Cara Peffley said switching from her biodiesel powered Volkswagon truck to the Anacortes Parks and Recreation Department’s electric truck is like going “from a horse-drawn wagon to a Jetson mobile.”

The Miles ZX40ST purchased at MC Electric Vehicles in Seattle is all electric and has zero emissions.

“It’s just weird because it’s so quiet,” Peffley said.

But that’s part of the reason Peffley, a Washington Park seasonal maintenance employee, likes the truck. She can drive around and do her work in the campgrounds without disturbing the guests.

The department started using the truck at the park early this spring after the city maintenance shop fitted it with a back window guard.

The nearly 3,000-pound truck has a 1,000-pound payload. Only a few items, including the window washer fluid and light mechanisms, are under the truck’s tiny hood where an engine usually is. The battery is tucked under the truck bed. The “brains” of the vehicle, as park manager Andy Tubbs calls it, are under the passenger seat in a space about as big as a breadbox.

The inside of the cab isn’t much different from a gas-powered vehicle except there’s an electric switch where the gas pedal usually is and in place of a gear shift between the seats, there’s just a little lever for going forward or in reverse.

“Instead of a gas gauge, it tells you how much juice you have,” Peffley said.

The truck is charged off a normal household current and can go 18 to 20 miles between charges. It had to go back to the city’s maintenance shop early on, but not because of any mechanical failure. Instead the key had broken off in the ignition, said Wil Ludemann, city fleet services manager. The problem was taken care of after the parts arrived from the Seattle dealership.

“We figure out how to fix it,” Ludemann said if anything else goes wrong.

Ludemann chose the Miles truck to replace the park’s full-size Dodge after researching electric vehicles and taking a few for road tests.

The Miles most fit what the city wanted to use it for, Ludemann said. With a steel mainframe, side impact door beams and body panels, the Miles is one of few out there with a metal body.

The vehicle cost about $18,000, about the same as a regular truck of its size, he said. Advantages of it being electric include never having to leave the campground for gas and no fumes, which is great for park use.

The one shortfall is how far it can go on a full charge.

“I’d like to get more range out of it,” Ludemann said. “Right now we’re not getting what they said we would.”

However, the company says with more use the truck will get closer to 30 miles per charge.

The electric truck is used at the park along with a Ford Ranger, which is used for backup and other park duties around town.

“It’s our work truck here,” Tubbs said.

The truck is used by all three shifts at the park for hauling trash, water, gravel for pot holes and ash from fire pits, and moving picnic tables.

For staff, the truck is convenient for loading with drop sides on the bed. It’s easy to maneuver in tight places in the campgrounds, Tubbs said.

The truck won’t go faster than 15 mph because of a governor device that regulates the maximum speed. When it does have to make in-town trips for maintenance, it has a key switch so it can be taken up to 35 mph.

“It’s been a curiosity piece,” Tubbs said of the vehicle. “There’s no doubt about it.”

While Tubbs doesn’t know how the electrical costs for the truck compare with a gas-powered vehicle, city staff intend to look into ways of metering the amount of electricity it uses.

In the meantime, the truck’s lack of emissions fits in with the park staff’s goal of preserving natural resources. And with thousands of people coming to the park each year for recreation, the task isn’t easy.

“We see our job as to protect resources and educate people and hopefully everybody has a good time,” Peffley said.

That means making sure mountain bikes remain on trails, dogs stay on leashes and branches aren’t used for hot dog sticks.

Peffley compared her job to being an apartment manager for people who are perpetually on vacation.

“So you have to get to know them every weekend,” she said.

Park revenues at the end of May this year were about 13 percent higher than the same time last year. Camping receipts were at $18,792 by the end of May 2008, while this year they were at $21,001. Boating revenues were $20,592 last year and were at $23,606 this year.

The numbers reflect the majority of regional travelers that come to the park earlier in the season, Tubbs said. July and August are usually for the long-distance visitors.

The busiest time of the year is July 15 to Aug. 15, he said. Holidays, including Canada Day on July 1, also bring in big numbers. If the weather is good, campers continue coming through mid-October.

The park is made up of 220 acres with a boat launch, picnic shelters, playgrounds and beach front along Rosario Strait. The overnight camping facilities include showers and a laundry facility along with 73 campsites that accommodate about 300 people during its busiest times. The 2.3-mile Loop Road is open to cars 10 a.m. to dusk or 10 p.m., whichever comes first.

Recently new racks for recycling cans were installed next to the maintenance building by a local Boy Scout troop. Another Scout helped get a cement slab poured for a new picnic table for his Eagle Scout project, while another built kiosks at the start and end of Loop Road for interpretive guides now in their second printing by the Friends of Washington Park.

The Friends of Washington Park are adding more cedar railings to protect bluffs, wildflowers and other native vegetation at Green Point and the Burrows Bay overlook. The volunteer group continues its quest to rid the park of invasive plant species, such as ivy, holly, European Daphne, Scotch broom and stinky Bob. Areas where the plants are found are identified by yellow ribbons on nearby trees, signaling to others where work needs to be done.

While the Friends volunteers take care of the smaller plants, the parks department is in charge of making sure hazardous trees are felled. Once a year, usually in the fall, park staff identify trees that are dead, decaying and/or shedding limbs or bark that could potentially fall in a storm, Tubbs said. The trees are cut down and allowed to stay where they drop to naturally decay and provide habitat for birds and insects.

Park is ‘great little secret’

Washington Park got three out of five stars in the recently released “Camping Washington” book by Ron C. Judd.

Judd calls the park “a great little secret, well kept by the City of Anacortes, which is lucky enough to own it and does a nice job running things.”

Though the campground can be “cramped” with people and cars during the busy season, Judd calls the rest of the park “an absolute gem.”

“Camping Washington” was published by The Mountaineers Books, a nonprofit publishing arm of The Mountaineers Club, and retails for $18.95.