Did you know Butler Rural Electric Cooperative is member-owned and operated? Co-ops are democratic organizations whose members have equal voting rights and can influence policies and decisions by participating in co-op elections. This concept — called Democratic Member Control — is one of the cooperative principles that guide our daily operations.
As your local power provider, Butler Rural Electric Cooperative has always had a simple mission: keep the lights on and support the communities we serve. But behind every switch, every warm home, and every business that opens its doors is a complex system that requires constant care. Reliable electricity requires ongoing investment in our local grid through system repairs, maintenance, upgrades, and the integration of new technologies that help us operate smarter and more efficiently.
On the morning of November 14, 2023, 16-year-old Brynn Goedel was in great spirits, traveling on a charter bus with fellow band members, teachers, and chaperones from Tuscarawas Valley Middle-High School.
That stuck door saved Brynn’s life, says her mother, Danielle Goedel. Brynn was standing in the aisle when a semi-truck loaded with batteries plowed over an SUV and slammed into the back of the bus, obliterating the bathroom she had been trying to enter. The collision threw her forward and ignited a massive fire. When Brynn came to, she was surrounded by flames; the bathroom door was on top of her and she was unable to move. Eventually, the band director and a good Samaritan pulled her from the bus as batteries from the truck continued to explode.
For Abbey Garland, the combination of agriculture and electric cooperatives has shaped not just her interests, but also her future.
Abbey has spent much of her life discovering, through an agricultural lens, how leadership and service can work together, and she says the co-op has been instrumental in her personal and educational development.
Jerry Banks has a green thumb — something to which his family could always attest. Now, so can the residents and staff at Woodland Country Manor in Somerville.
Banks and his wife, Kathy, residents of Somerville and members of Oxford-based Butler Rural Electric Cooperative, always had a home garden but expanded their gardening activities when her parents (Homer and Phoebe Polser) moved to the retirement community not far from the “homeplace.”
“They used to tend a 1½- to 2-acre garden,” Banks says. “He was not one to sit around without getting some dirt on his hands, so Kathy and I thought a garden would help with the transition.”
Peggy Kelly first attended the Ohio Renaissance Festival about 15 years ago.
The festival lasts eight to nine weeks, and Kelly, who is a season passholder, says she’ll typically attend six to eight times during that period. She attends often enough that she says her husband knows exactly where she’s headed if she gets up early — and that she’ll be gone for most of the day.
Butler Rural Electric Cooperative member Bill Pyles gave himself a valuable piece of advice after a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: “Never say never.”
“After three days of (watching them make blades), I thought, ‘I bet I can do that,’” says Bill, a self-proclaimed tech geek who works for a company in California.
As it turned out, he was right.
Bill has a wife, Judy (who now refers to herself as a forge widow), four kids, four dogs, and two cats. He’s been a volunteer firefighter for Milford Township for 23 years and is also a part-time beekeeper. He seems to excel at anything he sets his mind to.
After he talked to his wife, he purchased his first small forge for $150. He already had everything else he needed.
Anyone living in a rural area of Ohio knows there’s a problem with internet service.
Lack of high-speed internet access affects students’ ability to learn, individuals’ ability to work, and businesses’ ability to prosper, because every day the world is becoming more digital. Online classes, remote work, and Zoom meetings are becoming more and more the norm, and without broadband, those digital tools are simply unavailable.
There can be no doubt that electric cooperatives will play a part in bridging that digital divide.
