BY PAUL MITCHELL
North Country This Week

CANTON —The Village of Canton has received $50,061 from the state to purchase a new fast charger pedestal.

A fast-charging unit currently installed on Hodskin Street has been inoperable for several months. This grant money is unrelated to the existing chargers and not earmarked to pay for repair to the inoperable charging unit.

But the new charger will be sited where the current inoperable charger is located, noted Trustee Klaus Proemm.

“That’s good news on the DEC EV charger grant. I’d like to thank Leigh Rodriguez [Canton’s director of Economic Development] for helping write the grant, and of course NYSDEC for supporting municipalities in developing EV charger equipment,” said Proemm.”The North Country will need many more chargers to make EV travel practical.”

“The good news is we’re getting a new, even faster charger to help travelers, and locals, charge up,” Proemm added.

The money is part of more than $8.3 million in taxpayer dollars dolled out to 70 municipalities to install electric vehicle charging stations for EV owners.

Canton was joined by the Village of Waddington who received $117,375 for four Level 2 charging ports.

The governor’s office in a press release said the state has some of the nation's most aggressive climate and clean energy initiatives. New York is pushing to achieve a zero-emission electricity sector by 2040, including 70 percent renewable energy generation by 2030, and economy-wide carbon neutrality by mid-century.