Local company joins visioning project

August 24, 2007

WHEELER - Paul Harrison, president of Western Wisconsin Energy (WWE), recently announced the company's formal participation in the Dunn County Community Visioning Project as a corporate sponsor.

"The roots of the WWE board and cooperative members run deep in Dunn County," Harrison said. "We are thrilled to join the project as a formal corporate sponsor and we look forward to working with other community leaders to make Dunn County the place individuals aspire to work and live."

The Dunn County Community Visioning Project was initiated by a consortium of county leaders to provide the opportunity for citizens to come together to explore opportunities, drive policy and solve problems. The first year of the project will bring together hundreds of citiizens of Dunn County to create a vision for the future and recommend programs and policies to achieve that vision.

"One of the key issues raised during the May Stakeholder Invitation was the concern of rising energy prices and the potential for expanding renewable energy in the region," said Dunn County Board of Supervisors chair Steve Rasmussen.

"With this being said, what a wonderful opportunity to have WWE management join our team. WWE is a leader throughout the Midwest in terms of creating an energy source in an enviromentally-friendly manner. Their partnering will be a real benefit to the project."

Juliet Fox, Dunn County Visioning project director, expressed her support for the WWE's commitment to the project.

"WWE joins a number of other corporate sponsors in hosting the project," she said. "They join the University of Wisconsin-Stout, Dunn County, Xcel Energy and a number of other great sponsors committed to Dunn County's future. They are a great addition to the visioning project."

WWE ethanol plant has been in operation since Aug. 28, 2006. The plant is designed to produce 40 million gallons of fuel grade ethanol per year, which can be used in numerous vehicles being mass produced by automobile manufactures.

To learn more about the Dunn County Visioning Project, contact Fox at (715) 232-2365 or julietfox@gmail.com; coordinator Tara Bergeson at (715) 232-5270 or bergesont@uwstout.edu; or visit www.dunnvision.org.

The Dunn County News, Sunday, August 12, 2007, Local News, A3