Union Rural Electric Cooperative

Growing by degrees

sbradford — Wed, 27 Mar 2024 19:11:18 +0000

Growing by degrees

April 1, 2024

When Brian Bick was fresh out of high school, he started taking college classes but soon discovered he didn’t enjoy spending his days in a classroom. He decided to pursue a career as an electric lineworker.

“Being a full-time student just wasn’t for me,” says Bick, now a line foreman at Tricounty Rural Electric Cooperative in Malinta, in north-central Ohio. “But I’ve always loved to learn and grow to improve myself.”

Now, Bick has been able to leverage his 10 years of training and experience as a cooperative lineworker along with online classes to earn his Associate of Applied Science degree in technical studies. He’s one of eight graduates so far from a partnership between the Central Ohio Lineworker Training (COLT) program and West Virginia University at Parkersburg. Twenty additional cooperative lineworkers are pursuing degrees through the program.

“This opportunity was really amazing,” says Bick, who graduated last spring. “In this career, you never stop learning, whether it’s through classes or learning from other lineworkers or other co-ops. This program is an extension of that learning, and I hope it can open more windows of opportunity for me in the future.”

The joint degree program provides both advancement potential for lineworkers and short- and long-term benefits for Ohio’s electric cooperatives, says Kyle Hoffman, manager of COLT. “Most people think of line work as a trade that doesn’t require continuing education. That’s far from the case,” he says. “The linemen who work for our Ohio electric cooperatives are some of the brightest and most energetic people in our industry. For many of them coming out of high school, college wasn’t a great fit, but they’ve built a depth of knowledge and developed hands-on skills to do their jobs safely and efficiently. The WVU-P partnership allows them to apply the training and skills gained as lineworkers to the college degree.

“Investing in employees this way helps our cooperatives retain lineworkers who may be seeking career advancement opportunities,” Hoffman says. “It’s a benefit for everybody.”

A well-rounded education

Hoffman worked to develop the partnership with WVU-P in 2021 after graduating from a similar program there. He then continued his education through the COLT program’s “2+2” option to achieve a bachelor’s degree in supervisory management.

“WVU-P looked at our entire COLT curriculum and determined our 12 classes, along with the 8,000 total training hours apprentice lineworkers complete through COLT, would translate to 45 of the required 60 college credit hours needed to obtain a degree,” Hoffman says.

“The COLT program is very knowledge-based and focused on hands-on skills,” Hoffman says. “The WVU-P classes complement our curriculum with their requirements, tailored to each person’s needs.”

Students must complete five college classes, in English/communications and math/science, along with elective options that include workplace ethics, psychology, leadership, management, and business. All classes are online, and WVU-P, which is just across the Ohio River, offers in-state tuition to lineworkers from all across Ohio.

“I took a computer class that taught me about applications I use all the time in my job now, and one in environmental science that provided insight into how to protect the planet, which is relevant to our industry,” Bick says.

Ben Jones, a line servicer who joined South Central Power in 2015, is in his final class required for his associate degree and plans to continue through his bachelor’s degree.

“I appreciate that there’s a ton of flexibility,” Jones says. “You can pick the classes that will make you a better manager or supervisor in the future. I’ve learned key leadership skills, and it’s helped me with problem-solving. I also took a class in public speaking, which has really helped me because I teach a line school class. I took a course on all the Microsoft applications, which is technology we’re using here at South Central, so I was ahead of the curve.”

Jones appreciates the freedom of online classes. “The professors at WVU-P understand what I do for a living, that I’m always on call,” he says. “I have deadlines for classes but can do the work whenever it suits my schedule.”

All lineworkers who have graduated from COLT since 2004 are eligible for the joint degree program, Hoffman says. They can take the classes after completing COLT, or concurrently with COLT training.

Dave Sumpter, a lead lineman who has worked for Firelands Electric Cooperative in New London for 18 years, received his diploma in May 2023.

“I finished COLT in 2009,” Sumpter says. “For me, it was a shock to my system to be doing homework and writing papers again. Never did I think, as a 45-year-old guy, I would be starting college, but it was a good change for me. I took business ethics, English composition, industrial math, and speech classes.”

