(It was almost a year ago ~ Hill City, Kan. – Wind Power 101 can be read here if  Flipside Florida needs a refresher course).

Since then, WECC  and Graham County are in the third-quarter of year long meteorological study (met study). The company has specialized software which gauges Graham County’s wind “personality” – speed, direction, seasonal changes and so on. With this information, which in effect is wind-marketing data, Graham County can “sell” itself to electric-power companies/providers.  WECC is intricately involved in the marketing effort.

Nice weather and wind turbines courtesy WECC

The residents of Graham County are all on board with the project, land leases have been signed and everyone is anxious to proceed. At issue, however, is coordinating local red-tape. Poor Kirk Schweitzer, (Director, Graham County Economic Development) was almost in tears the other day. He’s torn out chunks of his hair which is now whiter than it should be.

Of course that isn’t true. But grid developer difficulties and inter-county squabbling is to the point where a “summit” between all parties, including a team from WECC, is taking place on June 24th.

So today we wait for agenda and participant information from Kirk Schweitzer (who promised it would arrive yesterday).

As readers can surmise, this is article is a work in progress to be updated as updates arrive.

Meanwhile in Logan County, Nebraska …

TO BE CONTINUED.

Alberto Alemán Zubieta, CEO, Panama Canal Authority

Panel discussions explored global commerce,  trade and transportation, as well as the Panamanian government’s plans to meet its future energy demands. The business forum was sponsored and chaired by The Economist.

The conference concluded with the president of Panama,  Ricardo Martinelli, discussed his vision and economic priorities  in a “Keynote Conversation” with Justin Thody, Regional Director for Latin America, Economist Intelligence Unit. Panama is in the midst of a booming economy and infrastructure development.

Foreign corporations were the primary audience,  some with U.S. representation – Global agribusiness giant, Syngenta, has a U.S. NAFTA office, while Hamburg Sud is a port tenant at Jacksonville Port Authority (JAXPORT). Domestic corporations included  Procter and Gamble, Caterpillar, Ernst & Young, and Merrill Lynch.

Alberto Alemán Zubieto, the CEO of the Panama Canal Authority underscored that the canal is positioning itself to become the transportation and logistics hub of the Americas.

There are many opportunities to capture the value of our location, particularly by investing in logistics and infrastructure. Panama offers something very unique to world commerce. It is a port with terminals in two oceans.

(L-R): Mayor John Peyton (Jacksonville, FL), Alberto Alemán Zubieta, Rick Ferrin and JAXPORT Board of Directors Chairman, David Kulik

INTERNATIONAL TRADE AGREEMENT PANDEMONIUM  ~~~

The ACP has signed 18 Memorandums Of Understanding (MOU) with U.S. Eastern seaboard and Gulf of Mexico  port authorities as of April 22, 2010. For competitive reasons Flipside Florida is really only interested in Jacksonville – America’s Logistics Center.

PANAMA CITY, Panama, April 20, 2010 –   The Panama Canal Authority and Jacksonville Port Authority launched a strategic partnership with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).

In essence, the parties agree to undertake a joint marketing effort to generate new shipping business. These joint marketing efforts may include, but are not limited to:  advertising activities aimed at promoting all-water routes;  joint exhibitor booths at maritime events;  joint press conferences; and editorial. An ACP press release was helpful for this particular article.

This partnership is especially important as both the ACP and JAXPORT undertake landmark expansion projects to spur trade and increase economic opportunities. Further, it is emblematic of the Canal’s goals to constantly look for creative ways to serve the  needs of the international maritime community and provide safe, reliable and efficient service to our customers. — Mr. Alberto Alemán Zubieta.

JAXPORT is already strongly connected to the Panama Canal by 13 ocean carriers and more than 600 annual calls in Jacksonville. We regard the opening of the new locks as the beginning of a profound transformation in global cargo patterns, specifically for cargo flowing from and into the United States. We’ll be ready for the completion of the new locks and the dramatic increase of our Canal cargo volume. —   Rick Ferrin, CEO, Jacksonville Port Authority.

JACKSONVILLE, Florida — Meanwhile, JAXPORT needs to dredge the St. Johns River another 10 or so feet. Its current depth is 40 feet. The Army Corps of Engineers – Jacksonville District will release a cost and benefits analysis next year to see if deepening the St. Johns River up to 50 feet is worth $500 million. At the same time, the St. Johns River Water Management District is studying how Orlando’s use of the   St. Johns for drinking water is affecting salinity levels and/or the river’s basic ecosystem.

