03-24-2026 Commissioners [13:12-17:13]

And it's very rewarding to be a part of that. Thank you very much. Good morning. I've been asked to present a grant application for Charles Wic, volunteer fire department and the Lawrence County Fire Territory. State of Indiana Office of Energy Development has offered so many million dollars out for electric projects into the community. Counties and cities and towns are eligible to apply for this grant funding. So they put a list of key points here. So I'll put that out. Lawrence County would request a grant from the Indiana's energy efficiency and conservative block grant on behalf of the fire departments and the territory. The request is for a 2027 electric vehicle, an EV pickup truck to determine the feasibility of EV use and public safety non-emergency applications. And they did include that five separate counties. Some of those counties and cities combined have applied and received electric vehicles and passed applications. The grant application is to be considered today March 24th of this commission is meeting the application is approved and signed the application will be submitted by the April 5th deadline. Grants approved by the Indiana Office of Energy Development would be awarded by September 2026 and must be completed within a year on award. The pickup EV would be used in Lawrence County and then anticipated cost savings would primarily benefit the taxpayers of Showswick and Guthrie townships. Because counties for the small students of government recognized by this grant, Lawrence County would act as a conduit for the federal funds that comprise this grant. Upon receipt of the grant, Lawrence County would order receive and pay for the EV per specs provided under no circumstances with Lawrence County be liable for any funds in excess of the grant award and exchange the use of the EV, Showswick volunteer fire department and Lawrence County fire territory would license, ensure, maintain and operate the EV. The fire departments in the territory would provide a level 2 EV charger and unnecessary additional equipment for the EV pickup. These additional expenses are estimated at $5,000, so it would be considered the matching part of the grant. Why? Many public safety duties are administrative non-emergency actions. Airants like procurement and delivery of supplies as well as apparatus and fire station maintenance do not require the use of resources to fire apparatus. However, Showswick does not currently have an administrative non-emergency vehicle all administrative tasks are carried out with apparatus. This results in high operation repair and maintenance cost. Also apparatus were out sooner, forcing earlier expensive replacement and this EV pickup would relieve the burden of those administrative duties from our apparatus fleet and save the taxpayers considerable cost. The grant application is $80,000 with the match of $5,000. This is when I looked at the application. I do know other volunteer fire departments here in Lawrence County do have administrative vehicles. You guys have probably all seen them out on the roads. I know Marion's got a new one. I'll let it cast one. Pleasant runs had one. I can't remember being the others, but those are the ones I've seen now, you know, that are obvious. I'm just here today to present for them because they cannot be here and they ask me to present them.