Nearly 500,000 Michigan homes and businesses were without power over Labor Day weekend as severe storms swept through mostly the Lower Peninsula, bringing heavy rain and damaging winds up to 70 mph. Electric co-op members were affected largely in the service areas of Presque Isle Electric & Gas Co-op (PIE&G), Great Lakes Energy, HomeWorks Tri-County, Cherryland and Midwest. A few scattered outages were also [...]
Over 35 participants in the Michigan Electric Cooperative Association (MECA) Safety partnership, including municipal utilities, attended a Chainsaw Safety Workshop on Sept. 3-4. Besides the hands-on cutting and felling of trees, participants learned chainsaw safety and maintenance, emergency first aid, and proper field dressings for injuries. The equipment workshop participants are required to wear is also good advice for anyone using a chainsaw - [...]
Jo Ann Emmerson, CEO NRECA “Electric cooperatives should stand shoulder to shoulder to meet the challenge of government policies and technologies that threaten to disrupt their historic solidarity,” said CEO Jo Ann Emerson at the Regions 1 & 4 meeting of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA), Sept. 3-5. Speaking to the crowd of about 1,000 co-op directors, managers and staff [...]
Have you downloaded the MECA mobile app? If not, you should check it out. So far more than 120 people have downloaded the app and it is getting positive feedback. “The member co-ops asked us to provide an electronic alternative to the annual paper directory,” says Doug Snitgen, MECA assistant general manager. “Transitioning to a mobile app ensures content is always up-to-date and allows [...]
GLE is seeking an Assistant Director, Loss Control, based from the south end of GLE service territory and functioning system-wide. The position is currently held by Ben Striegle, who is leaving GLE to pursue an opportunity with another utility. GLE is looking for a self-directed individual with good team skills and a positive work/life outlook to further enhance its corporate culture. Interested candidates are [...]
Incumbents Ric Evans, of Ellsworth; Dale Farrier, of Kalkaska; and Larry Monshor, of Gaylord, were recently re-elected by Great Lakes Energy members to three-year terms on the electric cooperative’s board of directors. Each incumbent defeated challengers (see summary below) in their district to earn another term on the board. Evans is from District 3 (Antrim County) and is an energy-efficiency consultant, instructor and owner [...]
Laverne Hansen, a 27-year member of the HomeWorks Tri-County Electric board of directors, is retiring, but there will still be a Hansen serving on the Co-op’s board. Kimber Hansen will be replacing his father, Laverne, as the new District 4 director. Kimber is a farmer, responsible for the daily running of the family farm near Edmore, and has been a HomeWorks member since 1993. [...]
Michigan electric cooperative employees recently took the ALS “Ice Bucket Challenge” to promote awareness of the disease and encourage donations for research. Midwest Energy Forty one Midwest Energy Cooperative employees gathered in the co-op’s Cassopolis parking lot for a company ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. The co-op and many employees donated to the ALS Association in honor of co-op members who have experienced [...]
Long-time director Carl Morton (pictured above, right) has retired from the HomeWorks Tri-County Electric Cooperative board, as of Sept. 1. Morton has represented District 3 (most of Clinton County) since 1978, when he was first elected by neighbors as part of the “Eagle Uprising,” at a time when the co-op’s electric reliability was poor and its rates comparatively high. He then led board-driven efforts [...]
Tony Anderson, CEO of Cherryland Electric Co-op (Grawn), sat down with other local utility leaders in early August to do a Podcast discussion on renewable energy. “It is a wide-ranging discussion that is simply that - a discussion,” Anderson says about the event’s purpose. “We recognize that it is all from the utility perspective and there are other sides to all these issues. In [...]
