To the Editor:

I would like to clear up some misunderstandings Ken Saddlemire had from the Knox Town Board meeting he wrote about in his letter to the Enterprise last week. The town is applying for several grants.  One is for $100,000, and we hope to use it for upgrades to make the highway garage more energy efficient to save taxpayer money.

In order to qualify for that large grant, we have to complete four “action items” in a race against other municipalities that are competing for it. We have three action items completed now, and we could install an electric-vehicle charging station to get our fourth action item.

The board decided at the meeting to apply for a separate, smaller grant that would pay for an EV charging station equipped to collect fees from its users. The final decision to purchase the EV charging station would be considered at a later meeting if the grant is approved.

That charging station would be connected to the existing electrical service box in the town hall, much as an electric clothes dryer, so there would be no connections to the electric grid to worry about. The cost for the town to prepare the site for a small concrete pad and dig a 50-foot long trench for wiring would be minimal.

A beautiful facelift is in progress for some new businesses in Knox.  An EV charging station a short walk away could draw EV drivers to the hamlet to patronize those businesses.

A third grant is in the planning stages by the town’s Youth Council coordinator, Maryellen Gillis, to make improvements to the town park.

Each of these grants is for a specific purpose.  The money from one grant can’t be used for another project, as Ken suggests. The purpose of these grants is to help the town address the problems Ken mentions, and they will benefit all of the citizens of Knox.           

Amy Lauterbach Pokorny

Knox

Editor’s note: Amy Pokorny is a councilwoman on the Knox Town Board.