Steven Zahm@ David
RE: It appears you have to set-up a billing account with google now to be able to use the maps and there is a monthly fee?
Yes, since July Google has required billing info to be added to the account in order to display maps. You get a $200 a month service credit which is roughly equal to the amount of free usage one received before the change. Prior, they would simply just stop showing maps on your site until the your usage quota was reset.
RE: Is it possible to set up the maps as a static API as there is no charge for this service.
Sorry, it is not possible to use the Static Maps API at this time. Even if it were, the same billing requirements apply.
If you do not want to give billing info to Google, my suggestion is to remove the Google Maps API keys from the Connections settings fields so they are blank/empty. Connections will default to using free a mapping service provider.
Hope this helps!