Grundy Electric Cooperative
A newsletter for our members
Call 811
before you dig!
September 2016
4100 Oklahoma Avenue, Trenton, MO 64683 l Telephone Toll Free & 24 Hour Outage: 1-800-279-2249 l www.grundyec.com l Like us on Facebook & Twitter
Grundy Electric Cooperative Hosts Annual Membership Meeting
A
large crowd attended Grundy
Electric Cooperative’s Annual
Membership Meeting held August 11,
2016 at the Trenton R-IX High School in
Trenton, Missouri. Prior to the business
meeting, over 440 members and guests
enjoyed the evening meal served by
the Grundy County 4-H members and
entertainment by The Marks Family
from Jefferson City.
Members also browsed the
information booths and visited
with employees of Grundy Electric
Cooperative and Mid-States Services,
LLC. Various booths exhibited products
and services available to GEC members.
The GEC Community Foundation, Inc.
booth included information on grants
and Operation Round Up.
Prior to the business meeting, GEC
Community Foundation President
Cliff Addison presented 15 fourth
quarter grants, totaling $8,818.04 to
recipients. GEC Board President Dan
Lentz presented a plaque to retired
GEC Community Foundation Trustee
Glenda Homedale of Princeton. Lentz
praised Homedale for her service and
volunteering as a Trustee over the past
12 years.
Boy Scout Troop #99 presented
the colors and led the Pledge of
Allegiance to the American flag. GEC
Office Manager Cathy McKay gave the
invocation.
Grundy Electric Cooperative Board
President Dan Lentz presided over the
business meeting. Lentz welcomed and
thanked members for their attendance
and participation in the Cooperative’s
annual business meeting. Lentz shared
results from the member satisfaction
(ACSI) phone survey completed last fall.
President Lentz also announced that the
board of directors approved a capital
credit refund representing 100% of
the remaining year of 1983 and 25% of
2015 totaling $212,368. Capital credit
checks will be provided to members
during member day events scheduled
during the month of October.
General Manager Scott Wilson
thanked members for their commitment
to the cooperative by attending their
Annual Membership Meeting. Wilson
stated that Grundy Electric was guided
by 7 Cooperative Principles: open
membership, democratic control,
member’s economic participation,
independence, education and training,
cooperation among cooperatives and
above all concern for community. He
presented “Years-of-Service” Awards
to six employees. Wilson talked to the
members about, a new informational
campaign, “Energy Fairness Down The
Lines”. This initiative was established to
educate members of the importance
that everyone who uses the electric
grid pay their fair share of its costs.
Manager Wilson stated, “I want to be
clear, we are not anti-solar or antirenewable energy. A total of 20 percent
of members’ power is generated with
renewable energy (12% wind and
8% hydropower). The price paid for
electricity just needs to be fair for all
members.”
Guest speakers were GEC’s Youth
Tour Delegates, Emma Novak of Galt
and Katie Dailey of Mercer and
C.Y.C.L.E. Youth Leadership delegate
Nesa Leeper of Princeton and Missouri
Institute of Cooperatives delegate
Mariah Fox of Trenton (Dale Bagley of
Princeton was unable to attend). The
youth delegates thanked memberowners for the opportunity to attend
the 2016 leadership conferences.
Members elected two directors to
each serve a 3-year term. Incumbent
Eric Woodard of Trenton, representing
Area #1 was re-elected. Incumbent Joe
Hartley of Mercer, representing Area #4
was re-elected.
After the business meeting, Peggy
Boulware presided over the prize
drawings which included six $200
electric bill credits and five gifts donated
by employees of Grundy Electric and
Mid-States Services, LLC. Three area
youth were awarded Kindle Fire tablets
from an electrical safety coloring
contest.
Grundy Electric Cooperative directors
held a re-organizational meeting in
which the following officers were
elected: Dan Lentz, President; Joe
Hartley, Vice President; Marvin Harding,
Secretary; Eric Woodard, Assistant
Secretary and Richard Moore, Treasurer.
Other board members include: Tom
Ewing, Alan Guernsey, and Adrian Cox.
Apprentice Linemen Attend Training
Mace Ormsby
Mason Larson
Mace Ormsby and Mason Larson, apprentice linemen of Grundy Electric
Cooperative, Trenton, attended Underground School at the Association
of Missouri Electric Cooperative (AMEC) Training Center in Jefferson
City. The purpose of this school is to train cooperative linemen in safe
procedures while working with high voltage underground electrical lines and
equipment.
Instruction included underground troubleshooting, cable locating and
fault finding, protective grounding, cable preparations, cable splicing and
termination and proper tool usage.