SAVANNAH, Georgia —  The Georgia Port Authority is light years ahead of the State of Florida in terms of  coordinating its port authorities.  Florida has 14 ports each operating as separate entities with inadequate State funding  to develop its very lucrative trade potential.

In fact, published in the ground-breaking and quite popular magazine, Dredging Today, is Georgia Port Authority explains Savannah River Dredging Impact . The State of Georgia would like to remind  the Jacksonville Port Authority that:

Let us also not forget that Savannah is the only East Coast harbor that is tide regulated.

Panama Canal May 2010 courtesy of ACP

Flipside Florida assumes  the ACE – Jacksonville District will have “learned from past mistakes” to find a $500 million dredging expenditure to be cost effective in a year’s time.

The Florida Times-Union has an interesting overview of Ports 2010, a conference organized by the American Society of Civil Engineers, where this study was announced.

Update REBUTTAL:

I take issue with the Georgia Port Authority (portion).  Florida has 14 ports operating as separate entities and we have inadequate funding. However, you leave out the reasons Georgia might is able to be “light years” ahead. There are only TWO ports there AND they are state owned and operated. JAXPORT is quite content as an independent agency acting as a landlord not an operator. Our tenants prefer to be allowed to run their facilities as they see fit. It is an attractive part of our situation here and does attract business to JAXPORT!

~Nancy Rubin,  Director of Communications, JAXPORT

Fake Air Force One plane courtesy of NY Daily News

JACKSONVILLE — Flipside Florida commemorates the first anniversary of Air Force One’s disastrous  April 27, 2009  flyover of New York City in an ill-conceived public relations photo op. This AF1 commemoration miraculously coincides with an equally disastrous mistake which resulted in wiping out a new post while this old one published instead.  At this time, Flipside Florida would like to thank  the New York Daily Newsfor running the Photoshop AF1 contest in the the first place which allowed for the original post. Most importantly, Flipside Florida would like to thank Jan Korb, Creative Director at Jacksonville-based BroadBased Communications for doing  all of the work.

[Originally published May 3, 2009]

JACKSONVILLE – AIR FORCE ONE infuriated New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on April 27 with a low-flyover of the city, which petrified the entire New York metropolitan area, reported the Daily News of New York.

This in no way deterred Air Force One. The airplane simply refused to Photoshop itself and headed south on Interstate 95.

The customized Boeing 747 bypassed the White House, continuing  through the Delaware tunnel, stopping rush-hour traffic.

Air Force One was next seen over  ”South of the Border” on the North/South Carolina border terrorizing an  RV camp.

A Jacksonville resident reported the plane disrupted a flock of Sea Gulls over Trail Ridge landfill a short while later.

“I was afraid of another ‘Miracle on the Hudson,’” the resident said.

The Miracle on the Hudson refers to a flock of Canadian Geese, which accidentally flew into US Airways Flight 1549 on Jan. 16, forcing an emergency landing of the passenger plane, in which all passengers  miraculously survived.

The next sighting of the plane came from St. Augustine Beach, where a group of surfers anxiously texted and Tweeted reports to  local media.

Air Force One narrowly avoided an imminent crash over the St. Augustine Lighthouse.

NASA officials reported Air Force One landed safely at Cape Canaveral.

Update:  This post was original published on May 3, 2009.  Sorry for the confusion.

The city is defined by the St Johns River, which bisects it en route to the nearby Atlantic coast. The mild climate and access to the ocean have made it an important centre for the U.S. Navy and for commercial shipping and it has attracted the back-office operations of several national financial institutions. A logistical centre, Jacksonville is also home to CSX Corporation, the dominant rail company in the eastern U.S.

Obviously a well-researched article, it is the work of one Henry Hamman, a Financial Times contributing writer,  living in Sewanee, Tenn.  This seemed a curious arrangement, so I phoned Hamman to ask him how an FT contributor, who lives in Tennessee, came to learn of Riverside and Avondale. He’s a very affable man, tells great stories and has led quite an interesting life.

Hamman, at one point in his life, was Bureau Chief for Radio Free Europe in London. I’m not exactly sure how he ended up in Miami, but there he was, a Financial Times correspondent covering sporadic South Florida events.  He named a few, from the Noreiga trial and the murder of Gianni Versace to hurricanes and everglades. All the while, he was working on his doctorate in International Relations at the University of Miami, and also as a UM administrator.

