Community leaders and city officials from the City of Independence announced today the formation of a steering committee called “Electrify Independence.
Electrify Independence’s goal is to initiate a grassroots effort to begin the installation of EVSE’s (Electric Vehicle Charging Stations) at various destination locations around the City of Independence before such a time the City of Independence may be compelled to undertake a similar effort as the result of Federal, State, County or Local Municipal legislative mandate. ‘Electrify Independence’ is acting as the catalyst for change ’now’, with the end goal in mind to have various EVSE’s installed and “in the ground” at locations around Independence within the next 6 to 18 months. This committee has the full support of the Independence EDC and IPL, who are both actively offering their guidance and expertise in this effort.
Electrify Independence has been communicating with Kelly Gilbert, Director at the MEC, a DOE funded group, and has met with Ruth Redenbaugh, Chairman of the Electrify Heartland, a sub-committee of the MEC, who along with groups like The Regional Clean Cities Coalition, Black and Veach, and the Mid-America Regional Council (MARC), are developing plans to install EVSE’s throughout the Greater Kansas City Region. Electrify Heartland and the MEC have both expressed an excited interest in helping Electrify Independence in their effort to initiate the installation of EVSE’s around Independence and have volunteered their expertise to help Electrify Independence achieve that goal.
Electrify Independence has developed a working list of “destination” type locations around greater Independence and has already developed an open dialogue with contacts at several of these target locations. Sources within Electrify Independence have indicated they are very close to securing a commitment from one particular target location and developing an action plan and timeline to move forward with what will be the exciting and historic installation of the first charging station in the City of Independence. Electrify Independence hopes to see this installation complete within the next 3 to 4 months.
Current committee members are Tom Lesnak, President of the Independence Council for Economic Development, Mr. Paul Mahlberg, and Mr. Stephen Tiesing both of Independence Power and Light (IPL), and Stan Adkins, Sales & Business Development Coordinator at Cable-Dahmer Chevrolet
For more information about Electrify Independence, contact Stan Adkins, Business Development Coordinator at Cable-Dahmer Chevrolet at (816) 462-3471, or Tom Lesnak, President of the Independence Economic Development Council at (816) 252-5777.