The program’s flexibility made it feasible for Sumpter as well. “I took one class at a time and did my homework late at night or at my kids’ wrestling practices.” His two sons, in fact, provide motivation for Sumpter. “One is in eighth grade, and one’s in fifth. I’m always emphasizing to them the importance of education, and I’m able to lead by example,” he says. “I always made sure we all got our homework done before we messed around.”

Sean Luellen, a crew leader for Union Rural Electric in Marysville, says earning his degree was the logical next step, but it wasn’t easy. “I graduated with the first class from COLT in 2004, and I’d always wanted to go back to college. With work, always being on call, two kids, and two trips to Guatemala (to bring electricity to remote areas through Project Ohio), I was really busy.”

“It was the most stressful year of my life,” Luellen says. “But with all of the heartache and headaches, it was worth it. I wanted to show my two boys that if you apply yourself, make sacrifices, and work hard, you can accomplish anything. I hope by completing my associate degree and spreading the message on the importance of education, I can inspire more linemen to take advantage of the amazing partnership between COLT and WVU-P.”

The joint degree program provides a bridge between hands-on, practical learning and academic education. “This is just adding to the knowledge I’ve gained from COLT,” Jones says. “The four-year COLT apprenticeship is very hands-on. It involves lots of thinking and problem-solving. I’m continuing my education from there, and it’s been a positive experience.”

Investing in the future

Brett Perkins, general manager at Tricounty Electric, says the COLT/WVU-P partnership is one way Ohio’s electric cooperatives are investing in their employees with an eye to the future.

“This is one of the many training tools we have in our toolbox,” Perkins says. “That includes safety programs, leadership programs, and COLT, which is recognized across the country as an outstanding program. This degree program makes these lineworkers more well-rounded and provides them with more opportunities to advance their careers.”

Perkins stresses that it’s also a benefit to the co-ops. “Continued education and training allow for future leadership to come from within,” he says. “We invest a lot of time and money in developing employees because we want to keep them. Pursuing this degree shows their initiative and desire to move up the ranks.”

That’s what attracted Bick. “My goal is to pursue management opportunities. I want to grow along with the co-op, and this degree shows I’ve worked to prepare for that,” he says. “This shows that cooperatives care about us and about the future.”

Hoffman said the degree program is a bridge between lineworker positions and co-op leadership jobs. “We have future leaders on our line crews right now,” he says. “This closes the gap between those with boots-on-the-ground experience and the college-educated. It gives lineworkers the opportunity to develop as leaders, so they can elevate themselves into critical roles at our co-ops in the future.”

Jones looks forward to sharing what he’s learned for the benefit of his co-op. “Building a positive work environment and encouraging younger guys in their own growth and development within South Central is very important to me,” he says. “I want to pass my knowledge on and motivate team members to do great work, build trust, and communicate well.”

Tags

Tricounty Rural Electric Cooperative

South Central Power

Firelands Electric Cooperative

Union Rural Electric Cooperative

COLT

Central Ohio Lineworker Training

Standing up, speaking out

sbradford — Wed, 20 Dec 2023 20:21:06 +0000

Standing up, speaking out

January 1, 2024

Jeff McCallister

Power Lines

Electric cooperatives have a long history of standing up for themselves when the needs of their members are not being met.

A cornerstone of cooperative influence is engaging in the political arena. It’s a necessary and important part of keeping the cooperative business model strong, so co-ops invest a significant amount of time in building relationships with government representatives.

“It’s imperative that the voices of co-op members are heard by decision-makers at every level,” says Marc Armstrong, director of government affairs for Ohio’s Electric Cooperatives, the statewide trade association that provides services to the state’s cooperatives. “We try to make sure government officials know how their decisions will affect people’s everyday lives, and it’s really as simple as that.

Hosting elected officials at the co-ops’ Central Ohio Lineworker Training Facility in Mount Gilead or the Mone power plant in Convoy gives co-ops a chance to highlight the cooperative difference — to show firsthand how locally owned, not-for-profit co-ops do more with less every day to serve their members.

Co-op managers and trustees also meet those leaders on their own turf, traveling to the Ohio Statehouse or to Washington, D.C., to share a united constituent voice.

