Tammy Stoner, owner of Wind Power Services LLC, recently was featured on northern Michigan’s CBS TV affiliates, WWTV/WWUP, as having a unique skill—tower climbing. Stoner is both a tower climber and a teacher of the skill and offers a class that brings in students from all over the world. She teaches them a unique skill that very few people in the state are certified to teach but that is needed in several lines of work. Stoner, who started her business in 2002, provides one of about 15 federally certified tower-climbing training sites in the U.S., the station’s newscasts reported. Her passion for windmills as a child has been the driving force to becoming one of only two certified wind site assessors in the state of Michigan, according to her website.
As a certified instructor for tower climbing safety and rescue, Stoner is able to combine her passion for wind energy with a fascination for steel structures into performing a job that she truly enjoys doing.
She has successfully completed courses in tower construction, tower climbing safety and rescue, wind systems repair and maintenance, wind site assessor training, instructor for tower climbing safety and rescue certification and more. She also is an Osceola, MI, county commissioner. She originally took a tower-climbing class so she could work with wind energy.
Stoner lives in LeRoy, MI with her husband and daughter. When not diligently performing her duties as a wife, mother, business owner, county commissioner and community volunteer you will find her wandering in the woods bonding with nature.
Stoner never thought she’d end up teaching others how to use the skills. She usually teaches four to 12 students in a class and has been climbing towers for 10 years and teaching for five.
“I go home after a class and I may have played a role in saving somebody’s life, and I get that numerous times. ‘Oh geez, I didn’t know that. Oh geez, I’ve been doing this without hooking off,’” Stoner, who’s from Tustin, told the television outlets.
Stoner is the curriculum director and senior instructor at Vertical Safety Solutions and teaches about one class a month drawing in students from all over the world who need the skill for their trades. Once they reach their job they are either a communication tech in cellphone, wireless tech in wireless Internet, HAM operators or wind turbine technicians. People who climb towers can be in the air for as long as 14 hours, Stoner said, so gear like a safety restraint can help people take breaks when needed. She intends to start offering certification for people who inspect climbing gear next year.
While Stoner is unfazed by climbing into the clouds, she told Inside Towers “I am scared of ladders.” She also acknowledged that she cannot get her husband, Nevin, to climb with her. “He stays on the ground.”
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