Representatives of White River Valley Electric Cooperative, Three Rivers
Electric Cooperative, Cleaves Bessmer Marietti,
Inc., Rauckman High Voltage Sales, LLC, Missouri
One Call System, Fletcher-Reinhardt Service
Company, Vermeer Midwest, Thomas & Betts, as
well as AMEC personnel, served as instructors for
the school.
Ormsby is a Trenton resident and Larson
resides in rural Laredo.
AMEC is the service organization for the
state’s 47 electric cooperatives that serves more
than 560,000 rural Missourians.
In this issue:
Page 3 Inside Wrap
sAnnual Meeting Highlights
Page 4 Outside Wrap
sCYCLE Delegates Attend Conference
sGEC Community Foundation Grants
SEPTEMBER 2016
THE OLD FARMER’S
Read all about it!
O
n Sept. 3, 1833, publisher
Benjamin Day distributed the
first issue of his New York
newspaper, The Sun, a four-page
daily selling for one penny. Day gave
New Yorkers what he thought they
wanted: sensational accounts of
crime and horror, human-interest
stories and no politics. One of the
first things Day did was to run this ad in
his second issue: “To the unemployed
— A number of steady men can find
employment by vending this paper. A
liberal discount is allowed to those
who buy to sell again.” Ten-yearold Barney Flaherty responded, was
hired, and became the first “paper
boy.”
Grandma Moses
G
randma Moses was born on Sept. 7, 1860.
She was a farmer’s wife who lived near
Hoosick Falls, N.Y. In her late 70s, she
decided to take up painting and displayed one of
her “primitives” in a drugstore window in town.
An art collector happened to see it and traced her
to her farm, where he bought all 15 of her existing
paintings. He exhibited them in 1939 in a show of
contemporary unknown painters in New York City.
Her fame began.
WEATHER
PROVERBS
Fair on Sept. 1, fair
for the month.
September dries up
ditches or breaks
down bridges.
Autumnal Equinox
T
his year’s autumnal equinox
occurs at 10:09 p.m.
Central Daylight Time
on Sept. 22. It is said that
the wind and weather at
the time of the equinoxes
foretells the wind and
weather during the following
three months. If the autumn
is warm, it is reputed that the
winter will be long. If there’s
much autumn fog, there will
be much winter snow. If the
autumn is clear, the winter
will be windy. If the storms
of September clear off warm,
however, you can expect the winter
storms to be relatively warm as well.
For recipes, gardening tips and weather forecasts, visit:
www.almanac.com
Recipe for
Quick and Easy Cupcakes
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1-1/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2-1/4 cups flour
2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup milk
H
eat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin tin with paper liners. Cream the butter and
sugar, then beat in the eggs. Add the vanilla. Sift the dry ingredients and add, alternately,
with milk. Fill paper liners no more than two-thirds full. Bake for about 20 minutes or until
lightly browned. Frost as desired. Makes 12 cupcakes.
www.almanac.com
If St. Michael (Sept.
29) brings many
acorns, Christmas
will cover the fields
with snow.
If red the sun begins
his race, be sure the
rain will fall apace.
Dew is produced in
serene weather and in
calm places.
When pigs carry
straw to their sties,
bad weather may
come.
When the bubbles of
coffee collect in the
center of the cup,
expect fair weather.
Annual Meeting Highlights
Local Delegates
Attend C.Y.C.L.E.
Leadership Program
GEC Community Foundation, Inc. Awarded over
$8,800 to Local Schools and an Organization
Grundy Electric
Cooperative
Missouri Electric Co-op Youth Program
means education and fun
Business Hours:
Monday - Friday
7:30 AM - 4:30 PM
Contact us:
4100 Oklahoma Avenue
Trenton, MO 64683
Toll Free & 24 Hour Outage:
1-800-279-2249
The GEC Community Foundation, Inc. presented their fourth quarter grants to
recipients prior the Grundy Electric Cooperative Annual Meeting on August 11, 2016
at the Trenton High School. Pictured front row, left to right are Haylee Ruff and Sara
Carmichael. Middle row, left to right, Katie Daily, Sariah Williams, Kim Terhune, Melanie
Baxter, Kerissa Carmichael, and Tammy Meeker. Back row, left to right, Foundation
President Cliff Addison, Cynthia Fish, Megan Martin, Sheila Harding, Debra Young,
Wendy Johnson, Tamie Miller, and Linda Hague.
Local delegates represented GEC at the
Missouri Electric Cooperative C.Y.C.L.E. leadership
conference. Pictured from left is Dale Bagley and
Nesa Leeper, both of Princeton.