The relationships co-op leaders are able to build, whether with a local township trustee, a state representative, or a U.S. senator, allow them to speak to those officials from a position of trust.

Mike Aquillo, CXO/VP member services for Marysville-based URE–Union Rural Electric Cooperative, joined other co-op leaders for the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association’s Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C., in April. “This was a great opportunity for cooperatives across the country to come together and discuss the energy policy issues impacting our members,” Aquillo says. “The Ohio cooperatives showed up in force, had very productive meetings with our elected officials, and clearly communicated our concerns, specifically with the declining thermal baseload generation and its potential serious impacts on the reliability that our members — their constituents — know and depend on.”

That topic is increasingly on the minds of co-op leaders as they examine new rules proposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that, while well-intentioned, would have a devastating effect on power companies’ ability to provide reliable, 24/7 electricity. The efforts that have followed the announcement of these regulations illustrate the formidable voice co-ops can project when united on an issue.

Co-ops, through their statewide and national trade associations, have banded together to make sure that both federal legislators and the EPA understand the implications of the proposed rules.

These efforts to advocate for responsible energy policy are crucial, says Pat O’Loughlin, president and CEO of Buckeye Power, the cooperative that supplies the electricity that Ohio co-ops deliver to their members.

“People of all political persuasions depend on a reliable supply of electricity for their health, safety, and security,” O’Loughlin says. “These rules, in effect, will force us to shut down the power plants that are the most reliable and affordable sources of power that exist today.”

The rules aim to slash carbon dioxide and other power plant emissions and include a requirement that coal and natural gas power plants capture nearly all the carbon dioxide they create, or else be forced to close.

Co-ops understand the importance of reducing greenhouse gases, O’Loughlin says, but the problem with the proposed rules is that neither the technology nor the infrastructure currently exists to allow coal and gas plants to comply — and it would take years just for zoning and engineering requirements to be put in place, even if they did.

“If compliance were even possible, the cost would be far greater than the EPA suggests and would far outweigh any environmental benefits,” Armstrong says. “That’s what our legislators need to know.”

The cost of the rule, co-ops contend, isn’t just monetary. Those coal-fired and gas-fired power plants are closing with nothing in place to meet power demands when the sun is not shining or when wind turbines aren’t moving — both of which happen during extreme weather, when electricity is in greatest demand.

“While renewable energy technology has improved in recent years, intermittent generation resources cannot meet the growing demand on their own,” O’Loughlin says.

For example, The Energy Cooperative in Newark, thanks to growth in western Licking County and Intel’s decision to locate in nearby New Albany, projects it will add 9,000 new electric members over the next five to 10 years, leading to an increase of 50% to 90% compared to its current demand.

“The increased load includes data centers and commercial-industrial members that operate around the clock,” says Josh Filler, VP and COO–electric operations at The Energy Cooperative. “The more baseload generation we lose, coupled with increased demand for energy, the more susceptible we will be to rolling brownouts, or worse yet, blackouts. Our members depend on us to maintain reliable and consistent service.”

And that’s why the co-ops are speaking out in unison against the proposed rules — once again standing up for their members, who will be the ones who pay the price in both higher electric bills and increased potential for blackouts.

What can YOU do?

As a cooperative member, you can help make sure elected officials know how you might be affected by various laws and rules that are up for debate at various levels of government by joining Voices for Cooperative Power.

VCP is a grassroots educational and advocacy program designed to both keep members aware of the concerns of co-ops and to help members directly communicate those concerns to elected officials.

Visit www.voicesforcooperativepower.com to get updates on the latest issues of importance to the co-op and to find easy ways to communicate with government officials.

Members also may check out America’s Electric Cooperatives PAC, a political action group that builds relationships with candidates for federal office so that when issues arise that affect co-ops, those candidates, if elected, are most likely to support positions that benefit cooperative members. For more information about the PAC and how you can join, contact your cooperative.

Tags

Union Rural Electric Cooperative

The Energy Cooperative

Buckeye Power

A trip down memory lane

sbradford — Fri, 25 Aug 2023 16:03:15 +0000

A trip down memory lane

September 1, 2023

Theresa Ravencraft

Co-op People

We all take a trip down memory lane once in a while, reminiscing about special times and meaningful life events. Beth Sanders, founder of LifeBio, has made it her mission to document those trips — to improve the quality of life for older adults by preserving their family history, one life story at a time.

