How Wind Turbines Make Kids Smarter

Maybe explains why Trump hates them?

Anti-Winders are often folks who have moved to a rural area, have no roots there, and view the local farmers, many of whom are 4th and 5th generation – merely as groundskeepers to maintain a pastoral backdrop for rich folk’s “lifestyle”.
Benefits to local communities not a factor for these types.

Great piece from Tom Henry at the Toledo Blade, excerpted here, but worth a read.

Toledo Blade:

VAN WERT, Ohio — Walk through the newly opened Lincolnview School District Community Center, and the first thing that comes to mind is this: It’s not your father’s community center.

It’s more like a health club for farmers, a state-of-the-art building that could give YMCA directors a hefty dose of jaw-dropping envy.

Located on the Lincolnview K-12 complex in a heavily rural part of Van Wert County, the $4.5 million center that opened last August was largely funded by revenue generated by area wind turbines.

It is cited by Van Wert County business leaders as a shining example of what Ohio’s budding wind industry — even in the face of many well-meaning and fiercely determined critics — can do for local communities.

The center has a 35,000-square-foot imprint. But what’s more eye-popping than its size is its versatility, an obvious playground for an imaginative architect.

There’s a gymnasium with 14 different acrylic basketball backboards, each of which can be electronically moved up or down at the touch of a button from the trainer height of seven feet for children to the regulation height of 10 feet for adults.

Three batting cages can be electronically lowered from the ceiling. There’s a court to play pickleball, a paddle sport that combines elements of badminton, tennis, and table tennis. There’s equipment for indoor volleyball, soccer, and other sports. There’s even a removable part of the floor that allows visitors to do pole vaulting.

The floor itself is pretty amazing: It’s made of rubber that was poured hot, not tiles brought in and assembled. There are no seams to buckle. There is a room with ample free weights and machines, and an indoor track that allows residents to do plenty of long walks and running away from harsh weather.

The cost? A mere $25 annual fee, which also includes use of locker rooms. Any resident of the district can sign up and get an electronic key. There’s also a community room with lots of seating and tables free of charge for many groups. The only requirement is a $50 damage deposit.

“It’s more than athletics,” Jeff Snyder, Lincolnview Schools superintendent, said of the center. “It really does change the culture of our connectivity.”
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Revenue generated by wind turbines have helped improve park districts, township roads, and senior citizen programs while keeping costs down. But, above all, it has brought stability to local schools in uncertain times:

■ At Paulding County’s Wayne Trace Local School District, a higher percentage of students have been graduating and more have scored in advanced and accelerated categories for achievement since revenue from wind farms began coming in, according to state test scores. Superintendent Ben Winans said there has been $4.5 million in turbine revenue since 2014, which has allowed the district to hire 18 additional staffers — mostly for special needs and intervention. Some $848,235 came in the last fiscal year. “We wouldn’t be able to do this without them,” Mr. Winans said of the giant turbines.

■ At Van Wert County’s Crestview Local Schools, wind turbines have generated an additional $880,000 a year, which has paid for new classrooms and other construction, as well as a school resource officer, and money for future contingencies. “It keeps you off the ballot. You can carry that money forward,” Superintendent Kathy Mollenkopf said. “We don’t have to go to our taxpayers for anything. That’s a good place to be.”

■ At Van Wert County’s Lincolnview Local Schools, turbines have generated $2 million since 2014, and — at a pace of $400,000 a year — are expected to bring $8 million in funding over 20 years. It has helped pay for new technology, a boiler, more parking, and a new roof. “Where we decide to put it is endless,” Mr. Snyder said, also stating that the additional money helped refinance bonds to save interest on the community center, which will also serve as a tornado shelter. The new center “would have been a very tough sell” to voters without revenue from wind turbines, he said.

“Our relationship with the wind energy companies has been sensational,” Rick Turner, superintendent of the Vantage Career Center, which serves 430 high school students from Paulding, Putnam, and Van Wert counties, said.

One of the highlights of the visit there was a $80,000, micro-sized wind turbine simulator that could help train future operators, or at least whet their appetites for mechanical science and physics.