A failed business agreement in Colorado Springs has focused attention on a Shenandoah, Iowa, wind energy company, which the Iowa Attorney General's Office has received four complaints about.
Prevailing Power, which installs home wind generators, planned to open a sister company, Rocky Wind Power, in Colorado Springs.
Mike Kazmierski, president and CEO of the Colorado Springs Regional Economic Development Corp., declined to comment Tuesday on a report in the Colorado Springs Business Journal that officials rescinded a $376,000 relocation package after learning of inconsistencies in Rocky Wind Power's business plan.
According to a press release from the Colorado Springs Regional Economic Development Corp., “prior customers, employees and clients have provided new information that reflects the company's credibility and past performance have not been consistent with what was stated by the company official, Steve Stultz.”
Stultz, chief operations officer for Prevailing Power, said the Colorado project won't move ahead because “of the affiliation people presume the two companies have.”
He said complaints filed with the Iowa Attorney General's Office were related to shipping delays, inability to install windmills because of severe winter weather and defective parts that the company received from its Chinese supplier.
Bob Brammer, a spokesman for the Iowa Attorney General's Office, said the office was reviewing the complaints and Prevailing Power's responses.
One of the complainants, Michael Vonnahme of Manning, Iowa, said Prevailing Power installed a $49,995 wind turbine generator system at his home after nearly four months of delays.
Vonnahme's complaint said the turbine blades were installed backward. When he turned on the equipment early in September 2009, he said, it “ran wild and then proceeded to literally burn itself up,” destroying the control panel.
Vonnahme said Tuesday that Prevailing Power employees replaced the control panel, but the generator still didn't work.
“We tried to get the thing up and running,” Vonnahme said. “They just don't have the technical support they need. All we can do is wait and hope that there's a solution.”
Ted Japp of Blair, Neb., who also filed a complaint, said he demanded that Prevailing Power refund his $17,000 down payment. After months of debate with Prevailing Power and five separate visits by employees who attempted to get the equipment running, the turbine still isn't fully functional, Japp said in the complaint.
In his responses to the complaints, Stultz cited the factory defects, contractual disagreements and delays in shipping as the primary factors causing customers' grievances.
He declined to provide the names of satisfied customers.
Stultz said Prevailing Power has about six employees, after recently laying off 12 workers because of the weather's impact on its work.
Prevailing Power has been operating for less than a year. Stultz and his wife, Pam, who also is involved in the business, previously owned and operated a women's handbag store in Shenandoah.
Contact the writer:
444-1414, ross.boettcher@owh.com
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