Dublin was the only other Ohio city named in this year’s Top 50, and Hamilton has been the only city on the list for the past three years.
Councilman Tim Naab called the accomplishment impressive, especially for a city our size."
“If you calibrate that through the United States, and all the different fleets and all the different vehicles that are serviced by those departments, that’s incredible,” he said.
In hopes for a fourth consecutive Top 50 honor, the Hamilton made some upgrades to their fleet of sedan and SUV vehicles with a U.S. Department of Energy grant.
Hamilton Public Works Director Dan Arthur said the city was initially awarded $122,250 but was notified that Butler County had $248,500 in unallocated funds. Working with the county, Hamilton received the additional grant funds from the DoE to help upgrade its fleet.
“They really partnered with us on this,” Arthur said of the Butler County administration. “They gave us a handshake and sent us the letter to transfer those funds over.”
In all, the city purchased 10 vehicles, four electric vehicles and six hybrids. One of those hybrids will be gifted to the Butler County Engineer’s Office, thanking the county for its help in securing the extra funds.
The new vehicles replaced nine early 2000s vehicles “with a lot of miles,” said Arthur, and cost $366,887.
Hamilton has an internal EV charging station at the city garage and is installing four new fast chargers at the compressed natural gas station on Ohio 4, next to the municipal garage. The charging stations were part of a 2023 Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments grant. Arthur said those charger installations are about complete.
The award ranks fleets by three size categories, with a top agency being in each category and No. 1 overall. The Top 20 fleets are ranked numerically. The remaining fleets are identified as being within the Top 50.
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