(Gone) New park powered with wind - Stillwater, OK - News Article Locations on Waymarking.com

April 2023: the structure is gone.

A fascinating structure is located at the northeast corner of Duncan and 9th in Stillwater. A vacant lot has been repurposed, with more plans to come. Currently a structure has solar panels, a wind turbine, and a mural.

Article text:

College students in Stillwater are helping fill a block that’s been vacant in the downtown area for years.

They’re doing it with wind power.

The City of Stillwater has been trying to figure out what to do with the empty lot on 9th Ave and Duncan Street for about three years.

“It creates the opportunity to create a town center that we’ve really kind of missed, so that’s the opportunity that we have here to have a living room or family room for the city,” said Jim Beckstrom, the chair of the Block 34 Trust, the group working on the empty lot.

Now, there are plans to build an outdoor concert stage and outdoor market.

“We came up with a site plan that we thought reflected what Oklahoma was all about, which was energy, which was about music, which was about place to meet,” Beckstrom said.

That energy is being wired by students at Oklahoma State University, who for the past three months have been spending their time building a wind turbine.

“In the beginning, we were meeting almost every day and I was probably putting in at least 30 hours a week in the beginning on this,” said Hannah Lancaster, a senior studying mechanical and aerospace engineering. “It was a lot of work.”

The team of seven engineering students says they have built the largest senior design project their program has seen.

The wind turbines, along with solar panels will be able to power lights and generators for the rest of the block.

“It feels like we’re making a really big impact,” Lancaster said.

Soon the city will bury power lines and get rid of alleyways to open up what the city hopes will be one of its main attractions.

“Drive by Stillwater, come to Stillwater and see what all is happening here, because you’ll be very intrigued,” said Paula Dennison, Stillwater’s assistant city manager.

The next step in the project is to build another, smaller version of the turbine on the opposite side of the lot that will connect to the internet and show people how much power they are generating.

Type of publication: Newspaper When was the article reported?: 04/11/2019 Publication: Fox 25 Article Url: [Web Link] Is Registration Required?: no How widespread was the article reported?: local News Category: Weather

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