(File photo) Iowa Lakes Community College received additional equipment, at no cost, for its Wind Energy and Turbine Technology program in March. The donation came from Vestas, a manufacturer of wind turbines. It took about two hours to unload two, fully-operational blades as well as a hub at the Estherville campus. Iowa Lakes Community College President Harold Prior talked about the wind energy program as part of an overall presentation Tuesday in Spencer.

Iowa Lakes Community College President Harold Prior said his institution's role in an emerging industry could be an economic development boost in the region.

His remarks, about wind energy, came as part of a presentation Tuesday to the Clay County Board of Supervisors. Iowa Lakes has campus locations in Estherville, Spencer, Emmetsburg, Spirit Lake and Algona. Prior said he makes periodic stops to keep the region's five county boards of supervisors informed about the progress of the college.

"Our wind energy and turbine technician training program is recognized worldwide as being the premiere program for training the operation and maintenance technicians in the wind industry," Prior said.

The college has 75 percent of the wind industry represented on the program's advisory council, including manufacturing companies, operations and maintenance companies, construction companies and utility companies.

"Really, anyone who has a part to play in the wind industry and is represented on our advisory council," he said. "We have a terrific momentum there. The expertise of our staff is widely recognized."

That access hasn't landed a wind turbine component company as of yet -- even though wind turbine manufacturers want to keep the major components of turbines as close as possible to the wind farms because of the structure's massive size. Unemployment is higher and more favorable for wind turbine companies in southeast Iowa.

"One of the downsides for us is: It's a lot easier, probably, to have the operations and maintenance technicians move to where the jobs are -- as opposed to being able to move a multi-million dollar manufacturing plant somewhere," Prior said.

Prior also noted a state goal of having 25 percent of the state's electricity generated by renewable sources by the year 2025.

"If that's the case, it will require a 10-fold increase in the number of wind turbines in operation," Prior said.

"Northwest Iowa is in the absolute middle of one of the best wind resources in the nation."

In other discussion, Prior reviewed a series of success stories with the Clay County Board of Supervisors:

* With 116 total course programs, Iowa Lakes offers more courses than Kirkwood Community College, the largest two-year institution in Iowa. The total breaks down to 58 academic transfer programs and 58 career and technical programs.

* Televised instruction remains a positive offering at the college, according to Prior. A cable link connects students at all five campus locations. In addition, Iowa Lakes is part of a seven-school online consortium.

"That has been one of the most rapidly growing parts of what we do," Prior told the Clay County Board of Supervisors. "At 5 years old, it has actually surpassed 10,000 enrollment. That could be one student taking a three-hour semester course. It could be a student taking two semester hours."

* The college continues its effort to make college courses available to current high school students. Prior said the college is working with area leaders and the regent institutions and the Iowa Board of Regents to be a pilot program for a seamless education project in northwest Iowa. More than 1,000 area high school students are taking college-level courses through Iowa Lakes.

* Iowa Lakes recently worked out an admissions partnership program agreement with Iowa State University. The pact allows Iowa Lakes students to more easily transfer college credits in Ames. Iowa Lakes students also have access to some of the same offerings as university students.

"Students who are coming to Iowa Lakes and know they wish to transfer to Iowa State University after a two-year program, can actually enroll at Iowa Lakes and receive the benefits of being an Iowa State University student during their first two years at Iowa Lakes including face-to-face admission support services and support services at the Estherville campus," Prior said.

A similar agreement is in place for University of Iowa students. A third articulation program is in the works for University of Northern Iowa students.

* About 25 percent of the students at Iowa Lakes are enrolled through online courses through the college.

* "We're very proud of our retention rates," Prior said. "We tend to retain students better than any other community college in Iowa, whether it's fall-to-spring retention -- that's over 80 percent for keeping them for the full two semesters of the first year. And the tougher measure is fall-to-fall retention. To what extent do we get the students to re-enroll in the fall of their second, or sophomore year. In that, we've been running around 72 percent retention, which is way above the average in both the state and nation."