Monday evening, Humboldt city council members unanimously approved going for a high-powered electric vehicle charging station on the downtown square primarily by means of a federal grant, noting how it would draw EV users to town.
“It would put us on the map” of that unique but growing user base, noted Cole Herder, Humboldt administrator.
Iola Council members, meanwhile, appear to prefer the sidelines.
In February, Iolan Paul Porter asked the Iola Council permission to install a public use EV charging station at his downtown property — on his own dime.
Council members denied his request.
Porter hoped it would be a slam-dunk decision. After all, he would be footing the bill to the benefit of greater Iola, especially other downtown merchants.
Porter and his wife, Haylee Derryberry, recently opened Derryberry Breadery in the old Shannon Building on the northwest corner of the square.
Porter had planned for the charging station to be on the very spot of a previous gas station alongside the old hardware store circa the 1920s. Below the sidewalk is an empty space where the former gasoline tanks were kept.
“We’re not creating anything new as far as utilities underneath the right-of-way,” he told Council members. “What it amounts to is an RV hookup sitting in the footprint the size of a pay phone or a parking meter.”
Porter’s vision included providing the electricity at no charge, figuring he — and other downtown merchants — would be recouped by sales at the couple’s store as well as accrued goodwill.
Because nothing is ever as easy as it sounds, Iola Council members let the details of whether to grant Porter permission to use a public sidewalk for the charging station to unduly influence their 4-3 decision in turning him down.
On Wednesday Herder and Paul Cloutier, a Humboldt Council member and a key figure with A Bolder Humboldt, are hosting city officials and administrators from across the state for a four-hour symposium on economic development for small towns as part of the Kansas League of Municipalities’ training institute.
“It’s economic development from a small municipality’s perspective,” Herder said Tuesday morning.
Or how to stretch dollars.
What small towns lack in resources, they must make up through grants and partnerships.
