Buckeye Rural Electric Cooperative

Co-op Spotlight: Buckeye Rural Electric Cooperative

aspecht — Mon, 03 May 2021 14:07:07 +0000

Co-op Spotlight: Buckeye Rural Electric Cooperative

May 3, 2021

Operating from Rio Grande, Buckeye Rural Electric Cooperative covers an expansive territory in southern Ohio, serving 18,562 consumer-members in nine counties: Athens, Gallia, Jackson, Lawrence, Meigs, Pike, Ross, Scioto, and Vinton. Buckeye REC’s territory is in the Ohio Appalachians, one of the most scenic parts of the state. The area’s rolling hills and mountains and natural flora and fauna are unmatched for beauty in any season.

Buckeye REC’s territory encompasses portions of Wayne National Forest, the only national forest in Ohio, which covers over a quarter-million acres of unglaciated terrain in the Appalachian foothills of southeastern Ohio. The forest offers opportunities for outdoors enthusiasts to pursue their passions, including mountain biking, camping, fishing, horseback riding, ATV riding, boating, archery, canoeing and kayaking, or even just soaking in nature’s spectacular sights.

Working for business

Buckeye REC proudly supports economic development and job creation within the community.

In 2019, Buckeye REC was awarded a $2.5 million grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission POWER Initiative that will provide funds for fiber optic cable to connect cooperative substations in six counties and pave the way for future broadband expansion to members from internet service providers.
Additionally, Buckeye REC recently provided an economic development grant through Ohio’s Electric Cooperatives for site work needed to obtain “construction-ready” SiteOhio authentication at the Dan Evans Industrial Park II, which will allow potential developers to immediately build on the site. The cooperative also used site readiness grant funds to prepare their 13-acre Echo Valley substation property for future development.

Community

From offering school visits and teaching electrical safety, to partnering with the Red Cross for a blood drive, Buckeye REC participates in programs to benefit all members of their communities. Buckeye even donated a bucket truck to Buckeye Hills Career Center for use in the center’s power lineman training program.

Through the electric cooperative Youth Tour, Buckeye REC sends a high school student to Washington, D.C., each year to learn about our nation. Scholarships for high school seniors (including a recently introduced technical scholarship) provide assistance for children of members to pursue higher education. This past holiday season, when Gallia County Local Schools was unable to hold its annual food drive, Buckeye Rural employees helped fill the need by donating cash to cover the cost of feeding seven families — all part of the co-op’s guiding principle of Concern for Community.

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Buckeye Rural Electric Cooperative

Economic partners: Co-ops spur growth in their communities

hgraffice — Wed, 24 Jun 2020 14:16:51 +0000

Economic partners: Co-ops spur growth in their communities

June 28, 2018

Laura Newpoff and Jeff McCallister

Power Lines

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.”

Adding a washing facility at Buschur’s location in the Marion Industrial Park would allow him to hire as many as 10 new employees. He knew the local electric cooperative, Midwest Electric, of which both he and his business are members, administers a loan fund that can help out with exactly that kind of opportunity. So, along with his own equity and that of his business partner in Pennsylvania, Buschur was able to secure much of the financing for the $1 million facility from a local bank, a bit more from the Mercer County Economic Development Office, and the rest from the Midwest Electric Revolving Loan Fund, which has provided nearly $2 million in low-interest financing to spur economic development since its first loan to the Village of St. Henry 10 years ago.

“There are so many examples where Midwest Electric has been a key partner for us making development happen,” says Jared Ebbing, Mercer County’s economic development director. “Without the co-op as a key collaborator, for example, this whole industrial park would still be a cornfield in the middle of nowhere.”

Attraction and retention

The way Midwest Electric is improving the quality of life for businesses, residents, and workers around it is emblematic of the partnerships that the state’s electric co-ops have with economic development officials across Ohio.

One of the most significant components of this relationship is how the electric co-ops work in conjunction with JobsOhio and its regional partners: Columbus 2020, Regional Growth Partnership, Appalachian Partnership for Economic Growth, Dayton Development Coalition, and Team NEO. The electric co-ops have created a program to further relationships with their local economic development partners by providing grants for site assistance and community development.

