Story and photo by John Burton
By John Burton
RED BANK – The borough is going electric, sort of.
The borough recently established its first publicly accessible electric charging station for vehicles, situated in front of the municipal complex, 90 Monmouth St. The pavement has been marked and striped to indicate its use. Plans call for it to become operational in the near future.
The borough council is scheduled to introduce an ordinance at its Nov. 24 meeting that will lay out rules for usage and costs, according to borough clerk Pamela Borghi.
“So, you’ll be able to pull that beautiful new Tesla up and be ready to go” very soon, Councilman Edward Zipprich said.
Informal discussions about the station have suggested the cost to drivers will be set at $2 per hour. That follows the example set by Maplewood when it established its own charging stations, Zipprich said.
Borough official, including borough engineer Christine Ballard, discussed installing the necessary electrical conduit and other equipment for the future station when work was being done recently on that portion of Monmouth Street for the streetscape project.
Some electrical work was required to be done below street level, according to Zipprich.
Members of the borough environmental commission were strong proponents for establishing the station, long advocating for this and other proactive green initiatives, Mayor Pasquale Menna said.
As the initiative is now coming to fruition, commission chairwoman Laura Bagwell said in an email response that the commission was “happy” officials followed the commission’s endorsement and “wholeheartedly encourages the borough to continue their work to make Red Bank a more sustainable community.”
“We have to start someplace,” said Menna, who also supports the initiative.
Zipprich said he hopes to find partnering opportunities with the private sector to construct other stations around the borough. Along with that, he and other council members have been talking about taking the borough vehicle fleet in this direction, acquiring electric/hybrid vehicles when it’s time to replace them.
It’s an idea Menna supports as well. “Really, the time has long since come for it,” the mayor said.
“We have to plan for the future,” Zipprich said. “I think this is a good indicator to a new generation that Red Bank is looking forward.”
