City to install EV charging station

SANDPOINT — The nearest electric vehicle charging station is in Coeur d'Alene — until next week.

Sandpoint City Administrator Jennifer Stapleton announced during Wednesday's council meeting that a charging station will be installed in the parking area adjacent to Jeff Jones Town Square next week.

"We've gotten a fair number of emails and requests from people ... people passing through or people coming here as a destination, asking if there is an electric vehicle charging station available here in Sandpoint," Stapleton said.

The inquiries prompted city officials to partner with Avista Utilities and the company's regional electric vehicle charging program. The vice president of the regional program paid a visit to Sandpoint to look at possible site locations, Stapleton said, and agreed with city officials that the spot at town square would be an ideal location.

"We had some ideas that had been brewing around here for the last couple of years about doing a charging station in those parking spots adjacent to Jeff Jones Town Square," Stapleton said. "... We were also looking for the added benefit of then having a car sitting downtown, so people can support our businesses downtown."

The city is working with Avista to pull a charging station from their stock, and Stapleton said it should be functional by the end of next week. It is a universal charging station, which will cover everything from a Nissan Leaf to a Tesla, she said. The station will be connected to the city's Wi-Fi in order to track utilization and other data as well, Stapleton said.

The charging station is not the only project the city is partnering with Avista on.

"We've been in ongoing discussions and partnerships with Avista Utilities, looking at how we can better partner and achieve some city goals together," Stapleton said.

As part of the Oak Street bike path, Avista is moving the overhead utility lines underground. It is an Avista project, Stapleton said, but the city was able to secure an Idaho Gem Grant to support it. The project is the first phase of what Stapleton said city officials hope will be more utilities moving underground throughout the downtown area. They are looking at the area on First Street in front of the Panida Theater as a future project, she said, though it would be "significantly more expensive and complicated."

Another component the city is partnering with Avista on is implementing an energy audit of the city's buildings and facilities. Stapleton said Avista was giving access to all of the city's records and sent out an engineering team on Thursday to do a walkthrough of all the city's facilities. The team is looking at ways the city can "take advantage" of incentives through Avista, as well as looking at energy-efficient measures that could be implemented in the future to reduce ongoing costs, carbon footprint and energy use, Stapleton said.

Mary Malone can be reached by email at mmalone@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.