As it turns out, he is also an avid architectural buff and a proponent of the New Urbanism architectural movement, which stresses urban reinvestment over suburban sprawl. He has a penchant for Prairie School and Craftsman styling. He particularly enjoyed the resources available at University of Miami’s School of Architecture and made great use of its Archives of the New Urbanism.

Hamman is also president of Sociocybernetics, a computer research company founded around his  patented communications software. UPDATE: Sociocybernetics was actually started to study the application of cybernetic theory to social organizations. Our patent came out of work we were doing on computer-assisted negotiation, and I [Hamman] am a co-inventor only. Through the patenting process in New York City, he became friendly with Joe Kincart, an intellectual property attorney, who now lives in Avondale and works for Johnson and Johnson’s Vistakon as a patent attorney. In a phone chat between the two, Kincart raved on about his cosmopolitan neighborhood:

It’s the closest thing to Greenwich Village you’ll find in Florida!

Any journalist will probably tell you it’s not easy finding  great resources right away in a new city, but fortunately, Hamman had Kincart AND Riverside Avondale Preservation (RAP). These neighborhoods have had a National Trust for Historic Preservation designation since 2000, so there’s plenty of historic information available. Hamman also had the help of long-time Riverside resident Myrtice Craig, who he describes as a lovely and gracious woman, who knows just about everybody. [Local events and news are posted on RAP's blog.]

All told, Riverside and Avondale, which lie contiguously along the bank of the St Johns River, comprise a collection of about 5,000 buildings, of which about three-quarters are protected by historic designation. Architectural styles range from late Victorian to craftsman bungalows, colonial revival and prairie school, the design tradition of America’s pre-eminent 20th-century architect, Frank Lloyd Wright.

Henry is back in Sewanee, Tenn. His 15-acre spread is named The Tick Farm. He tells  me the area is awful, it’ s very unscenic and there’s no reason whatsoever to move there.   I suspect  his disdain for Sewanee  is a self-devised plot to prevent other people from moving to the area and ruining everything. Update: FYI, the weather in Sewanee is horrible, too — we had snow yesterday, the ground is soggy, and the deer are eating all the foliage.

Hat-Tip to Brother in arms, Jon Singleton, for posting Perfectly Preserved on twitter.

Henry James Klutho, a prominent Prairie School architect, practically redesigned Jacksonville single-handedly after the Great Fire of 1901. And that is a post for another day!

Update: Just in case I don’t get to a post about Klutho any time soon, “The Architecture of Henry John Klutho, The Prairie School in Jacksonville” by Robert C. Broward is available through  The Jacksonville Historical Society.

… today’s “smart” cities tend to be smaller, compact and more efficient: places like Amsterdam; Seattle; Singapore; Curitiba, Brazil; and Monterrey, Mexico. This is not an entirely new notion: Between the 14th and 18th centuries, modest-sized cities like Venice, Italy; Antwerp, Belgium; and Amsterdam nurtured modern capitalism and created canals and vibrant urban quarters that remain wonders even today.

Lo and Behold!

Not  only is Curitiba, Brazil a Jacksonville Sister city, it is also a Forbes Smartest city. And in  Joel Kotkin‘s opinion, what makes a city smart is savvy urban planning, attractive economies and strong infrastructure.

… Not all the world’s “smart” cities are trading giants like Hong Kong and Singapore. They also include well-run metropolises, such as the city of Curitiba. The south Brazilian city is regarded as an innovator in everything from bus-based rapid transit, used by some 70% of residents, and its balanced, diverse economic development strategy.

Curitiba may not have the canals of Venice, Antwerp or Brussels, but its urban transit system runs as smoothly as a gliding gondola.

… Curitiba’s bus system is composed of a hierarchical system of services. Minibuses routed through residential neighborhoods feed passengers to conventional buses on circumferential routes around the central city and on inter-district routes. The backbone of the system is composed of the Bus Rapid Transit, operating on the five main arteries leading into the center of the city like spokes on a wheel hub. (Courtesy of Kotkin’s provided link)

Curitiba's Bus Rapid Transit by Inhabitat/Emily

Curitiba’s  transportation system is integral part of its “diverse economic development strategy.”   According to a Curitiba Metropolitan Economic Strategy Report (Be forewarned –  the MESR is a 30-page PDF file and is not particularly light reading):

… The growth of the city was not haphazard; the cultivation of the environment and the careful planning and integration of public transportation played a large part in the decision of workers and corporations to move to the metropolitan area.