It started in the 1990s. Sanders’ grandmother, Margaret Stitzinger, had early-stage dementia, so Sanders decided to conduct an interview with her to learn more about the family. What she found were vivid memories, such as the flu epidemic of 1918; growing up in Erie, Pennsylvania; and getting married.

“I didn’t know my grandma as much as I thought I should,” says Sanders, a member of URE–Union Rural Electric Cooperative in Marysville. “It was like discovering gold. I could have lost that information if I hadn’t taken the time to really talk to her.” Sanders compiled her grandmother’s biography and passed it along to family members at the funeral after her grandmother died a few years later.

That experience helped her realize two things: first, that she proudly came from a long line of strong, influential women; second, how important it was to engage with her grandmother, listen to her story, and record her family history before it was lost forever. “Listening is good for all of us,” Sanders says. “When they tell their story, it gives them purpose. There’s a reason they’re here.”

LifeBio uses a simple app interface to allow relatives to record stories and memories that otherwise might be lost.

Sanders knew she could help aging adults improve the quality of their lives simply by helping them tell their life stories. It became her passion, which she turned into LifeBio in 2000.

The company initially focused on capturing life stories using journals and an online biography system. Since then, LifeBio, located in Marysville, has grown into a health-tech company, developing apps that are used by seniors, health care workers, health systems, and educators.

Today, LifeBio employs more than 45 people in 10 states and works with major health care plans nationwide to provide memory-care services. “We have to know people to deliver the best quality care for them,” Sanders says. “For us, it’s about the process, not the product.”

Beth and Jeff Sanders

Her husband, Jeff, is LifeBio’s chief technology officer. He builds and oversees the company’s apps and works with the technology team to develop and introduce new initiatives. Together, they have developed three main programs for use in memory care.

MyHello is a social support program designed to reduce loneliness. It’s funded by a national health care plan. “Incredible technology has enabled us to connect people to each other,” Sanders says. “They sign up online or by phone, answer a few questions, and are matched with another participant. Then once per week for 13 weeks, the participants call each other at a designated time to share life experiences.”

MyHello aims to foster a feeling of connection, which in turn reduces depression. “We have done clinical studies that prove we reduce depression and increase happiness by connecting people who can share stories and reminisce with one another,” Sanders says.

The LifeBio Memory app prompts users with a series of questions, encouraging them to recount life moments, and records and transcribes their responses. The app is the result of a substantial grant from the National Institute on Aging to improve the quality of care for people with dementia.

They’re currently developing a third component called LifeBio Brain, an app that will be used as a 10-minute cognitive screening tool for dementia. “We have partnered with Brown University to move the test away from being a paper-and-pencil test to an interactive app for users,” she says.

And there is more on the horizon. The Sanderses are looking to further expand the company and develop additional memory care initiatives.

“My legacy is helping others realize their legacy,” she says, “thus helping people experience more love, hope, and peace.”

Tags

Union Rural Electric Cooperative

co-op member

Community

Giving feedback

sbradford — Mon, 27 Feb 2023 16:30:17 +0000

Giving feedback

March 1, 2023

Jodi Borger

Power Lines

It’s a situation nearly everyone can relate to: Your phone rings, you glance at the unfamiliar number, and you make the quick decision not to answer the call.

You don’t realize it immediately — perhaps you never will — but it turns out that call was someone conducting a survey on behalf of your electric cooperative.

For Jane Sanstead, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA)’s senior research analyst, that’s been one of the biggest obstacles throughout the past five years of conducting surveys.

“When I first started at NRECA Market Research Services, nearly 18 years ago, 100% of our surveys were being done by phone,” Sanstead says. “In the past five years or so, I feel that members are still more willing to spend time on a survey for their local electric cooperative than they would be for a political survey, but people’s behavior with phones has changed. Many people will not answer their phone if they don’t recognize the number calling them.”

