Youngstown Considering Grant for EV Charging Stations

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – City Council will consider enabling legislation Wednesday that allows the city to apply for federal funding to support the installation of electric-vehicle charging stations downtown.

The ordinance, sponsored by Mayor Jamael Tito Brown, would permit the city’s Board of Control to apply for and enter into an agreement with the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration for grant funding not to exceed $650,000.

According to the legislation, the grant program requires that the city contribute $130,000 in matching funds for the project.

The project entails installing DC “fast chargers” in the central business district that would “spur economic development by creating new trips to Youngstown from the I-680 alternative fuel corridor,” the ordinance said.

City Council in January 2022 passed a measure that empowered the Board of Control – which consists of the city’s law director, finance director and mayor – to apply for up to $650,000 in grants from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency to install fast chargers downtown.

To date, the city has not installed any fast-charging stations in the central business district.

The only EV charging stations within the city limits are Level 2 chargers at the main branch of the Public Library of Youngstown & Mahoning County, the Western Reserve Transit Authority on Mahoning Avenue and Mercy Health St. Elizabeth Hospital Youngstown.

Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.