Jackson City Council supports electric vehicles

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

By Josh McCoy (jmccoy@ledger-dispatch.com)

Bob Devlin shows off his neighborhood electric vehicle at the Jackson City Council meeting Monday night, which he called a "radical, new solution" to the county's fight against traffic.
Photo by: Josh McCoy

Bob Devlin envisions a world of green pastures traced by ribbon-thin roadswith leisurely speed limits and noiseless cars. He told Jackson CityCouncil Monday that he wants it to start in Amador County.

In ameeting normally dominated by discussions of big box stores, risingutility rates and residential development plans, the less-is-more approach called for by the coordinator of the Amador Transit Project was out of place but welcomed.

A 22-minute video making the environmental and economic case for sidewalk-sized streets and solar-paneled charging stations for electric cars was met with"enthusiasm" and "admiration" from audience members. Mayor Pro TemConnie Gonsalves called the cars, meant to reduce traffic, noise and pollution, "really fantastic."

Financial and technical concerns about the project expressed at the meeting were saved for later as council members unanimously approved a resolution of support for the project, meant to give legitimacy to the small group as it looks for big funding. Sutter Creek voted in favor of the project last week, according to Devlin, after shows of support from several county agencies.

As for the practicality of the plan, Devlin is doing his research first hand. He drives his Chrysler GEM car, which tops out at 25 miles per hour, around Jackson and beyond, he said, mapping out possible routes along the way. To get to Sutter Creek, he takes 35-mph backways and cuts through a dirt lot in the Martell business park.

Some places are barely off limits, according to Devlin, due to short stretches of higher speed limits. He could drive all the way to Amador City if Amador Road was 35 mph. Right now it doesn't have a posted speed limit. He even drove the car into town hall as part of Monday night's demonstration.

His reasons were many: Neighborhood electric vehicles, commonly called NEVs, are cheap to drive, comparable to the cost of a gasoline car that gets 150 miles per gallon, and affordable. Devlin said he paid $13,000 for his. Skits in the video suggested NEVs for children whose parents want to keep them within a certain radius of home, or for seniors whose driving privileges might otherwise be revoked by concerned family members. Current models have to be recharged every 20 miles.

Devlin argued that simple upgrades to city streets, like pull-outs and bicycle lanes, would encourage the use of NEVs and other short-range vehicles, including electric bicycles and scooters. He acknowledged that other ideas, likea meandering road through Jackson's Oro De Amador property or a publicly-owned electric car company, were still a long way off.

Some of the concerns with the project included infrastructure costs, insurance technicalities and crash-test ratings for the vehicles, which are not much larger than golf carts. But Devlin remained resolute, calling the idea a "radical new solution" that has the potential of gaining acceptance in a place like Amador County. "It would be an example to the rest of the country trying to find unique solutions," he said.

As he navigated the double doors on his way out, a side mirror on his car nicked the door frame. He reversed, readjusted and managed to slip through. With small adjustments, he said, NEVs just might work in Amador County, too.

In other news, the city council approved a 3.3 percent increase to garbage rates in the city, proposed by Paul Molinelli Jr. of ACES Waste Services, Inc. The roughly 45-cent hike to monthly bills will go into effect Jan. 1, 2008.

Amador County, California From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Amador County, California

Map

Location in the state of California

California's location in the USA

Statistics

1854

Jackson

605 sq mi (1,567 km²) 12 sq mi (31 km²), 1.94%

38,471 60/sq mi (23/km²)

Website: www.co.amador.ca.us

Amador County is a county located in the Sierra Nevada of the U.S. state of California.

As of 2005, the population was 38,471. The county seat is Jackson.

Amador County bills itself as "The Heart of the Mother Lode" and lies within the Gold Country. There is a substantial wine-growing industry in the county.

Amador County was created in 1854 from parts of Calaveras and El Dorado Counties. In 1864, part of the county's territory was given to Alpine County.

The county is named for Jose Maria Amador, soldier, rancher and miner, who was born in San Francisco in 1794, the son of Sergeant Pedro Amador, a Spanish soldier who settled in California in 1771. In 1848, Jose Maria Amador, with several Native Americans, established a successful gold mining camp near the present town of Amador City. In Spanish, the word amador means "one who loves."

Amador County is located approximately 45 miles southeast of Sacramento in a part of California known as the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1,566 km² (605 sq mi). 1,536 km² (593 sq mi) of it is land and 30 km² (12 sq mi) of it (1.94%) is water. Water bodies in the county include Lake Amador, Lake Camanche, Pardee Reservoir, Bear River Reservoir, Silver Lake, Sutter Creek, Cosumnes River, Mokelumne River, and Jackson Creek.

Amador County ranges in elevation from approximately 250 feet in the western portion of the county to over 9,000 feet in the eastern portion of the county. The county is bordered on the north by the Consumnes River and on the south by the Mokelumne River.