Katy Farber, vice president of the Appalachian Partnership for Economic Growth, says the co-op grant money is invaluable for business investment and job creation.

“Many of our rural communities don’t have the money to perform the studies or assessments that are needed as part of the due diligence for these sites,” Farber says. “Having a ready site, with everything documented, gives us a good shot at siting a project.”

The grants have helped the Appalachian Partnership with two recent locations: Buckeye Rural Electric supported the Dan Evans Industrial Park in Gallia County, and South Central Power Company assisted the Leesburg Industrial Park in Highland County.

“Those sites will go for attraction projects, but I’m also working with one landlocked company that wants to expand significantly,” Farber says. “They may look at putting an additional facility at one of these locations that’s nearby. We think about the grants for attracting new businesses, but they could be for attracting new investment and job growth from our existing businesses, too.”

Community commitment

Dennis Mingyar, director of economic development at Buckeye Power, the generation company that provides electricity to Ohio’s electric cooperatives, says the co-ops will soon begin awarding smaller grants for other programs that will help business and community development in electric cooperative-served areas.

“It’s easy for a community to find money for infrastructure development, but much harder to find that softer money, for example, to create a marketing plan,” Mingyar says. “We’re trying to fill a niche. Communities can take advantage of programs to perform an environmental cleanup, but our funds will help pay for the study itself. This program helps to satisfy unmet needs in the community.”

Beyond the grant money and the services co-ops offer businesses, there’s a deeper connection that’s measured by the value of relationships. The co-ops are locally owned, locally controlled, and locally operated — meaning they know the challenges that their members face and are able to work more closely with them to find fixes.

“If you’re trying to start or expand a business, you’re important,”Mingyar says. “You can get to a person at the co-op and say, ‘I’m trying to start a brewery, a restaurant, or other business,’ and because we understand our communities, we’re going to work with you closer because we view you as a partner.”

Powered by co-ops

Buckeye Power’s business consumer-members range in size and complexity from mom-and-pop storefronts to Fortune 500 industrial giants. A few Ohio businesses and facilities proudly served by electric cooperatives in Ohio:

Honda of America manufacturing plants: the Marysville Auto Plant, Anna Engine Plant, and Honda Transmission.
The Kroger Great Lakes Distribution Center, which employs 800 associates and annually distributes 1.3 million tons of grocery product to 260 stores. The Iams Pet Food Company’s Leipsic manufacturing plant for dry pet food, one of only four U.S. plants.
The Avon Products, Inc., distribution center, which handles more than 50 percent of Avon’s U.S. distribution.
Ohio Fresh Eggs, which houses 2.2 million laying hens and helps Ohio rank second nationally in egg production.

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Midwest Electric

power generation

Buckeye Rural Electric Cooperative

South Central Power

Apples: Everybody has a favorite

hgraffice — Wed, 24 Jun 2020 12:44:10 +0000

Apples: Everybody has a favorite

August 30, 2018

Margie Wuebker

Co-op People

Clusters of apples begin to decorate trees in Dennis Thatcher’s orchard throughout each spring and early summer, promising the reward of sweet fruit and jugs of freshly pressed cider in the fall.

Thatcher and his wife, Angela, who reside in rural western Logan County and who are members of Logan County Electric Cooperative, established Thatcher Farm in 1972, when he planted a few apple trees. Today, the farm has more than 420 trees that produce 25 varieties.

“Everybody has a favorite,” Thatcher says. “Some claim one variety is better for sauce and another is better for baking, and others have their own opinions.”

The telephone starts ringing around Labor Day as prospective customers begin inquiring when different varieties will be ready for purchase. Summer Rambo, a tart variety that Thatcher recommends for pie and other baking, is the first to reach maturity at Thatcher’s, in late August. Many of the other varieties will be ready for picking in mid-to-late September.

Maybe more so even than for those apples, Thatcher’s is known for its cider. Pressing begins in early October, and Thatcher admits he is fanatical about all steps of the process.

“If I’m going to drink it, the cider has to be clean,” he says. “We pick our apples off the tree and do not use fallen apples that could introduce contaminants.”

Volunteers inspect each apple and cut away any bad spots. The fruit is then washed twice before heading to the 3-ton press. Thatcher uses a mixture of sweet, semisweet, and tart apples for cider, tweaking the recipe as the season progresses to compensate for subtle flavor changes. The introduction of a tart variety like Granny Smith not only cuts the sweetness, but boosts the rich apple flavor.

