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Lansdale electric department proposes EV truck purchase, ordinance changes and drops on deposits; rolls out lineman apprenticeship
Summary
Council committees reviewed an electric‑vehicle service truck purchase, draft ordinance language shifting certain service-repair responsibilities to property owners, a proposal to end new customer deposits and an in-house four-year lineman apprenticeship program accredited with the Department of Labor.
The council's Electric Committee reported several operational and policy items to the Feb. 5 work session. Councilman Andrew Carroll summarized plans to purchase an electric Ford Lightning service vehicle for metering and other work, at a price not to exceed $58,000 and with a potential $7,500 state rebate if available. "It'll be powered by the Lansdale solar panel array," Carroll said, noting the vehicle is intended to avoid fuel purchases.
Committee members reviewed draft language for a proposed electric ordinance that would clarify the borough's service responsibility to the street and make property owners responsible for repairs on their side of the service connection for certain primary customers; the change was prompted by a recent outage at the Educational Services Building that the borough repaired but characterized as a property-level hardware issue. The proposed ordinance will be prepared and advertised for council consideration; committee members stressed this is a preparation step, not a final ordinance.
The committee also discussed eliminating residential and commercial electric deposits. The finance team and a staff comparison with Quakertown Borough — which removed deposits for both residential and commercial customers — supported the proposal. Committee members noted administrative burdens associated with roughly 3,200 deposits on the borough's books and estimated around 9,600 customers in the billing system; they suggested existing deposits could be liquidated or applied as bill credits to simplify administration.
Council members described a regional resilience project — the QPHL energy corridor (Quakertown, Perkasie, Hatfield, Lansdale) — as exploratory; the committee said the corridor could support local generation and distribution resilience if federal or private grants and partners are available. The council also announced an in-house, four-year accredited lineman apprenticeship delivered with a training partner and accredited with the Department of Labor; participants must remain with the borough for 24 months after completion or reimburse training costs if they leave earlier. The apprenticeship was described as a way to build in-house capability and ensure consistent training.
