ROELAND PARK, KS - Kansas Governor-Elect Sam Brownback was among those in attendance Dec. 20 at Roeland Park City Hall to celebrate the installation of Kansas' first public electric vehicle charging station. 

The station's first customer was Don Buckshot, a Roeland Park resident who is a member of the Mid-America Electric Auto Association. 

Roeland Park is part of the Greater Kansas City Plug-in Readiness Task Force, which is developing and implementing plans to ready the area for the arrival of plug-in vehicles. The task force is sponsored by the Mid-America Regional Council and the KC Regional Clean Cities Coalition. 

"Recognizing the rapidly approaching change in transportation, we felt it was important for the city of Roeland Park to take a first step towards creating electric vehicle infrastructure within our region," said Megan England, a member of the Roeland Park City Council. "We are extremely proud to be recognized as leaders within our region and to have Governor-Elect Brownback here to mark the occasion with us." 

The charging station was manufactured by Coulomb Technologies. LilyPad EV is the reseller of Coulomb ChargePoint stations in both Kansas and Missouri. LilyPad EV sells, installs and maintains Coulomb EV charging stations under Midwest distributor Carbon Day Automotive in Chicago.