CCCC board continues to work on wind turbine solution

By Jessica LeDuc
Blade staff writer

Cloud County Community College continues to work toward a solution to solve height issues with two of its three wind turbines.
At a special meeting Thursday morning, College President Danette Toone told board members she continues to pursue two avenues to reach a solution to the Federal Aviation Administration's determination of hazard against the Northwind turbines.
At last month's meeting Toone said the hazard of the turbines being too tall has been mitigated and that they do not pose any hazard to aircraft in the airport's airspace. However, the FAA's determination of hazard is still on file, which means the College cannot receive nearly $2 million in grant money.
Toone said she has been in contact with staff members in Sen. Jerry Moran's office, who are trying to facilitate a meeting with the FAA and Department of Energy, which is still holding the College's $984,000 grant. Another $750,000 grant for a wind energy facility is also being held up because of the FAA's determination.
"We're still working with Sen. Moran's office to hopefully resolve the issue without spending money," she said Thursday morning.
The other avenue to reach a resolution is to lower the wind turbines. Toone said she has received two price estimates on removing the middle sections of the turbines. Currently, the two Northwind turbines are 20 feet too tall, and the Nordtank turbine is 30 feet too tall.
Before the turbines were installed in 2009, Toone, who was not college president at the time, said a volunteer performed the measurements for how tall they needed to be. Using GPS equipment, she said, this individual recorded information, which the height of the turbines was based upon.
"We thought it was the right height, but that was not accurate; it was 30 feet off," Toone said after the meeting. "We should have hired a surveyor, which we have done now."
Toone said the Department of Energy had recommended installing a lighting system around the turbines to alleviate the problem at an approximate cost of $400,000. Toone did not give price estimates for lowering the turbines, but said it was "quite a bit less" than the lighting system.
She said her preference is to continue working with Moran's office, and not have to lower the turbines. However, Toone said if that plan does not work, she would like to be prepared to move forward with lowering them.
"We want to keep going on both tracks so we're not caught behind the eight ball," she said. "I would like to get to the point where we can bid it out if we need to."
She said she hopes to gather enough information by the February meeting to be able to ask board members if they are agreeable to moving forward with an engineering study.
"I have no problem going down both roads as long as they're not costing us money," board member Larry Henry said.
Ellen Anderson agreed with Henry, saying the board needs to be prepared to lower the turbines if Moran's office cannot facilitate a solution.
The board also approved spending not more than $22,500 for professional services with Deam and Deam LLC Architecture, Junction City. The money will be used to continue preliminary design and engineering for a new building on the Geary County campus.
The College received a grant from the Department of Defense, which will be used to lease the building after it is built. The 6,000-6,500 square foot building will house science classes and lab space.
The money will come from building fees, Toone said, which are not taxpayer dollars.

No User Comments

Be the first to comment on this story.



Concordia
Concordia