The board of education for Ontario Local Schools will begin mediation with Rock Road Wind in an effort to resolve the dispute concerning the company’s wind turbine.   The turbine is located at Stingel Elementary School. 

The turbine has been broken for about a year and the school wants to resolve the issues and get it fixed.   Board of Education president Sam VanCura has stated that it is not the school’s, nor the board of education’s responsibility to pay for the turbine’s repair. 

The board recently voted unanimously to pursue mediation regarding the issue.   According to VanCura, “… mediation is a good step forward before exhausting other remedies.  ”

Currently, the turbine is sitting idle and has been idle since November 2016.   The problem was caused when a transformer stopped working.  

Last April, the board refused approval of a contract amendment proposed by the Rock Road Wind company that offered an agreement to replace the transformer, as long as the district agreed to continue buying power from Rock Road for six more years – so basically, a conditional fix for the turbine. 

The school argued in response to the proposal that Rock Road Wind was defaulting on its contract.   The school also demanded the company fix the turbine without any conditions.   As a result of the inability to agree on conditional repair, the turbine sits unused.  

Now, the school district is moving forward with plans for mediation.   They hope to find a way to work out the dispute so both sides can be happy with the resolution.