Parking lot at Shawnee City Hall gets electric vehicle charging station

The parking lot at Shawnee City Hall now features an electric vehicle charging station.

Kansas City Power and Light installed the charging station earlier this month. The charging station accommodates two electric vehicles. Costs to use the charging station are assessed to the user and not paid by the city.

Assistant City Manager Caitlin Gard said installation of the charging station came free of charge for the city.

When the city had initially considered installing electric vehicle charging stations in May 2015, there was no user payment platform at the time, Gard said. Because the city would have had to foot the costs for users to charge their vehicles, the council decided to table the issue until a user payment platform was established.