Select Board sets rates for town’s EV charging stations
Electric vehicle owners using the town’s charging stations will start paying 25 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh) next year. On Tuesday, the Select Board approved a policy and established fees for users of the seven town-owned electric vehicle (EV) charging stations that had been free as a condition of the grant that funded their installation.
With the expiration of that requirement, the new fee, which is based on a calculation that the town pays an average of 22 cents per kWh for its electricity, with 15% added to cover related costs, will likely go into effect after the first of the year.
The board also approved a related policy that governs the amount of time a vehicle can occupy the charging space. The limit is four hours or once the vehicle is fully charged, whichever comes first. After that there will be a $3 hourly fee, with a 30-minute grace period. Enforcement will be managed by the ChargePoint system, which is capable of calculating for power usage, the parking fee and penalty fees if applicable.
Town and school employees can charge their personal vehicles for free while at work, but the parking limits will apply.
“We want to incentivize our employees to use less fossil fuels for their commutes,” said Carys Lustig, director of the department of public works and a member of the committee that studied the fee schedule. “The vast majority of our staff commutes from outside the community.”
Pre-owned: Art’s Automotive gets a jump-start
Good news for customers of Art’s Automotive Repair on Clyde Street. Owner Arthur Ficcardi Jr., who retired Oct. 18 after 46 years at that location, said Jack Sarkas of the Needham Service Center has agreed to take over the business.
“I am leaving this shop in his very capable hands,” Ficcardi wrote in a printed notice posted on the door of the shop.
The business will be known as Art’s Auto Service, and will even keep the old phone number. Ficcardi told the Observer that he and Sarkas have agreed on a price for the shop’s lifts and other equipment, and are still working on a deal for stock on hand such as automotive parts and fluids.
The transition should be completed by mid-November, Ficcardi said. A bonus for longtime Art’s customers: One of the shop’s three bays will be devoted to vehicle inspections.
“I just want my customers to be treated fairly and honestly,” he told the Observer. Once the transition is complete, he said he’s confident they will be.
Ficcardi said he has heard from hundreds of his customers since the Observer reported his plan to retire. “I am blessed to have been a part of your families for so long,” he wrote in his announcement.
Although Ficcardi plans to take several months to unwind at his homes in Medfield and Falmouth, he told the Observer that Sarkas has invited him to come back any time if he has a project of his own to work on.
“I’ll be around,” he said.
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