by jboullion | May 21, 2009 | Uncategorized
From a news release issued by the Urban Economic Development Association, NAACP Milwaukee, Spotted Eagle, Inc., ACLU of Wisconsin Foundation, Midwest Environmental Advocates, Citizens Allied for Sane Highways, Transit Matters, WISPIRG, Sierra Club – John Muir Chapter:
A coalition of community and environmental groups is urging Governor Doyle and the Department of Transportation to devote economic stimulus money to expand and improve Wisconsin’s public transportation system. In a letter to WisDOT Secretary, Busalacchi the coalition urged that money allocated to Wisconsin by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009’s Surface Transportation Program (ARRA STP) go to projects that will deliver the highest return on investment.
“Particularly in light of Wisconsin’s $6.6 billion current budget deficit, it is especially important that we invest these funds wisely in areas where they will have the greatest impact in our economic recovery,” said Megan Carr, Project Coordinator with the Urban Economic Development Association. “Recent studies show that mass transit projects generate more in terms of jobs and economic growth in comparison to new roads and bridges.”
The coalition particularly urged that funds be spent to improve transit in low income communities. The letter states that “Sustained economic development depends on engaging as many people as possible in the economy. For the broader economy it is better for someone who is unemployed to get a job than for someone who is already employed to switch jobs. Putting or keeping transit in communities with high unemployment produces up to 2.5 times more jobs than putting transit in communities with low unemployment.”
by jboullion | May 19, 2009 | Uncategorized
From an article by Nathaniel Shuda in The Marshfield News-Herald:
A Wisconsin Rapids-based manufacturer is leading the charge to create standardized training for the growing wind energy industry.
Energy Composites Corp., the parent company of Wisconsin Rapids-based Advanced Fiberglass Technologies, is working with the U.S. Department of Energy and a Norway-based company to develop a universal standard of training that would include an internationally accredited curriculum.
“The idea is in the industry we don’t have a way of assuring we have trained individuals … (who) have some way of proving their capabilities,” said Sam Fairchild, Energy Composites’ chief executive officer.
Det Norske Veritas, a global certification company, began developing wind energy standards when the industry first started in the early 1980s, but those standards were limited to equipment and building techniques — not training, according to the company’s Web site.
Energy Composites signed a letter of intent with Mid-State Technical College last week to establish a 12-credit certification program that will be the first of its kind and set the precedence for other wind energy companies.
“We’re pretty confident that we can get that done by spring semester next year with the first course load,” Fairchild said. “The guys at Mid-State have been great. The retraining of people is something that is precisely up their alley.”
by jboullion | May 18, 2009 | Uncategorized
From “Helgesen wants to fill space with jobs for Janesville” by Jim Leute posted on GazetteXtra.com:
JANESVILLE — Jeffrey Helgesen’s life is all about challenges.
His two sons from a first marriage are Navy SEALs. One just returned from his third tour in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the other remains in Iraq.
His father, with whom he’s had a rocky relationship, suffers from dementia.
And the developer’s largest Janesville tenant has flown the coop, leaving Helgesen with a massive hole in his commercial real estate portfolio.
One challenge after the next, he worries about them all.
But before you start feeling bad for Helgesen, don’t, he says.
He’s happily remarried and spends a lot of time at his summer home in Menomonee, Mich., a perfect port to launch his 52-foot “Gaudior” on extended sailing trips across the Great Lakes.
His relationship with his father, legendary Janesville businessman Don Helgesen, is better than it’s been in decades.
And that empty 700,000-square-foot building on Janesville’s south side?
It’s been cleaned, repainted, outfitted with energy-efficient lighting and heating fixtures and stands ready for tenants that Helgesen hopes will build alternative energy components and provide good jobs to the local economy.
LSI, a just-in-time supplier to the Janesville General Motors plant, ended its lease of the 10-year-old building on Venture Drive in December.
