Plans put forward for electric car recharging stations

Electric car owners may soon have a place to charge their vehicles in the center of Sundance, if Powder River Energy’s plan moves ahead. The Sundance City Council heard on Tuesday that the cooperative would like to place a couple of recharging stations in front of its building.

“I like the idea because I like the guy who comes to town and plugs his car in and has lunch and buys a painting and goes to the hardware store,” Mayor Brooks said as he shared the concept with the council. “It generates sales tax.”

Brooks said he would not be against the idea of cordoning off a couple of parking spaces and painting them green, the color of clean energy. Each spot would have a meter that would allow a customer to park, plug in and go about their business while the vehicle charged.

It takes a couple of hours to charge a car from what he’s read, Brooks said. That’s fine, because, “Tourism money is always based on how many hours you delay the tourist.”

However, Brooks said, he does have certain reservations when it comes to how the idea is implemented. His preference would be for the spaces to look as good as possible, he said.

Council Member Callie Hilty put forth a suggestion that it may be better for the stations to be down a side street, such as on the east face of the PRECorp building, and asked about safety issues such as the possibility of people tripping over the charging cable. Brooks felt that it may be necessary for PRECorp to also provide windshield washing equipment and a garbage can.

However, at this time, Brooks asked the council to take time to think about the proposal before holding a true discussion.

“This is going to happen and I want everybody to be thinking about what you have in mind,” he said. “This discussion is ongoing.”

As such, the topic will be placed on the April agenda. In the meantime, he asked the council to consider what comments they would like to make about how the idea is implemented and what criteria the city should request.