… Curitiba’s four industry networks (automotive manufacturing, communications software and information technology (IT), infrastructure, and tourism) have grown since the 1970s due to the ability of the metropolitan area to attract skilled workers and international employers. [Nissan, Renault, Volkswagen, Audi, Volvo, HSBC, Siemens, ExxonMobil, Electrolux and Kraft Foods].

THE ECOLOGICAL CAPITAL OF BRAZIL!

Beyond the current connotation of an energy-efficient   “Green City,”   Curitiba is literally green:  Twenty-eight city parks ~ 5,190 acres of linear parks along rivers and streams act as  buffers between flood-prone rivers and the city.

Curitiba’s trademark park, Botanical Garden  of Curitiba, is styled after French gardens ~ fountains, waterfalls and lakes, a massive art nouveau greenhouse inspired by the Crystal Palace in London. The Botanic Museum is a global research center for botanists of native flora from Atlantic Forests of eastern Brazil. The fourth largest herbarium in the country is located  on the grounds, as well as campus of Federal University of Paraná. (Curitiba is the capitol city of the Paraná, Brazil).

Opera de Arame

Another of Curitiba’s impressive parks is  Parque das Pedreiras (Quarry Park) and home the 2,600-seat Ópera de Arame (The Wire Opera) – The structure is built on three-levels around an old quarry, complete with waterfall and carp pond.

And this completes this post’s savvy tour of Curitiba, Brazil.

p.s.  Go there and back again to Brazil-Jacksonville Alliance, June 2009 - Based on the minutes of one BJA meeting  updating status on educational and business ties with Curitiba).

It just so happens that across the Atlantic Ocean, which we’ll now refer to as the “pond,” and in another city named London, lives a guy from Northeast Florida named Jim Jeroo. Actually, his  name is really Jim Hance, he’s really from London but lives a lot of the time in Palm Coast.

Jim Jeroo is an artist. …

This I found out through the social-media sensation, twitter, which has now become a recurring theme in my semi-recent posts. I don’t remember how I came to follow Peter Serafinowicz (self-described award-winning actor, writer and comedian from Liverpool), but on Sept. 2nd I read the following tweet:

FLORIDIANS! @JimJeroo‘s paintings in downtown Jacksonville tonight -Artwalk starts at 5

(So of course I did an RT [translation for non-twitters, "returned the tweet"] to  Serafinowicz’s tweet,  then Jeroo began “following” my tweets and I his).

ART WALK: Jim Jeroo's art as shown by an unknown Storm Trooper

Art Walk is a downtown Jacksonville 15-block art gallery held the First Wednesday of the month. I haven’t been yet, but I understand people in-the-know just walk around, going from art gallery to art gallery and possibly buying something. It was organized by Downtown Jacksonville, a not-for-profit organization tasked to build a “vibrant” downtown (or basically to make downtown Jacksonville a “hipster enclave” even if there isn’t any parking).

Various venues are organized by different folks. One such venue is the Hayden-Burns Library which (as we’ll recall) is one of  (the Brothers in Arms series, Happy Veteran’s Day) Mark Rinaman’s  real estate development projects. Gray Solomon, who knows Rinaman well, organizes the Hayden-Burns gallery showing. (KTK – copy to come)

Chewbanker and the back of Jim Jeroo's head

At this point we should be able to guess who one of the artists showing in the Hayden-Burns Library was that evening (Jim Jeroo), who had his own fun and games before the show:

RT @JimJeroo At old main library, dwntwn Jax for Artwalk – stealing WiFi like some sort of lone bandit w/ paintbrush. YOU HEARD ME

And then more Jim Jeroo tweets from nearby Five Points two days later:

RT @JimJeroo Hey petals! My last US art show 5 Points J’ville, tonite http://tinyurl.com/lxdn7r -Come see my art & face!

We’re all thrilled! RT @JimJeroo http://twitpic.com/gnv48 – Chewbanker just sold at tonight’s ‘Beards & Brushes’ show at the Bogda gallery

RT @bikejax My newest art acquisition via @JimJeroo http://twitpic.com/gga2t See his work tonight at Raglands for 1st Fridays in 5 pts.

