No one invited winter storms Dorothy and Ezekiel to Thanksgiving, but they showed up anyway—leaving hundreds of thousands without power over the holiday. While others were busy planning a holiday feast, MECA safety director and mutual aid coordinator, Joe McElroy, was keeping a close eye on the weather forecast. “Holidays and widespread storm outages seem to go hand-in-hand these days,” McElroy said. Winter [...]
Three northern Michigan electric cooperatives welcomed the Administrator of Rural Utilities Services (RUS), Chad Rupe, to Great Lakes Energy’s headquarters in Boyne City on Oct. 10. Rupe visited the area from Washington, D.C. to meet with and learn more about the work of the three local electric cooperatives who all receive loan funding through RUS. Officials from the USDA Rural Development office and [...]
Alger Delta Cooperative Electric Association has completed the Rural Electric Safety Achievement Program (RESAP) sponsored by the National Rural Electric Cooperative Electric Association (NRECA) in Alexandria, Virginia. RESAP is a national safety program in partnership with utility safety leaders and utilizes a framework for continuous improvement to improve safety performance and culture. The program is designed to recognize electric cooperatives for above-average safety performance. [...]
Louis Wenzlaff, President of the Board of Directors, opened the 82nd Annual Meeting of TEC members held on June 8 at the Thumb Octagon Barn. An estimated 500 people attended the meeting, which was highlighted by the election of four Directors and numerous entertainment activities featured as a part of the TEC Member Appreciation Day and Annual Meeting. Elected to three-year terms of [...]
Alger Delta celebrated their 80th annual meeting on June 5. Four hundred thirty-seven members attended the event at the Island Resort Casino and Convention Center in Harris. The event included a dinner, business meeting, staff reports and prize drawings. Doors opened early to accommodate the crowd that was lined up outside. Director Darryl Small opened the meeting with an invocation. During the meal, [...]
June marks a huge milestone in the southwest Michigan rural broadband revolution as Midwest Energy & Communications (MEC) installs its 10,000th high-speed fiber internet customer. In 2015, MEC launched a five-year plan to deploy fiber internet across its southwest Michigan service territory, leveraging the investment in the two-way fiber communications infrastructure on its distribution system to make the best available high-speed option available [...]
After 39 years of service to the electric cooperative program, Cherryland Electric Cooperative announced that Jim Carpenter will retire as their line superintendent and safety director, effective April 2019. “Jim’s passion and heart for our members will be missed,” said Tony Anderson, general manager of Cherryland. “We can’t replace the 35 plus years of experience at many different positions.” Carpenter was hired by [...]
MECA recently released an updated version of its mobile app for Apple and Android devices. The app is designed to keep Michigan’s electric co-ops connected with its searchable database of co-op directors, managers and employees, a listing of MECA sponsors, events calendar and co-op news from around the state. "Users probably won't notice much change in the overall look or functionality of the [...]
Fifty lucky subscribers were the first to be connected to Trustream before the end of 2018, and the new fiber-to-the-home internet service from Great Lakes Energy is already receiving rave reviews. Earlier this month, Bear Creek Organic Farm shared a Facebook post explaining the dramatic impact Trustream has had on their business and in their daily lives: "IT FINALLY HAPPENED! ON January 10, 2019 we joined the 21st [...]
MECA and its member co-ops have always valued a positive working relationship with the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC). However, since all of the co-ops have transitioned to member regulation in recent years, interaction between the co-ops and the agency has become much less frequent. While the MPSC no longer regulates rates for co-ops, they do regulate several important issues that impact co-ops, [...]
