ALLENTOWN, Pa. — City officials are moving forward with a plan to buy seven electric vehicles, and members of the city’s Environmental Advisory Council are voicing their support.
With tax credits set to expire Sept. 30, City Sustainability Coordinator Veronika Vostinak said she hopes to get the purchase before city council next month.
“We’ve been in contact with the dealer, so we’re not really too concerned about the availability of the vehicles, but doing our best to get those so that we can get those tax credits for those seven vehicles."Veronika Vostinak, city sustainability coordinator
“We’ve been in contact with the dealer, so we’re not really too concerned about the availability of the vehicles," Vostinak said during the city’s EAC meeting Monday evening.
"But doing our best to get those so that we can get those tax credits for those seven vehicles.”
In December, the state Department of Environmental Protection announced the city would receive $60,000 through the Alternative Fuel Incentive Grant, or AFIG, a statewide effort to improve air quality in communities through cleaner fuel transportation infrastructure.
City Council would need to vote to allocate the grant, as well as move some money from the general fund, Vostinak said.
It was unclear how much money would need to come from the city.
Tinku Khanwalkar, co-chair of the EAC, successfully motioned to support Vostinak at the August meeting, “or at any future meeting in support of the purchasing of EVs.”
Charging infrastructure will have to wait — Vostinak said she’s applied for additional funding through the DEP, but there are also “interim plans for charging.”
Native plantings
Also during the meeting, Brandon Swayser gave an update on a grant project at Da Vinci Science Center, 815 Hamilton St.
The center was among a dozen Lehigh Valley municipalities and organizations to this year be awarded funding through the Lehigh Valley Greenways Mini Grant Program.
The center received $5,000 for native plantings.
“We put four, about 4-foot-long, two foot deep, planter boxes up on the outdoor terrace of the science center, planted with a bunch of native wildflowers,” Swayser, the center’s director of environmental science and living collections, said.
Edge of the Woods Native Plant Nursery, in Lowhill Township, completed the planting, he said.
“We put some large, bilingual signage, both on the terrace and out on Hamilton Street, to teach people about native plants and the benefit of native plants and pollinators,” Swayser said.
“And, we have put little, arboretum-style plant label signs by all the native plant species that we have on the property, both down on Hamilton Street on the side of the building, and then up top on the terrace.”
The plants “look great” with “lots and bees and birds” spotted near the plantings already, he said. Different plants will bloom throughout the growing season, from spring to fall.
