November 3, 2010
Indiana, Letters

Who thinks wind turbine investment is a good idea?

Evening News and Tribune, newsandtribune.com 3 November 2010

I am a taxpayer and property owner in New Albany and Greenville and a former school board trustee of the New Albany-Floyd County Consolidated School Corporation. I have read with interest the hairbrain scheme to have our school corporation invest in wind turbines to be constructed in northern Indiana.

I understand that Floyd County taxpayers would guarantee the payment of the bonds used to finance the construction. Who has sold this idea to our school corporation? Who in our school corporation has bought into this idea?

We deserve to know. It reminds me of a similar investment opportunity in Clark County about 30 years ago. A lot of school administrators and teachers bought into that scheme.

There was a lot of cold weather here in the late 1970s. It was proposed that a ski resort be constructed in the Knobs area just off of Ind. 60, near Bennettsville. School administrators and teachers were prominent investors in the scheme. A ski lift, trails and a lodge building were constructed and there was a lot of fanfare about its grand opening. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were poured into the project. Ski Starlight did not last long, however, and went into bankruptcy. I suspect that everyone lost their investment.

I suggest that those who support this project put their own money into it. If it is such a good deal for the school corporation, they should all put their retirement funds and savings into it and even borrow money in their own names and mortgage their homes to finance it. They should step up to the plate. It is always easy to spend somebody else’s money and this is a prime example.

Taxpayers will always support the reasonable costs of public education. Don’t saddle them with a debt that could last for generations. It seems to me that Don Quixote is trying to seize control of our school corporation. Let’s get rid of him.

— Bill Smith, New Albany

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2010/11/03/who-thinks-wind-turbine-investment-is-a-good-idea/