How they work

In most surveys, not all members receive the survey — instead, only a small representative sample makes the list. So, what if by answering that one phone call or responding to an emailed member survey, you could help the co-op recognize areas where they may fall short?

Cooperatives exist for the membership, and surveys are an ideal way to measure their satisfaction. Many co-ops around the state take the time to review surveys and even respond directly to each member’s concerns. In some instances, those survey responses allow co-ops to pinpoint a recurring area of dissatisfaction.

The latter was the case for URE–Union Rural Electric Cooperative in Marysville.

“In past surveys we learned that members felt we didn’t always keep them updated during outages,” says Anthony Smith, URE president/CEO. “That feedback helped us make the decision to set an estimated time of restoration on outages, begin adding additional information in the phone response system, and increase social media posts during large outages.”

Additionally, for members who signed up for notifications in SmartHub (the smartphone app used by many co-ops), URE began issuing outage status updates in real time. It was simple, consistent feedback received through surveys that led to modifications internally, which, in turn, meant more satisfied members.

“Subsequent surveys have indicated that members appreciate the extra outage communication and give us higher marks in that area now,” Smith says.

Help the co-op help you

For Midwest Electric in St. Marys, low member satisfaction in the area of outage communication fostered one of the co-op’s main focuses for improved communication.

“On the ACSI survey, the question about outage communications has been our biggest improvement over the years,” says Matt Berry, Midwest Electric CEO. “Many years ago, our members rated us poorly when it came to communicating about power outages, so we made that a focal point and now offer a number of outage communications options. It’s no longer our lowest score area.”

The other helpful part about surveys is that they give co-ops an opportunity to confirm member satisfaction after they make needed changes or adjustments. Midwest Electric, for example, created a four-question survey called the service order (SO) survey that is sent automatically via email or mail whenever an SO is completed.

“We’ve had employee retirements that we either didn’t replace or we updated the new job description to reflect changing technology, different business needs, or to align with employee talent, so sometimes it can be difficult to recognize when that might create a gap in service,” Berry says. “Whether it’s the comment section in the surveys, or the question of whether we resolved your request to your satisfaction, we’re able to learn immediately if we’re having issues.”

Lots of info, lots of uses

The feedback allows an employee to follow up and address any issue right away, instead of allowing potential problems with a certain work process to affect overall member satisfaction. Co-ops may also survey members about their use of appliances in their homes, their opinions about Ohio Cooperative Living, or numerous other topics.

Cooperatives throughout the state find value in reviewing and analyzing survey results because those participating in the surveys are owners in the cooperative. Members’ opinions and feedback are important to the overall health of the cooperative. It’s that constant feedback loop that allows the cooperative to adapt as desires, technology, and needs of the membership evolve.

“The surveys are important because they give us insight into how we are performing for our members, whether or not we’re meeting their expectations,” Berry says. “We are member-owned, which means we only need to focus on our members and the job we’re doing for them.”

Surveys are on their way

Cooperatives have learned that letting members know when they are conducting a survey both increases credibility of the cooperative and confirms legitimacy of the survey. One way cooperatives make their members aware of surveys, particularly the ACSI survey, is by communicating through social media channels, their websites, and Ohio Cooperative Living magazine a couple months leading up to the survey.

Scam and telemarketing calls have increased throughout the years and many people just don’t want to talk to someone unless they know who it is.

Survey callers often spend more time dialing the phone than actually doing the surveys, leading to more surveys being done online. Surveys delivered to members through email can be convenient, allowing members to respond to the survey on their own time. But, as with phone calls, the increase in spam and phishing emails has made that method difficult as well.

“I’m glad people are aware that there are bad actors out there, often masquerading as a company they would otherwise trust, but it has certainly made our job more difficult,” says Jane Sanstead, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA)’s senior research analyst.

So, as the next round of co-op surveys revs up between March and June, consider answering a call from that unfamiliar number or taking an extra look for the emailed survey, because your cooperative values your feedback.

If you’re ever unsure of the validity of a survey, simply call your electric cooperative to verify its legitimacy.

“In the six or so years that I have been directly working with co-op employees, I have seen firsthand how much they care about their members,” Sanstead says. “A survey is one of just a few ways they can discover their members’ perceptions, needs, and beliefs directly from their members and from the most members possible.”