With LSI supplying a struggling auto industry, Helgesen knew he was on shaky ground with just one tenant in the huge building. Not enough eggs in one really large basket, he says.
The LSI building accounts for nearly 58 percent of the 1.2 million square feet Helgesen leases in Janesville. . . .
Helgesen, a frequent player in the city’s tax increment finance districts, would like to lease the space to alternative energy manufacturers. He’d also accommodate distribution or warehousing operations.
“The reality is that we’ve lost so many manufacturing jobs because of the North American Free Trade Agreement,” he says. “High fuel costs brought some of them back, but unfortunately our wage rates and health care have priced us out of the market.
“What’s left for us is everyone else’s crumbs; we’re a distributor of other people’s products.”
Janesville’s future, Helgesen believes, rests largely on companies that will manufacture components for renewable energy markets.
He’s watched cities like Newton, Iowa, and Wisconsin Rapids land companies and jobs in the alternative energy industries.
“I’m always pushing our people and the economic development people on this,” he says. “Why can’t we get those contracts? Those communities got over the idea that they were somehow going to maintain a dynasty industry forever.
“It’s just not going to happen, and that’s why I’m hammering the solar and wind thing.”
by jboullion | May 8, 2009 | Uncategorized
From an article article by Tom Content in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Chicago – Anyone looking for signs that sectors of the economy have found some shelter from the recession needed only to walk the halls of the McCormick Place convention center Thursday.
With more than 1,200 exhibitors, the world’s largest trade show for the wind power industry saw record attendance in its bid to prove that energy from wind has escaped the label “alternative.”
“When you look at this show, you wouldn’t know there’s a slowdown in the economy,” Kim Zuhlke, an executive at Alliant Energy Corp., said while standing between massive booths at the conference Thursday.
Organizers of Windpower 2009, sponsored by the American Wind Energy Association, weren’t sure how their conference would do, but the show ended up attracting more than 20,000 people. That’s 60% more than attended last year in Houston, the association said.
The recession has hit the wind power industry just like every other sector of the economy, as projects stalled for lack of financing. In an industry forecast earlier this year, the association said the wind industry is likely to slow this year after setting records for new projects last year.
“Everyone’s been in a holding pattern. It’s not just wind energy – the entire country had taken a pause,” said Ellen Shafer of Broadwind Energy, based near Chicago.
But the mood at the convention this week has been one of optimism, said Shafer, whose company has two Wisconsin subsidiaries – TowerTech, a Manitowoc maker of wind towers, and Badger Transport of Clintonville, a trucking company specializing in hauling the oversized components that are the of a wind farm development.
by jboullion | May 8, 2009 | Uncategorized
From an article article by Tom Content in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Chicago – Anyone looking for signs that sectors of the economy have found some shelter from the recession needed only to walk the halls of the McCormick Place convention center Thursday.
With more than 1,200 exhibitors, the world’s largest trade show for the wind power industry saw record attendance in its bid to prove that energy from wind has escaped the label “alternative.”
“When you look at this show, you wouldn’t know there’s a slowdown in the economy,” Kim Zuhlke, an executive at Alliant Energy Corp., said while standing between massive booths at the conference Thursday.
Organizers of Windpower 2009, sponsored by the American Wind Energy Association, weren’t sure how their conference would do, but the show ended up attracting more than 20,000 people. That’s 60% more than attended last year in Houston, the association said.
The recession has hit the wind power industry just like every other sector of the economy, as projects stalled for lack of financing. In an industry forecast earlier this year, the association said the wind industry is likely to slow this year after setting records for new projects last year.
“Everyone’s been in a holding pattern. It’s not just wind energy – the entire country had taken a pause,” said Ellen Shafer of Broadwind Energy, based near Chicago.
But the mood at the convention this week has been one of optimism, said Shafer, whose company has two Wisconsin subsidiaries – TowerTech, a Manitowoc maker of wind towers, and Badger Transport of Clintonville, a trucking company specializing in hauling the oversized components that are the ingredients of a wind farm development.
