An electric vehicle charger at Hampton Inn and Suites is pictured Tuesday in Franklin. A similar charging station is set to be installed in Young’s Creek Park by the Franklin Mayor’s Youth Leadership Council.
Waylon O’Donnell | Daily Journal
Electric vehicle owners could have a new place to charge their vehicles in downtown Franklin this spring.
Franklin Mayor’s Youth Leadership Council, or FMYLC, plans to install the city’s second electric vehicle charger in the parking lot at the DriveHubler.com Amphitheater in Youngs Creek Park. Hampton Inn and Suites on Paris Drive recently installed a Duke Energy electric vehicle charger just like it.
Franklin’s Board of Public Works and Safety approved a $9,500 bid from Davis Electric to install the electric charger needed for the charger Monday evening. FMYLC will pay half of the total cost through fundraising, while the board agreed to pay the rest. Taylor Trueblood, FMYLC’s president, said that the group raised “quite a bit of money” selling baked goods at the winter market.
The charging station will have an AC Level Two Charger, which will be able to charge two vehicles at once. It has the power equivalent of a clothes dryer or oven and will cost roughly $130 per month to maintain, Trueblood said. Customers will pay to use it and the bill will be paid over time by the customers who use the station, she said.
Duke Energy will provide the maintenance and upkeep of the station, and will install the charger at no cost to the city, Noah Woods, FMYLC’s vice president, said at the Board of Public Works and Safety meeting last fall.
The electric charging station is planned to be installed by the end of April.
“Once everything is ready for Duke Energy, the actual installation will only take one to two days,” Trueblood said.
City Attorney Lynn Gray said the new charger will be added to a map of electric vehicle chargers so travelers and locals alike can find it.
“Hopefully, it will encourage people to get off of the interstate and come downtown,” she said.
Electric vehicles are becoming more popular every year, with nearly every major car company manufacturing electric vehicles, Woods said.
“Compiling data from the Indiana Economic Development Commission census and vehicle ownership statistics, as of 2022 there would have been 62 electric vehicles in Franklin,” he said. “Between 2016 and 2022, they noted a 1,200% increase in electric vehicle ownership. That, connected with Franklin’s already accelerated growth economically and population-wise, would indicated that we could have hundreds of electric vehicles in the coming decade.”
FMYLC, which is comprised of students from Franklin Community High Schools, has a goal to empower student leaders by engaging in service opportunities that benefit Franklin. Their recent projects include the Safe Haven Baby Box at Franklin Fire Headquarters and a roundabout sculpture on Commerce Drive at the entrance of Franklin Community High School.