Work begins long before dawn with sterilization of all equipment used in the process. The actual pressing does not take place until 6 or 7 at night — when there are no customers around to stir up dust, and insects have settled down for the day.

Each pressing yields 90 to 110 gallons of cider, which is strained through ultra-fine Dacron fabric to remove sediment, then stored at precisely 38 degrees for 24 hours before being pumped into plastic jugs for sale. The resting period is important to let any starch present in the cider turn to sugar.

Thatcher does not pasteurize the cider, because he claims the process ruins a natural product and requires the use of preservatives, additives, and coloring. “I sell natural apple cider that will stay at its prime in the refrigerator for 29 days,” he says. “A lot of people buy more than a gallon or two and freeze it for use at a later date. Freezing does not affect the flavor one bit.”

Since Ohio law requires that unpasteurized cider be sold no farther than 50 feet from the location of the press, all of his customers must come to the farm. At times, folks wait in droves until daily sales begin at 3 p.m. during the pressing season, which concludes around Thanksgiving each year. “I don’t have to advertise,” he says. “News of our quality apples and cider spread by word of mouth. People come to us and they are not disappointed.”

Where to pick ’em

The following is a sampling of family orchards around Ohio electric cooperative territory:

Bachman Sunny Hill Fruit Farm, 3850 Pickerington Road, Carroll, 740-756-7572 (South Central Power Company)
Brumbaugh Fruit Farm, 6420 Arcanum-Hollansburg Road, Arcanum, 937-692-8084 (Darke Rural Electric Cooperative)
Charlie’s Apples at Windy Hill Apple Farm, 1740 Sportsman Club Road, Newark, 740-587-3632 (The Energy Cooperative)
Clark’s Orchard, 20768 Township Road 164 (Morgan Run Road), Coshocton, 740-622-1881 (Pioneer Electric Cooperative)
Fruit-Full Acres, 18680 Bellville Road, Marysville, 937-642-6961 (Union Rural Electric Cooperative)
Geckle Orchard, 8729 Township Road 258, Alvada, 419-387-7305 (Hancock-Wood Electric Cooperative)
Haslinger Orchards, 7404 U.S. Route 6, Gibsonburg,
419-288-2567 (Hancock-Wood Electric Cooperative)
Heartland Orchard, 13029 Laurel Hill Road, Thornville, 740-787-1353 (The Energy Cooperative)
Hillcrest Orchard, 2474 Township Road 444, Sugarcreek, 330-893-9906 (Holmes-Wayne Electric Cooperative)
Laurelville Fruit Farm, 16181 Pike Street, Laurelville, 740-332-2621 (South Central Power Company)
Legend Hills Orchard, 11335 Reynolds Road, Utica, 740-892-3090 (The Energy Cooperative)
Moreland Fruit Farm, 1558 W. Moreland Road, Wooster, 330-264-8735 (Holmes-Wayne Electric Cooperative)
Reed Orchards, 33245 Clendening Lake Road, Freeport, 740-658-4466 (South Central Power Company)
Remerowski Orchards, 4035 Idle Road (off State Route 29 NW), Urbana, 937-362-3927 (Pioneer Electric Cooperative)
Richards Brothers Fruit Farm, 2054 Orpheus Road, Thurman, 740-286-4584 (Buckeye Rural Electric Cooperative)
Volk Fruit Farm, 5782 Addison New Carlisle Road, Casstown, 937-857-9300 (Pioneer Electric Cooperative)
Yeary Orchards, 11195 Yeary Road, Adamsville, 740-796-5922 (Guernsey-Muskingum Electric Cooperative)

Tags

Ohio attractions

Logan County Electric Cooperative

South Central Power

Darke Rural Electric Cooperative

The Energy Cooperative

Pioneer Electric Cooperative

Union Rural Electric Cooperative

Hancock-Wood Electric Cooperative

Holmes-Wayne Electric Cooperative

Buckeye Rural Electric Cooperative

Guernsey-Muskingum Electric Cooperative

Power protectors

aspecht — Tue, 16 Jun 2020 18:12:57 +0000

Power protectors

June 27, 2020

Hunter Graffice

Power Lines

It’s a common sight, especially during the spring and summer growing season — crews cutting away tree limbs and foliage that have gotten too close to nearby power lines.