At this point, I’ve probably written enough about JimJeroo for a while.  He’s supposed to be putting together a fake bio for this story, but it’s too late for you, Jim Jeroo. I’ve never even  met Jim Jeroo because I was too lazy to go to any of his shows.  We do have fun twitter-banter back and forth:

Hi absurdly good chum @JimJeroo

He’ll be back in January, so I’m sure he’ll torment all of Jacksonville then. The next Art Walk is Dec. 2nd.  (Cue  Gray Solomon …)

The Japanese discovered the secret of turning cows into solar space satellites.

The station is slated to use 4 square kilometers of solar panels to generate 1 gigawatt of power, enough to power 294,000 homes, according to this report from Bloomberg.

Unfortunately, there are an estimated 47 million households in Japan, according to the CIA’s World Factbook.

IN RELATED NEWS –

HTV/H-IIB Successfully Launched!!

“The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched the H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV) Demonstration Flight aboard the H-IIB Launch Vehicle Test Flight (H-IIB TF1) at 2:01:46 a.m. on September 11, 2009 (Japan Standard Time, JST) from the Tanegashima Space Center. The launch vehicle flew smoothly, and, at about 15 minutes and 6 seconds after liftoff, the separation of the HTV Demonstration Flight was confirmed.”

[The launch is relevant to Jacksonville because NASA is in Cocoa Beach - a couple of hours south on I-95. NASA - TV is linked from JAXA's  Web site.]

Not Space Cows

MEANWHILE –

The Los Angeles Times reported Oct. 13, 1985:

The Soviet Texas:  Cattle Drives, Space Station, Heavy Industry – In the Wild, Wild East, Kazakh Cowboys  Still Ride the Range

LOS ANGELES – The Kazakhs, a Turkic-Mongol people who trace their roots back to the 13th Century, were once nomads who roamed the range with horses and livestock.

The horse still is celebrated in Kazakh folklore and dances. In the big farmers’ market at Alma Ata, horse meat is sold for the equivalent of about $2.10 a pound and mare’s milk, known as kumiss , is also available.

Independent Frontier Spirit

The republic “is something like Texas,” said a Soviet official who has lived in the United States. “They are both places where cowboys and cattle played an important historical role and they both retain a lot of the independent frontier spirit.” …

]]> http://www.flipsideflorida.com/cattle-in-space/feed/ 3 http://www.flipsideflorida.com/pirates-are-ruining-everything/ http://www.flipsideflorida.com/pirates-are-ruining-everything/#comments Wed, 09 Sep 2009 18:27:20 +0000 k. a. gardner http://www.flipsideflorida.com/?p=1173 AVAST ME HEARTIES!!

AVAST ME HEARTIES!!

THE PIRATES.-DRAWN BY M. BIARD. HARPER'S WEEKLY 1861

SAVE THE DATE!!   SAVE THE DATE!!

September 19, 2009 is The Original INTERNATIONAL TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY!

Apparently, seven years ago Dave Barry [you know, the extremely boring columnist from the Miami Herald] mentioned an amatuer pirate crew who talked like pirates one day a year in one of his columns and then wrote an introduction for the book:

Pirattitude!: So you Wanna Be a Pirate?: Here’s How!

Authors John “Chumbucket” Baur and Mark “Cap’n Slappy” Summers CLAIM they have become an “international PHENOMENEM that shows no sign of letting up”

So if you too want to talk like a pirate on a designated international holiday, you have nine days to practice.

How do know  this USELESS bit of trivia?

I BLAME TWITTER:

RT @FromCarl Pirates? You have 13 days to prepare: http://bit.ly/pirate13 (via @black_von Pirates are all the rage: http://bit.ly/TZEEI )

AND STILL MORE TWITTER PIRACY!!

@ecocomics Economics of Pirates http://bit.ly/Czkzq

UPDATE: Link reference –  The Atlantic/DailyDish/TheHiddenEconomicsofPirates

WILL IT NOT END? A link within another link … !

Steamboats are ruining everything. X MARKS THE SPOT

courtesy Caleb Crain www.steamthing.com

RT @thecapnslappy This is the best I can do to remind people that September 19, 2009 is The Original TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY!

The “international phenomenon that shows no sign of letting up”  is only nine days away!

Where there is sea there is pirates

(Why the article ran in Malaysia at all is probably a story unto itself, so we won’t concern ourselves with that today).

