Posts Tagged ‘Clear Lake SD’

SDWEA sponsors wind energy meeting

April 17th, 2009

Last night I attended a community wind energy meeting, sponsored by the South Dakota Wind Energy Association (SDWEA), in Clear Lake, SD.  After a short presentation by the organization’s executive director, Steve Wegman, the event was opened up for Questions and Answers.  A lot of good discussion followed.  Some of what I learned is listed below: 

The SDWEA is a new organization (formed in Jan. 2009) for the purpose of spurring wind development in South Dakota.  During his presentation, Wegman emphasized the organization’s desire to bring together all parties (developers, landowners, utilities, concerned citizens, etc…) to advance the cause of wind energy.  The organization also wants to emphasize the importance of local economic development in rural South Dakota where most wind development occurs.  You can learn more about the SDWEA (including joining the organization) at their website.

We heard bits and pieces about the Green Power Express. It is a bold plan, and would most likely benefit wind development in SD. The SDWEA hasn’t taken an official stance on the plan yet because the details are still unfolding.  Following the meeting, however, I heard some skepticism from a few industry insiders concerning the likelihood of this project getting off the ground. 

With the majority of individuals present being landowners and citizens, it wasn’t surprising that much of the conversation revolved around landowner issues.  The SDWEA definitely wants to help educate landowners on issues like leases and easements, and has created list of resources for landowners on their website (click here). 

There was an interesting discussion on the topic of community and cooperative wind development.  In short, the conversation centered on whether it makes sense for landowners to try to develop wind projects themselves, or whether it’s better to let wind developers pay them for the placing turbines on their land.  Wegmen did a nice job of explaining the issue using the concept of “risk vs. reward”.  Landowners can and do develop their own cooperative wind projects.  This type of venture offers the greatest risk to the landowner because it takes a lot of money just to get the idea off the ground; and there’s no guarantee the project will succeed.  But the financial reward is also greater if the project does succeed.  Even with the risk, Wegmen recommended landowners consider this option if for no other reason than it is a good learning experience.    They can always work with a developer later on if their efforts don’t pan out. 

I thought one of the best ideas thrown out by someone in the crowd was the recommendation that the SDWEA look at the possibility of advocating for the use of public dollars as seed money to help landowners seeking to get cooperative ventures off the ground. 

Overall the evening was filled with good information, and I appreciate the SDWEA’s sponsor the event.  They have another meeting scheduled in Murdo, SD for April 22. I hope the association continues meetings of this nature throughout the year, and I hope citizens take advantage of the opportunity to educate themselves about this important topic for rural South Dakota.

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Designing Third Places in South Dakota

January 19th, 2009

What do architects, landscape architects, city planners, engineers, and community development professionals have in common? No, this isn’t a trick question or the opening line of a joke. The answer comes once or twice a year, through an informal organization called Design: South Dakota. For three days, a team of design professionals (including the disciplines listed above) come to a small town in South Dakota to help the community gather and illustrate local dreams for the future. You can read more about what a Design:SD visit entails at their blog, www.designsd.org.

Designing in Deuel

Last Thursday evening in Clear Lake, South Dakota, Design:SD team members shared what the community can expect from the Design:SD charrette that is coming to their community March 26-28, 2009. The regional community (the charrette will include the communities of Clear Lake, Gary, and the rural areas in

Deuel County) was chosen as the next Design:SD community in Fall 2008, after the community expressed interest and design team members agreed it would be a good fit.

For now, I’d like to share a bit of information related to third places that emerged in the conversation last evening. During the interactive session of the night, we asked those in attendance to talk with one another about what they would like the design team to consider specifically. We were lucky enough to have a contingent of high school girls join us for the meeting. They added great energy and excitement to the meeting, along with a bunch of really great ideas.

Among their ideas included a place for teens to hang out. Now, this is a common request from parents and young people alike, but I took the opportunity to dig into what they really meant by a place to ‘hang out.’ They described a place where they could come and go as they wanted, play Rockband on the Wii, have a smoothie, get online, do homework, and just relax. What they essentially described was a third place.

Designing Third Places

Although the design team has never used the words third place, they tend to be places that the design team actively looks for in communities during the charrette. Often times, these are also the places that people identify as important for the design team to consider during their visit-places that foster a true sense of community identity.

The importance of third places can’t be over emphasized as we think about the future of our rural communities. And clearly, the next generation is going to require them in the places they call home.

It’s time to go back to the basics of community and design. It seems the future’s going to require it.

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