The city of Philomath has two new vehicles in its fleet paid for with Oregon Department of Energy grant money that became available on short notice.
The city bought a 2025 Ford Escape plug-in hybrid to replace its administrative vehicle and a 2026 Ford Maverick Hybrid compact pickup for the public works department. Both vehicles have arrived and are already in service.
Starner shared the news with the Philomath City Council during staff reports at its Oct. 12 meeting.
“That was the best city news I’ve heard in a while,” Mayor Christopher McMorran said.
The money comes from the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program, which is also funding an electric vehicle charging station on South 12th Street. The city originally received $112,950 for the charging station as part of a street improvement project on South 11th and 12th streets.
Starner said that during the project, the Department of Energy told grant recipients it had additional money to distribute, with the caveat that they had to move quickly.
“I mean, it was really very quick,” Starner told the council. “I had to, within a couple of hours, try to research how much it was going to cost us for this vehicle.”
The department awarded the city an additional $60,000. Starner said the charging station is expected to come in about $15,000 under budget, and the city will put that leftover money toward the vehicles.
The Escape cost $32,268.47 and the Maverick cost $38,740.97, for a total of $71,009.44.
Starner said the city does not expect to use any of its own money for the purchase. If the charging station had come in at its originally projected cost, the city would have paid at most $11,000 toward the two vehicles.
The Escape replaces a 2010 Ford Fusion, which the city will look into declaring surplus. Starner told the council that the replacement had been pushed further out in the city’s capital improvement plan each year, and that the old car “is pretty tiny.”
As a plug-in hybrid, the Escape can be charged at the 12th Street station. Starner said the city will also look for future funding to install a charging station at Philomath City Hall.
The Maverick, a compact pickup with a conventional hybrid powertrain, adds to the public works fleet rather than replacing a vehicle. Starner said public works staffing has grown over time, and the department has held on to some previously replaced vehicles for seasonal hires and watering work. The city hopes to surplus one of those older vehicles in the future.
Starner told the council that Public Works Operations Supervisor Garry Black had suggested the crew could use smaller, more electric vehicles for getting around town.
The charging station itself is not open yet. Starner said the project is waiting for Pacific Power to deliver a power cabinet. The Department of Energy has extended the city’s deadline to Nov. 30.
Once it opens, the station will be available to the public, and drivers will pay to charge. As reported in April, it will have one unit with two chargers.
“We are still waiting for the power cabinet to be delivered, but we are working diligently to open the charging station to the public as soon as possible,” Starner said.
The council awarded the $630,848 street improvement contract to Pacific Excavation in March. The work added curbs, gutters, sidewalks and parking on South 11th and 12th streets between Main and Applegate streets.