“On the Ile de Nantes [Isle of Nantes] in France, bizarre monstrous creatures right out of the pages of fantasy penned by the likes of Jules Verne [of Nantes] are taking astonished visitors for a ride.”

(Intrigued, I read on because, as everyone knows, Nantes is one of Jacksonville’s sister cities).

Reverse Propulsion Squid © Stephan Muntaner

“Up till the 70s, Nantes’ harbour was located at Ile de Nantes before it was moved to St Nazaire, leaving the island bereft and forlorn. But now the forsaken island has been revitalised into a major leisure and cultural project. Soon residential towers will bring life back to the newly designated city centre after dark.

“The Isle of Nantes project is a circus, theatre, laboratory, exhibition and roadside show all rolled into one. What used to be rundown industrial warehouses and derelict shipyards, once the pride of Nantes, is now party central for the rejuvenation of the entire island.”

(With a lead-up like that it’s hard not to immediately search for project’s Web site).

The main attraction of Les Machines de L’ile Nantes is, of course, “bizarre monstrous” machines.  They’re  elaborate stage-machines,  which have been used since the 17th-century as set-props in operas and theatre

(Although I’m sure not as huge as these particular machines).

The L’ile Nantes opened in 2007 with the Great Elephant as its first attraction. In total, 10 such machines are planned for its “bestiary.”

The Great Elephant ©Nautilus Nantes

(I’m doing this some day):

The GREAT ELEPHANT is  40′ tall and 26′ wide,  lumbering  around the grounds with 45 passengers aboard:

“From the inside, the passengers will be able to see the moving gears that power the legs. They can make the elephant trumpet and control some its movements, thus becoming truly a part of the Machine. On the back of the Elephant, it’s like being on the 4th floor of a moving house, with a breathtaking view of the banks of the Loire River. In this time-travelling carriage, the passengers can voyage to the imaginary world of Jules Verne in the city where he was born.”

Two other projects are ongoing:

Visitors are able to view the craftmen in the warehouses constructing the MARINE WORLDS CAROUSEL [project completion date 2011]:

“Twenty-seven moving underwater creatures on three levels: the ocean floor, the depths, and sea and boats. Visitors will be able to move about amidst a ballet of aquatic animals and sea carriages - - The Lantern of the Depths, The Crab Larva, The Pirate Fish,The Reverse-Propelling Squid, The Manta Ray.

“Preview of  The Heron Tree:   A monumental structure in the heart of the city, this steel tree 45 m in diameter and 28 m high will be topped by two herons. Visitors will be able to take a circular flight on the bird’s wings and walk from branch to branch in the amazing hanging gardens.”

One hundred years later, Graham County would have welcomed any commotion –  the  New York Times reported in 2001 that  “within 50 miles of Morland [Graham County], fading towns settled more than a century ago — like Zurich, Palco, Jennings, Clayton and Dresden — lost 15 percent to 30 percent of their inhabitants.”

A town does not vanish in a single moment. Nor does it vanish for a single reason. In Morland’s case, the decline was brought on by the mechanization of agriculture and nearly two decades of low wheat prices and shrinking oil fields. –NYT

The renewal story of Graham County – as told by Kirk Schweitzer, Director, Graham County Economic Development – began with a question:  What does a county, with less than three people per square mile, do to attract  commerce to the northwest corner of Kansas? The answer came from an unlikely place — Jacksonville, Fla.-based Wind Energy Consulting & Contracting.

Harnessing wind power - From Beginning to Wind

Kansas was already in the process of harnessing the Great Plains winds for energy production – the Kansas Electric Transmission Authority (KETA) was established in 2005.

“[It's] mission is to ensure reliable operation of the electrical transmission system [grid], diversify and expand the Kansas economy and facilitate consumption of Kansas energy through improvements in the state’s electric transmission infrastructure.

In the 46-county region of western  Kansas, no such  structure exists. Independent power companies provide power to the 46-county region, of which Graham County is part.

Enter the Sept. 23 – 24, 2008 Kansas Wind & Renewable Energy Conference in Topeka. In an intensive two-day conference, over 45 speakers presented all aspects of primarily wind-power technology – transmission issues, manufacturing and business development and workforce issues.

At the conference, the  GCED – Schweitzer, four board members – and the mayor “took a crash course in Wind 101.”

Would it even be economically viable for  Graham County?

Next up – Wind Networking!

- k. a. gardner