It’s not easy to find anything for a dollar any more. But there’s some useful stuff out there, whether it’s a can of soup for dinner or an emergency pair of reading glasses.

Or, for that matter, an hour’s worth of electricity for your car. That’s a bargain that not only helps you, but also the entire community.

On Aug. 1, Longmont Power & Communications is resuming its $1/hr fee at the City’s electric vehicle charging stations. That fee has been on pause for about two years, after upgrading all our locations in 2019 with ChargePoint stations capable of handling two vehicles at once. Since everything had been down for construction, we offered the service for free to help re-introduce Longmont to the chargers and encourage their use.

Longmont responded. In a typical month during 2020, our EV stations got used between 300 and 400 times. (The start of the pandemic, when almost no one was traveling at all, was an exception, of course – but then, nothing about that period was “typical” for anyone.) We even added a fifth EV station at the Longmont Public Library in September.

 So now that the introduction has gone so well, we’re bringing back the buck. That one small cost to a driver can make a big difference for the city – about $12,000 a year, which is enough to cover the cost of the EV stations and even put a little aside to expand the service in the future. And yes, it also helps support Longmont’s sustainability plan, which encourages people to travel without burning gasoline.

So go ahead. Plug on in.

After all, that one dollar is driving a lot.