CITY INSTALLING STATIONS TO RECHARGE ELECTRIC CARS.

Byline: Jim Skeen Daily News Staff Writer

Lancaster is installing six charging stations that officials believe will ultimately accommodate a city fleet of electric cars and buses.

City officials believe the charging stations will provide the backbone for supporting electrical vehicles, making Lancaster attractive for technology demonstration projects and government and industry grant programs.

The charging stations will be able to charge an electric car in eight to 10 hours at 120 volts and at 240 volts in two to three hours.

"We need the infrastructure first and then we will get the vehicles," said Brian Hawley, Lancaster's Community Development director.

The stations were funded through a $140,000 grant from the South Coast Air Quality Management District and a $40,000 grant from Southern California Edison.

Of the six charging stations, four will be available to the general public. Those four are located at City Hall, the Metrolink station, the Lancaster Factory Stores mall and the Lancaster Power Center mall, at Avenue J and 25th Street West.

Two other stations will have restricted use. Those stations are located at the city's public works maintenance yard, which will be used for city vehicles only, and Lancaster's municipal baseball stadium. The station at the stadium will be used for buses.

Lancaster is working with Southern California Edison for a no-cost lease on a truck that was converted to run on electricity. The truck will be used as a city fleet vehicle and for training staff.

Lancaster will receive up to 10 electric vehicles as its share of a $1 million-plus grant that the city and the San Bernardino County transit system received from the Federal Transit Authority and the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

Lancaster officials expect the first of the cars to arrive in September. They'd be used as the city's existing gasoline-powered vehicles are used now.

"One of the objectives is to try to obtain grants for electric-powered buses," Hawley said.

The charging stations are part of Lancaster's Blue Sky Project, an effort to secure grants and research projects to promote alternative-fuel programs, and help attract industry to the region by promoting the city as a clean "high-tech" area.

In addition to trying to attract new industry, Lancaster officials believe their Blue Sky will promote good air quality to protect Edwards Air Force Base and Air Force Plant 42, the Antelope Valley's two largest centers of employment. Poor air quality could cost the region new Air Force programs.