Pateros units. 

“My processors thought I needed one 600 amp, but it turns out that we needed two 300’s,” Somers advised city officials.

EVS commissioning and the installation of credit card readers should have the chargers “100 percent up and running by mid-May if not sooner,” Somers said. 

Mike Maltais: 360-333-8483 or michael@ward.media