Chadron should have a downtown charging station for electric vehicles by the end of this month.
The charging station will be at the Downtown Plaza at 2nd and Main.
The City Council this week approved a $4,537 grant from Community Development Funds to the Chadron Community Foundation as a match for 2 other grants – $6,830 from the Nebraska Environmental Trust and $4,537 from NPPD.
City Manager Greg Yanker told the council the charging station would be the first in the region and make it more attractive to the growing number of travelers who are using electric vehicles.
Mayor Miles Bannan is a big fan of the project, in part because there’s no cost to the city – the customers using the charging station are the ones who’ll pay for the electricity while the grants are paying for the system and its installation.
The only negative comments came from councilman Mark Warner and they were about the process because city crews had already started trenching electrical lines to the site from the Downtown Plaza’s planned stage area.
Werner was unhappy work had begun before the council acted, but Yanker explained after the meeting that he had an unofficial consensus of support that left him comfortable to move ahead to be able to meet various deadlines.
The two-outlet charging station will be located between the two eastern-most parking spaces on the south side of the Plaza along 2nd Street. The spaces will remain open for general parking.