Gierhart joins academy

Tisha Gierhart, Portland, has been named program director at Shafer Leadership Academy in Muncie.
She will be responsible for all activities related to the development, delivery and assessment of leadership programs presented by Shafer Leadership Academy.
She’s a Geneva native who holds a degree in business administration from Indiana Wesleyan University and has worked in the healthcare field for 14 years.
She was employed at IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital for the last eight years as manager of guest relations.
She’s an alumna of Shafer Leadership Academy’s emergence program and has completed advanced facilitator training.
Gierhart serves on the board of the Jay County Cancer Society, and lives in Portland with her husband and five daughters.
Shafer Leadership Academy was founded in 2006 with support from the Ball Brothers Foundation.
Originally named LEAD-ECI, it was renamed after forming a long-term partnership with the Hamer D. and Phyllis C. Shafer Foundation.

Deal contested
The U.S. Department of Labor has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court to recover loses to the Miller’s Health Systems, Inc., Employee Stock Ownership Plan, which includes Miller’s Merry Manor.
The suit alleges that PBI Bank, Inc., the trustee of the plan, authorized the purchase of company stock for $40 million and approved financing for the transaction at an excessive interest rate.
The suit seeks to require PBI Bank to restore all losses suffered by the Employee Stock Ownership Plan, plus interest.
As of Sept. 30, 2012, the employee stock ownership plan has 2,939 participants and assets of $12,848,000.

New associate VP
Dr. John Hogan has been selected to be the new associate vice president for student affairs and placement at Ivy Tech Community College.
Hogan previously was the chancellor for the college’s Columbus/Franklin region for 11 years.
He will join the student affairs team led by Jeff Fanter, who has been named vice president for student experience, communications and marketing.
He will work with various departments and regional leadership in an effort to continue to enhance the overall experience of Ivy Tech students.

Duke Energy sued
 The owner of a northern Indiana wind farm is suing Duke Energy Indiana Inc., accusing it of breach of contract involving the utility's deal to buy electricity from the farm, The Associated Press reported Friday.
The AP said Earl Park-based Benton County Wind Farm LLC filed its suit in federal court in Indianapolis. The suit, which seeks unspecified damages, claims Duke Energy Indiana hasn't honored its agreement.
Many of the details of Duke Energy's alleged contract breach are redacted in the 23-page complaint.
But those that aren't allege the utility's actions have resulted in the wind farm "frequently" being forced to curtail operations, causing sharp reductions in the farm's electrical output and revenue.
An executive for one of the wind farm's parents, Oakland, Calif.-based Orion Energy Group, declined to say whether the alleged revenue shortcomings have placed the farm in jeopardy.
"If it was not significant, we would not have filed the complaint," Jim Eisen, Orion's general counsel, told The Indianapolis Business Journal.
A Duke Energy spokeswoman said only that the company is reviewing the lawsuit.
Orion Energy Group LLC began running the wind farm in 2008 as Indiana's first commercial-scale operation, with 87 power-generating wind turbines northwest of Lafayette.
In 2006, the companies struck a 20-year contract under which Duke Energy would buy 100 megawatts of electricity produced by the wind farm once it went online.
Duke Energy takes the electricity and sells it onto the power grid through the Carmel-based Midcontinent Independent System Operator Inc., or MISO.
MISO's pricing system and a glut of wind energy appear to be at the root of the court case, according to the Indianapolis Business Journal.
Duke Energy has to pay a fixed price — which was redacted from court records — to Benton County Wind Farm, regardless of what Duke earns reselling through MISO.
The lawsuit states Duke Energy is only excused from its obligation to pay the wind farm in "narrowly defined" emergencies.
The complaint redacts the specifics of what Duke Energy allegedly did, noting only that the utility "curtail(ed) electrical production by refusing to offer the Wind Farm's power to MISO at competitive prices and then refusing to compensate (the wind farm) when the Wind Farm is directed by MISO not to produce power."
A 2012 report by Synapse Energy Economics Inc. in Cambridge, Mass., found that MISO's transmission grid wasn't able to handle the power generated by Indiana's growing wind energy industry.

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