Vehicle charging station on town's wish list

La Conner officials are mulling a plan to install a charging station for electric vehicles in town.

Right now the idea is to put one at the small First Street parking lot between the boardwalk gazebo and the Pier 7 building. Presently, that lot has three spaces for handicap access only.

An idea that surfaced at the last Town Council meeting was to move two of those spots to on-street parking, and install a two-outlet charging station there.

Town Public Works Director Brian Lease presented the council with options for a dual port charger, a single port charger, networked or non-networked.

Council member John Leaver, who had done some research on charging stations, said he believes a networked option is best, since people can find them more easily with a smart phone ap.

A consensus of the council was to move forward to study the feasibility of installing a networked charging station that could serve two vehicles at once and deliver a full charge within four hours.

The cost to install it would be around $10,000, according to one estimate, and the network cost will be about $300 per year, Lease said.

While it won’t be a big moneymaker for the town, the town would be able to collect fees from charging customers — Lease said charging stations take plastic.

People are accustomed to paying anywhere from 50 cents to $1 per hour to charge their vehicles, Leaver said. Meanwhile, the electricity costs to the town would be pennies per charge.

One reason the little First Street parking lot is a good location for the charging station is that it won’t cost the town much to run the electricity lines to it, Lease explained. Power for the gazebo and boardwalk are already nearby.

And the town would not reduce the number of parking spaces reserved for disabled persons but would move them. Town officials have said that some people who use those spots have said they would actually prefer street parking because it would give them better access to the sidewalk.

Keeping non-electric vehicles out of the lot won’t be a problem, Town Administrator John Doyle said. Also the town could put a four-hour parking limit on the spots so they won’t get hogged up all day.