Arrowhead Electric’s new General Manager Jeanne Muntean has been with the cooperative for nearly 30 years. She is looking forward to her new role.
On an exceptionally busy Monday at the Arrowhead Electric Cooperative Inc. (AECI) headquarters in Lutsen, newly appointed General Manager Jeanne Muntean took a few minutes to talk to the Cook County News-Herald
about her new role at the cooperative. Still in the office she has worked in for three years as assistant manager, Muntean reflected on the path to her current job and shared her thoughts for the future of the co-op.
Muntean, a Little Marais native, moved to the Twin Cities after graduating from high school and worked there for four years. She returned to the North Shore and began her career at Arrowhead Electric in 1981. She was hired to work the co-op reception area by then-Manager Larry Backstrom. She answered phones and assisted customers with questions about new services—and manned the dispatch radio. “From day one the radio was by my desk,” she recalled.
In 1992, Muntean moved to the Operations Department, where she learned about the cooperative’s inventory and easements, and gathered information for construction work plans. She still helped with new services and still acted as dispatcher.
It was in the Operations Department that Muntean probably received some of her most valuable training for her eventual management role. Muntean was among the team that worked diligently during the July 1999 windstorm that knocked out miles of lines and left nearly every cooperative customer without power. Muntean facilitated the recovery effort and worked with the 52 extra linemen from Connexus Energy, Utilitrax, and East Central Electric, finding places for those workers to stay and arranging meals for the people in the field. “It was the height of summer, the peak of the tourist season, so it was a challenge,” remembered Muntean.
Long after the lines were repaired and power returned to members, Muntean was still cleaning up after the storm, dealing with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) paperwork. She was given a deadline of December 1999 to complete the FEMA documentation, a challenging deadline, but one she met. The co-op received $2.2 million from FEMA, about 75% of the cost of the storm damage.
There have been other windstorms and ice storms since then, but nothing of that magnitude. “We’ve had outages since, but nothing to compare to that. I hope that never
happens again!” she said emphatically.
In 2002, Muntean became familiar with another aspect of the electric cooperative when she was promoted to office manager. She finally gave up the dispatch radio but remained immersed in customer service while she handled work order closeouts, loan applications, and more.
While she worked as office manager, she set out to earn her National Rural Electric Cooperative Association Manager Certification. She first attended the University of Nebraska, Lincoln to obtain Loss Control/Safety Certification and then enrolled in a management intern program at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. The final requirement for graduation? A presentation on project management. “Mine was on our new building, of course,” smiled Muntean. “It was very timely.”
Muntean received her management certification in February 2007 and that June the project she had presented—renovation and expansion of the Lutsen headquarter building—began. Cooperative employees moved out of the old building, which once housed massive diesel generators, to allow the rehabilitation that led to LEED certification. For a year they worked in trailers on the site as Muntean worked with architects and engineers seeking the most environmentally friendly and best conservation measures for the building. In June 2008, employees moved back into the modern and efficient new building—the first LEED certified building in Cook County to achieve that status.
Muntean was ready to step in as interim manager when Don Stead submitted his resignation on September 24 to move to Homer, Alaska. Muntean expected to serve as interim manager indefinitely as the board of directors considered its next move. At first the board thought it should hire an executive headhunter to recruit candidates, with Muntean of course being considered. However, on November 17, the board named Muntean as the new Arrowhead Electric general manager.
Arrowhead Electric Board President Wayne Anderson explained why the board decided not to wait to appoint Muntean. “We had great confidence in Jeanne when we appointed her as interim manager. When a previous manager left, we had a period of almost two years when she managed and managed very well. But since we had a couple of new board members who didn’t know that, we thought about going ahead with the management search.”
However, seeing Muntean take on the interim role so readily and after noting that since that time, Muntean had completed the required management training, the board agreed not to spend money on a management search. “I don’t know where we would find anyone better,” said Anderson.
Muntean faces some challenges—the cooperative is in the midst of commissioning the reconstruction of the Lutsen substation, which is one reason the co-op was so busy during this interview.
Another challenge is the oversight of the $16,137,484 grant and loan package from the federal government to provide broadband service to residential and commercial members of Arrowhead Electric and to the City of Grand Marais. Muntean said Pulse Broadband is just completing the “walk-out” of the project—looking at all the poles and equipment, taking pictures and conducting GPS mapping, to see what kind of “make-ready” work will need to be done to bring broadband service to all of Cook County. “They did the Gunflint Trail first, which we knew would be the most difficult,” said Muntean. “They are now working in the Cascade area—they saved the easiest for last.”
One of her greatest challenges, said Muntean, will be keeping the rates as low as possible for members. Theco-op has grown drastically in the years she has worked there, from 2,500 services to a little over 4,000. But since the 2008 recession, growth has all but come to a halt, which makes power more expensive for everyone. “This is not unique to Arrowhead; Great River Energy [Arrowhead’s power provider] has seen it in all of its member-cooperatives. With zero growth and increased prices for power, it’s tough. The cost has to be spread over just 4,000 members.”
Based on a recently completed cost-ofservice study, rates have to go up, Muntean said. The 2011 budget is still being worked on, so it is not sure how big the increase will be, but she predicted it would be less than last year when Arrowhead’s own power costs jumped 28%.
Muntean is happy to answer questions from members about finances—especially charges that rate increases came about because the new building has put the cooperative in debt. Not true, said Muntean. The building was funded by the sale of the cooperative’s very successful DIRECTV franchise. “It was $36,000 to buy DIRECTV and we sold it for $2.1 million. That was a pretty good investment for our members.”
Muntean envisions more success for Arrowhead Electric in the future. She has a great team, she said, although she admits it will be tough to delegate all the duties she is used to doing. One of her first tasks is hiring an office manager—a job she was filling as well as assistant manager. “We are working on getting things organized, looking at job descriptions and figuring things out,” she said. “But I have great support from the employees. It takes all of us to make it work.
“The most important thing—the thing I am most excited about as manager—is helping our members. Theyare the reason I have my job, and I am really here for them.”
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