Ceremony hails MCC-Impact collaboration

About 60 people - many of them Impact Wind employees or students - attended a ceremonial ribbon-cutting Wednesday to celebrate Mesalands Community College's partnership with the Houston-based company.

The ceremony took place in the college's wind-energy building in front of a wind-turbine nacelle used for training future turbine technicians.

Mesalands and Impact announced the collaboration last month to train technicians through the Global Wind Organization certification program.

The collaboration is designed to equip students with exclusive access to such GWO certifications, along with advanced degrees and certificates in wind and renewable energy.

The organizations have set up an inaugural class of 24 students through hands-on learning who will have jobs waiting for them when they graduate. The Mesalands-Impact collaboration also will be one of two in the country that will provide additional training for wind-energy instructors.

Impact, which has grown from six employees in 2022 to more than 70, has eight to nine full-time employees now living in Tucumcari.

Jay James, president of Impact Wind, thanked the college's staff and Tucumcari officials for their hospitality "for allowing this to happen."

"We look forward to a future together ... for many years," he said.

Mesalands interim President Allen Moss credited the college's wind-energy staff for their roles in forging the partnership with Impact Wind.

Moss said the collaboration comes at a crucial time when the college still is struggling financially.

"This brings to Mesalands and Tucumcari not only additional programs and students, but also an impact on the local economy," he said. "It's big for us, and we're so thankful for that."

State Rep. Jack Chatfield (R-Mosquero), who attended the event with state Sen. Pat Woods (R-Broadview), said the benefit of the program is nearly immediate.

"You know, there are many institutions around the state you can go and can leave with a Ph.D. But when you leave this institution, you have a J-O-B," Chatfield said.

Kristine Olsen, representing the Tucumcari / Quay County Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Tucumcari Economic Development Corporation, said her grandfather was on the Mesalands board of trustees who helped secure land so the wind-energy facility could be built.

"I want to pay tribute to all those men and women who helped bring us here to this point today," she said.

Quay County manager Daniel Zamora noted the county has two of the oldest wind farms in the state, and it is negotiating industrial revenue bonds for another wind project.

After the ceremony, attendees were served a meal catered by Watson's BBQ of Tucumcari.

Lawrence Uresti III, Impact Wind's executive vice president, said his company and its employees have received a great reception from townsfolk.

"Everyone's been more than nice," he said. "Hospitality and everything, it's been great ... open arms. Restaurants have been fantastic to us."

A concert that night at the Tucumcari Convention Center by country singers Joe Peters and Tyler Styles was part of the festivities. The event served as a Mesalands Community College Foundation fundraiser for scholarships.