Midwest Electric

Around Sunbury, when Lanie Montgomery shows up at a potluck, folks inevitably find something a bit familiar about the dish she brings.

“We rarely had them at home, but we always had it in the school cafeteria,” she says. “When my grandma retired, I asked her for the recipe, and from then on, I carried it out more into the public. Every potluck I take it to — it’s gone. And everybody wants the recipe.”

Lake (Credit: Getty Images)

Midwest Electric, Inc., is situated in west-central Ohio, based in St. Marys. The cooperative serves 11,000 homes, farms, and businesses in Allen, Auglaize, Mercer, Van Wert, Shelby, Putnam, and Darke counties. One of the area’s most notable landmarks is Grand Lake in Celina and St. Marys, a man-made lake that attracts thousands of visitors every year with fishing tournaments, marinas, and lakefront restaurants. Grand Lake was originally built to supply water to the Miami and Erie Canal.

Tim Kuenning carving with chainsaw

Tim Kuenning looks at a bark-covered log and envisions a design — a majestic eagle, a plump jack-o’-lantern, a bowlegged cowboy with saddle in hand, a hungry seagull perched on a dock waiting for lunch to swim by. Soon, his vision materializes amid a shower of sawdust.

“I carve things in all shapes and sizes,” he says. “However, people are happiest when I do eagles.”

Kuenning, a member of St. Marys-based Midwest Electric, remembers watching a chainsaw artist — a Stihl factory representative — demonstrate how to make rustic chairs and larger-than-life mushrooms with well-placed swipes of the blade.

“I told my wife I could do better than that, and I went to work proving it,” he says. “There has been a lot of practice during the ensuing years — it’s something you have to learn on your own, because no one offers classes on the subject.”

Carol and Tom Schlueter smile together in front of their Freedom Train.

Folks throughout western Ohio — in and around the area served by Midwest Electric — have become accustomed to seeing the Freedom Train chugging around area fairs and festivals.

With a vintage Coca-Cola bell clanging and small American flags flapping in the summer breeze, the train transports youngsters and adults along midways, across parking areas, and even through livestock barns.

New Knoxville-area resident and longtime co-op member Gary Katterheinrich created the 65-foot train 10 years ago after he retired as manager of Neil Armstrong Airport.

Dave and Danielle Buschur smile together for a photo.

Dave Buschur saw the opportunity for his business; he just wasn’t sure he could take advantage of it. Buschur is president of Buschur’s Custom Farm Service in Maria Stein, which, among other services, hauls poultry, swine, manure, and grain for area farmers.

“We saw a need for a bio-secure automatic washing facility for trucks and trailers,” Buschur says. “It’s not a requirement, it’s just good practice to decontaminate after every run — you sure don’t want to be the reason anyone’s birds get sick — and there’s nothing else like this around for 500 miles.”

Barry Wisniewski smiles as he gives a safety demonstration to a young attendee.

Being a lineman is more than a profession; it’s a description of self, according to these men who have more than just their jobs in common — they share a wealth of stories, a knack for troubleshooting, and an often unspoken but consistently unshakeable dedication.

Linemen spell OHIO with their arms and surround a woman holding an Ohio State Buckeyes banner.

Chuck Chafin has worked on electric lines with the South Central Power Company for 18 years, during which time he’s seen his share of power outages and general destruction both in Ohio, and beyond, caused by extremes in weather.

So while he wasn’t particularly surprised at the damage that he and 72 other lineworkers and supervisors from Ohio’s electric cooperative network found in Georgia in the wake of Hurricane Irma in early September, it still presented a big job.

Chris Weaver, chief operating officer at Bridgewater Dairy in Montpelier, stands next to his cows.

Bridgewater Dairy, a family farm in Montpelier, Ohio, has 3,000 dairy cows that produce 30,000 gallons of milk daily. They also produce an estimated 15 million gallons of manure each year.

A decade ago, Chris Weaver, Bridgewater Dairy’s chief operating officer, started turning his farm’s animal waste into something valuable — electricity — by installing an anaerobic digester.

“I wanted to manage the animals’ manure with an eye to helping the environment,” Weaver says. “I also wanted to improve the comfort of my cows. An anaerobic digester lets me do both.”

Kathy Fleenor, a pediatric physical therapist from the early-intervention division of Butler County Board of Developmental Disabilities, helps Lucas walk on the infant treadmill for the first time.

Not-for-profit electric cooperatives have a responsibility not only to fulfill the needs of their consumer-members, but to help their neighbors in need. To that end, Operation Round Up was born.

Operation Round Up is a voluntary program in which more than 200 electric cooperatives across the country participate, including most Ohio electric cooperatives. The programs go by different names, but they all operate under the same premise: Small change makes a big impact in communities all across Ohio.