Grand Rapids, MN – A community of cooperative members “plugged in” to Lake Country Power at the annual meeting in Hibbing on Wednesday evening, April 17. More than 400 members and guests heard about co-op membership benefits, the co-op’s long-term investments, and the co-op’s commitment to serve locally.
“I started with the co-op in 1979, and I’ve seen many changes over my 40-year career,” said Lake Country Power General Manager Greg Randa. “But one thing that hasn’t changed is our daily effort and commitment to provide safe and reliable service for our members.”
Randa emphasized that the need to make the electric grid even more reliable remains a high priority.
“We have built, maintained and improved our distribution system over the last 80 years, and we have much work ahead,” said Randa. “We are making important investments to change out aging poles, wires, equipment and infrastructure, which means more than 75 miles of age-related replacement work is needed and necessary every year and well into the future.”
Randa said it is time to modernize the electric grid to meet members’ needs and expectations for security, power quality, battery storage, renewable energy, electric vehicle charging, smart home devices, and two-way consumer communications with their co-op provider.
One of LCP’s initiatives involves replacing nearly 70,000 meters with new technology. The new meters will allow LCP members to monitor hourly electric usage and account information. It’ll improve the number of meters that communicate with LCP and read on a regular basis. He also gave an update about the construction progress of the cooperative headquarters building in Cohasset.
While reliability is important, so is safety, and Randa emphasized that by saying the co-op’s quest for zero injuries is more important than ever along with the ability to maintain stable and affordable rates.
Randa also emphasized the co-op’s commitment to community and working together.
“We were built by our co-op community, we belong to our co-op community, and we are owned by our co-op community,” Randa said. “We’re working to help make our region stronger and better for members who call northern Minnesota home.”
Annual meeting videos can be found on Lake Country Power’s website, www.lakecountrypower.coop, or the co-op’s You Tube channel at www.youtube.com/lakecountrypower, starting the week of April 29.
Lake Country Power and its members made contributions to the Salvation Army of Hibbing that evening as well.
Director election results were announced. Candidates ran unopposed in Districts 2 and 4:
District 2: Michael Forsman, Ely 614 votes
District 4: Craig Carlson, Cohasset 374 votes
District 8: Jim Huhta, Cromwell 455 votes
Danny Smith, Tamarack 284 votes
Immediately following the adjournment of the annual meeting, the board of directors held a re-organizational meeting. Board officers are: Craig Olson from District 7, President; Sherman Liimatainen from District 9, Vice President; George Harvey from District 3, Secretary; and Craig Carlson from District 4, Treasurer.