Though the work is often arduous, the lineworkers conducting right-of-way (ROW) maintenance are an essential part of providing safe, affordable, and reliable electricity to consumer-members. “The ROW workers are the protectors of the power lines,” says Ken Hunter, line superintendent for The Frontier Power Company, the Coshocton-based electric distribution cooperative. “Without them, nothing else could function.”

Generally, anything within a set distance on either side of the lines, as well as above and below the lines, must come down to prevent contact — especially when storms roll through. Without ROW maintenance, obtrusive branches and limbs often can be blown into the lines, creating dangerous and costly power outages.

That maintenance generally involves co-op employees or contractors who maneuver alongside power lines in a bucket truck and remove vegetation with a chainsaw. However, when the foliage becomes too thick or terrain is impassable, they may need to call in less-traditional measures.

Frontier Power, for example, uses a spray crew, which carries a 200- to 300-gallon tank of water and chemicals used to regulate the growth. The real marvel, though, is a machine called the Jarraff — a long-necked tool that looks like something straight out of a Dr. Seuss book. The Jarraff moves on either all-terrain tires or tracks and has a neck that extends up to 75 feet with a 24-inch, 180-degree-rotating precision saw blade attached.

Hunter says the Jarraff is the most cost-effective method available, considering the terrain involved. “The crew can cover about 1,000 feet per day, far more than could be done with chainsaws and a bucket truck.”

While the giraffe-inspired machine is efficient, it does have its drawbacks. The machine can only be used to cut trees on the sides of wires, leaving trees under the power lines for workers and tree cutters. In that case, workers climb trees with chainsaws, handsaws, and rope to remove the encroaching foliage. “We do the same thing every day, but everything is different as to how you do it,” says Hunter.

In southeast Ohio, Rio Grande-based Buckeye Rural Electric Cooperative uses an even more dramatic method to reach areas that would otherwise be completely inaccessible. A helicopter dangles an enormous chainsaw and flies alongside power lines to eliminate overgrown brush and foliage.

The chainsaw’s side-trim blade allows the helicopter to remove overhang around the power lines, while the angled saw can cut down dead or dangerous trees. Ed Mollohan, vice president of operations at Buckeye Rural, says the helicopter is incredibly expensive, but saves a lot of time. “What takes the helicopter a week to do would take a ground crew six months.”

Not only that, but the operators are so skilled that they can cut down trees using the angled saw without anything falling on the power lines. “There’s definitely a lot more reward than risk,” Mollohan says. “The use of the helicopter reduces outages significantly. We cut 3,000 trees off of right-of-way last year and about two-thirds of that was done by the helicopter.” The helicopters are often used in thick valleys and hills or national forests to reduce damage to nature that a truck might cause.

The helicopter cannot be used near homes or roads, and it has a few drawbacks: one, it’s costly; it’s also potentially dangerous, though new features allow the saw to detach from its tether when it gets caught or hung up, which significantly increases the safety of the pilot and helicopter itself.

Mollohan says the helicopter has been the co-op’s most effective tool in battling the emerald ash borer, a beetle whose larvae kill ash trees. Hundreds of trees killed by the ash borer have had to be cut down so they don’t fall on power lines.

Mount Gilead-based Consolidated Cooperative employs an arborist on staff to help with ROW planning and healthy trimming practices. The arborist, David Tidd, says part of his job is to ensure the protection of trees as much as possible. “All of our specifications are done to International Society of Arboriculture standards, which means we do our best to make proper pruning cuts that are in the best interest of the tree.”

While some members occasionally object to having trees cut to maintain the ROW, Tidd says it’s always done carefully and with a plan. “We just received our 11th annual award from the Arbor Day Foundation for meeting safe and healthy cutting requirements. We don’t go out and remove just any old tree; we identify the specific needs and removals that are necessary. Our cutting is about what’s healthiest for the tree, and that’s not just simply doing what looks the prettiest.”

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right-of-way

Frontier Power Company

Buckeye Rural Electric Cooperative

Consolidated Cooperative