Not all of the recipients of Arrowhead Electric Cooperative’s (AECI) Operation Round Up awards were on hand Saturday, June 8 to receive their grants, but those who were happily accepted for their organizations. (L-R) John Schloot, Sue Hakes, Mary Sanders, Karl Hansen, Barb Gervais, Suzan From, Nicky Boostrom, Jennifer Spearing and AECI presenter of awards, Jenny Kartes.
Saturday morning, June 8, was busy at the Cook County High School cafeteria as the Cook County High School softball team fed about 175 people gathered for the 60th annual Arrowhead Electric Cooperative Inc. (AECI) meeting hosted by co-op employees and its board of directors.
When breakfast was done everyone headed to the Arrowhead Center for the Arts auditorium where they gathered to hear the annual report and find out who was elected to the board of directors. Winners of the three open seats were Les Edinger, District 3; Scott Harrison, District 6; and Tom Spence, District 7.
“We’ve come a long way in 60 years,” said Joe Buttweiler, who gave the annual report for AECI.
“There have been a lot of changes, some for the better, some for the worse. But we’re always looking to the future and hope to make it better for our members,” said Buttweiler.
AECI has nearly 4,000 members and maintains over 600 miles of distribution lines in Cook County.
Buttweiler noted that energy was much cheaper in the early 2000s when there was a building boom, but “then people stopped building houses and as the demand for electric energy went down or stayed flat, the cost to produce it went up. Electricity like milk, bread, gas, it went up. And no, we weren’t happy about it.”
But Buttweiler said Arrowhead’s rates should raise less than 1 percent for 2014.
“That’s about the best anyone could have hoped for,” he said.
As far as meeting statemandated green energy standards, Buttweiler said AECI is right on track with 12 percent of the energy sold to them by Great River Energy generated from wind turbines. By 2025, the state’s mandate is to have 25 percent of AEC’s energy come from green resources, said Buttweiler.
When he brought up broadband, Buttweiler said, “This is the third annual meeting we’ve talked about broadband and not one person has service today. I don’t want to make any promises about when people will start receiving service because I’ve already done that and been wrong. But I do think it will be this year. I truly think it will be this year.”
The 13 employees at AECI are, said Buttweiler, “working our tails off to build and deliver this [broadband] service and make it as cost-efficient and reliable as we can for decades to come.”
With 95 percent of the work done in Tofte and Schroeder and Mastec crews and Bautch construction crews digging in and placing the underground cable in Grand Marais and the Pike Lake area, Buttweiler said, “It’s our goal to get all of the construction done this year. But that will depend on the weather.
“Then, before the system is up and running, it will be tested to make sure everything operates correctly before switching the service on.”
While computer and telephone hookups will be immediately available, TV service will have to wait. Buttweiler said the provider ended up being too expensive so AECI is looking for a new company to partner with.
While prices aren’t set in stone, right now AECI is looking at charging $46.95 for Internet service and $15.95 for phone service. They are also looking at offering a bundling rate, such as $5 off per month if a customer purchases two or more services, said Buttweiler.
Snowbirds will also be able to suspend services for a fee, but that hasn’t been determined yet. And the suspension(s) can’t be one week on, one week off, one week on, said Buttweiler.
“Any customer of AECI will be able to receive broadband. We will bring it to your house and hook it up and come and talk to you about our services. If you have questions, feel free to stop in to the office and ask them. We will be putting more information on Facebook, on Boreal Access and on our e-newsletter in the near future,” said Buttweiler.
Finally, Buttweiler took questions, and explained that AECI was not formally changing its name but would now refer to itself as Arrowhead Cooperative.
“We will continue to focus on electricity. But broadband is a much bigger deal than we have ever done before. We don’t want people to just think of us as an electric utility, because we’re more than that now,” said Buttweiler.
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