Jim Thorpe Borough has its eyes on hosting a regional meeting in the spring of 2024 to discuss collaborative efforts to benefit from the U.S. Department of Energy’s vehicle charging station program.

Borough Manager Maureen Sterner said Thursday night that invites to the meeting would likely include local businesses and neighboring municipalities to learn more about the program, offering towns the chance to collaborate in designing stations tailored to their unique needs.

“What they are offering at this point in time is to come and speak to us about the program,” Sterner said of the Department of Energy during Thursday’s council workshop. “They can explain this program and what is available to us. The goal for this phase would be that they would be able to design charging stations for us.”

While immediate grants for the stations themselves were not on the table Thursday, Sterner emphasized the importance of the design process before going after any government money.

“We all know with grant applications that they like projects that are shovel ready,” Sterner said. “So if we can work with the DOE on the design, we could have a shovel ready project.”

One of the locations where council members discussed locating charging stations was Memorial Park along East Tenth Street, where the borough offices are located.

“It would be an interesting addition to the park to have a charging area since we have very little in town,” Councilman Mike Yeastedt said.

Jim Thorpe was actually home to Carbon County’s first official charging station when Chris and Diane Prokop installed one for guests of the Times House Bed and Breakfast on Race Street in 2016. They later opened it to all travelers.

Councilman Michael Rivkin said if plans progress, the borough could stand to capitalize on federal and state grants.

“Pennsylvania announced a grant project earlier this year to incentivize charging stations along state roads,” he said. “That might be something for the county to consider partnering with us on.”