The town of Welsh is seeking a $70,000 state grant to fund the installation of electric vehicle charging stations at City Hall.

This initiative would establish the first publicly operated charging stations in Jeff Davis Parish.

Mayor Karl Arceneaux believes the strategic location of the charging stations could attract more visitors to visit downtown Welsh.

“I think it will bring more people downtown,” Arceneaux said. “Once they plug in to charge, which takes about an hour and 20 minutes, they’ll have time to walk to Red Cardinal, Mr. Clint’s, and do some shopping right here.”

According to the proposal, $67,000 of the grant would fully cover the installation of the charging stations, with the remaining $3,000 allocated for transformers to manage them.

The plan includes installing two charging stations on town-owned property at the northeast corner behind City Hall. The stations will have the capacity to charge four vehicles simultaneously.

The town anticipates generating revenue from the sale of electricity used at the charging stations. A third-party company will manage the stations and collect 3 percent of the customers’ fees.

The project is made possible through the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality’s (DEQ) share of the Volkswagen settlement funds, which are intended to enhance travel options for electric vehicle drivers along the I-10 corridor. The funds originated from a settlement with Volkswagen due to Clean Air Act violations.

The grant was initially awarded to the Jeff Davis Parish Tourist Commission but has remained unused. The commission is expected to formally transfer the grant to the town of Welsh.

Town Clerk Eva Kibodeaux said that while each parish in the state was offered the grant in 2022, Jeff Davis Parish had been searching for an optimal location for the chargers.

“They just couldn’t find the perfect spot, so they’d been holding on to this paperwork all this time,” she said.

Kibodeaux added that local businessman Skip Broussard and Arceneaux collaborated to identify City Hall as the ideal location.

The grant specifications stipulate that work on the charging stations must begin by next month and be completed by December to avoid forfeiture of the funding.