Marion receives second electric car grant
The Town of Marion’s grant request for funding for three more electric vehicles has been approved, it was announced at Tuesday night’s Board of Selectmen meeting.
At the June 7 meeting the Selectmen approved the request for the Energy Management Committee to apply for the grant, and the town has already been approved for $33,000 to be used to lease three electric vehicles, which would bring the town’s total up to four.
Currently, the town is soliciting offers from vendors to decide which vehicle to lease.
The town already has one grant-funded electric car, a Nissan Leaf, that was received in March and is being used by the Recreation Department. Two of the three additional cars will replace the vehicles currently being used by the Board of Health and Department of Public Works. The Council on Aging will use the third car.
The idea came from the Energy Management Committee after seeing Dartmouth’s success with the program.
Ultimately, having electric vehicles saves the town tax dollars and reduces greenhouse gas emissions by about four tons of carbon per car, per year, according to the Energy Management Committee.