Dale Bagley and Nesa Leeper, both of
Princeton, sponsored by Grundy Electric
Cooperative, Trenton, were among the 108
high school students from across Missouri
who participated in the Missouri Electric
Cooperative CYCLE program. CYCLE stands
for Cooperative Youth Conference and
Leadership Experience. The conference
was held July 20-22, 2016, in Jefferson
City. Bagley is the son of Dennis and Judy
Bagley of Princeton and Miss Leeper is the
granddaughter of Margaret and Larry Leeper
of Princeton and Lela and Marion Hughs of
rural Trenton.
Each year in July, an action-filled three days
provides high school students opportunities
to learn first-hand what it is like to be involved
in politics, the cooperative form of business
and being a leader. The program included
nationally known speakers and a day at the
Missouri State Capitol learning how a bill
goes through the process to become a law. To
learn more about electric cooperatives, the
group was divided up into small teams that
competed in various events like the “build
a cooperative” game. Another highlight
was hearing from the Rachel’s Challenge
Organization. Rachel Scott was the first
student killed in the Columbine High School
tragedy on April 20, 1999. Today, her family
and friends speak to youth around the world
about Rachel’s legacy of being a positive role
model to everyone she met in life.
The CYCLE program is in its 13th year and
is a recipient of the National Community
Youth Service award for the top youth
program among all electric cooperatives in
the country. For more information, contact
Grundy Electric Cooperative Corporate
Development Manager Peggy Boulware at
[email protected].
T
he Trustees of the GEC Community Foundation, Inc. met July 13,
2016 and awarded 17 grants totaling $8,818.04. All grants are
funded by member donations called Operation Round Up; members
voluntarily round up their utility bills each month to fund education,
health and rural development grants to eligible entities.
The fourth quarter grants were presented prior to Grundy
Electric Cooperative’s Annual Meeting August 11, 2016 at GEC’s
Annual Meeting held at Trenton High School. Recipients included
the Cainsville R-I School District, Cainsville; Grundy County R-V
School District, Humphreys; Laredo R-VII Elementary School, Laredo;
Princeton R-V School District, Princeton; Newtown-Harris R-III School
District, Newtown; Ridgeway R-V School District, Ridgeway; North
Mercer R-III School District, Mercer; Trenton R-IX School District,
Trenton; Gilman City R-IV School District, Gilman City; South Harrison
R-II School District and Girl Scout Troop 8279 of Bethany.
Since 2005, the GEC Community Foundation, Inc. has awarded
503 grants totaling $313,636.20 to deserving schools and community
organizations. The Foundation assists qualifying schools and
organizations with grant monies in the areas of education, health
and rural development. The funds are open to eligible entities
within Grundy Electric Cooperative’s 12 county service area which
includes Harrison, Mercer and Grundy counties and portions of Linn,
Livingston, Daviess, Gentry, Putnam, and Sullivan counties in Missouri
and portions of Ringgold, Wayne and Decatur counties in Iowa.
The Foundation, which is operated on a volunteer basis, is funded
through the Operation Round Up Program. This program allows GEC
members and customers of the Public Water Supply District Number
1 of Grundy County to voluntarily “round up” their utility bill to the
next even dollar. The PWSD Round-Up funds are disbursed solely to
projects located in Grundy County. For an average of $6 per year,
participating GEC members and PWSD #1 customers assist in funding
local community projects.
The next grant application deadline is September 26, 2016.
Qualified applicants must be a non-profit 501 (c) (3) organization
or other eligible entity and may apply for a grant by completing a
grant application with supporting information. Grant applications
are available at www.grundyec.com or by calling Grundy Electric
Cooperative at 1-800-279-2249, extension 23 or 33.
Thank you Member-Owners,
for allowing us to serve you!
Keep up to date about GEC’s
services and
Cooperative news @
www.grundyec.com
Electric bills due upon receipt.
Delinquent after the 25th.
Management:
General Manager Office Manager
Operations Manager
Marketing Manager IT Manager
Scott Wilson
Cathy McKay
J.D. Pash
Peggy Boulware
Troy Slagle
Directors:
President Vice President
Secretary
Treasurer
Asst. Secretary
Director
Director
Director
Dan Lentz
Joe Hartley
Marvin Harding
Richard Moore
Eric Woodard
Tom Ewing
Alan Guernsey
Adrian Cox
This institution is an equal opportunity
provider and employer.
Like us on Facebook
@grundyelectric
HOW TO Report
An Outage:
Notify us of a power outage
after business hours by
calling: 1-800-279-2249
Help us restore power safely;
be aware of our service vehicles
parked along roadways.
Call Grundy Electric to report
any unsafe conditions: sparking
lines, broken poles, downed
power lines.
Important Safety
Reminders:
l Always treat downed power
lines as if they are energized!
l Power lines Overhead...
Look Up and Live!