Tags

member satisfaction

Union Rural Electric Cooperative

Midwest Electric

High-tech highway

sbradford — Fri, 25 Feb 2022 15:34:35 +0000

High-tech highway

March 1, 2022

Alicia Adams

Features

Ohio, a state long-obsessed with being in motion, has a rich history of being on the leading edge of transportation innovation.

In the late 19th century, John Lambert, from Mechanicsburg and later Van Wert County, built the first gasoline-powered vehicle in the U.S. (he also was involved in the first motor-vehicle crash in the U.S.). Ohioan Charles Kettering revolutionized the auto industry when he invented the electric starter. An Ohio manufacturer was the first to put seat belts in cars.

It’s not surprising that the Transportation Research Center (TRC) near East Liberty has grown from its beginnings as an Ohio State University research center in the 1960s to become North America’s largest and most advanced vehicle proving ground.

And from that, the next generation of transportation research has sprouted — the 33 Smart Mobility Corridor, billed as the most connected highway in the world.

The 35-mile section of U.S. Route 33 runs from Dublin through Marysville and up to the gates of the TRC in East Liberty. It’s a one-of-a-kind vehicle testing ground that seeks to shape the future of connected and driverless vehicles.

What is smart mobility? Imagine this scenario: You’re driving along the highway when you receive a sudden braking alert. There is an obstacle in the road that cars ahead of you are braking hard to avoid. Those vehicles closest to the obstacle communicate a warning to other approaching vehicles to let them know to slow down to avoid the obstacle and other cars. That’s smart mobility in action.

The system can also notify drivers of potential icy spots on the roads, approaching emergency vehicles, traffic lights getting ready to change, pedestrians, or oncoming bad weather. Smart mobility helps take surprises out of driving and empowers drivers to make better decisions.

“The tech infrastructure being deployed on the 33 Smart Mobility Corridor will help develop and advance transportation technologies that will make travel safer for everyone,” says Ohio Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, who serves as director of InnovateOhio, which aims to make the state a leader in technology innovation.

The Honda Motor Company and its affiliates have played a major role in the guidance and support of the corridor. With an auto manufacturing facility as well as its research and development arm located in Marysville, Honda has deployed over 200 connected vehicles to study the interaction between drivers and smart mobility technology. “Ohio’s 33 Smart Mobility Corridor enables us to conduct real-world testing of Honda’s ‘Safe Swarm’ technology, which uses ‘vehicle-to-everything’ communication to help mitigate collisions, improve traffic flow, increase fuel efficiency for all road users, and prepare for higher levels of automated driving features,” says Sue Bai, chief engineer at Honda Research Institute USA.

The Smart Mobility Corridor has created another Ohio first in transportation research: the world’s first fully connected city. All the intersections within the city of Marysville are connected to the 432 strands of fiber-optic cable that are the central nervous system of the project, so researchers can quickly and easily test the latest safety technology regarding traffic signal phases, traffic timing, and other data.

“What’s nice about Marysville is that we are a self-contained, smaller-sized city with a manageable traffic flow, so we have the ability to shut down an intersection or redirect traffic for testing with minimal effort or impact on the surrounding community,” says Terry Emery, Marysville’s city manager. “We are the perfect testing playground.”

The city of Dublin serves as another live laboratory, connecting some of its intersections with the system to provide vehicle data regarding multilane roundabouts and other traffic situations.

The 33 Smart Mobility Corridor started as a local initiative in 2014 to bring fiber-optic broadband to Marysville and surrounding rural areas, but pivoted into a transportation test bed. That conversion has resulted in unique partnerships across local, state, federal, private, industrial, and academic institutions.

Tim Hansley, Union County administrator and president of the NW 33 Innovation Corridor Council of Governments, says the collaborative nature of those partnerships is what allows the system to work so well. “It’s unusual to have such a cooperative collaboration among all of these different groups,” he says. “We are a model for the rest of the country on how to do this.”

Obviously, having a reliable source of electricity to power the 63 roadside units that collect and distribute data is a crucial component to the system, and Marysville-based Union Rural Electric Cooperative, Inc. (URE), has been an important partner.

“URE played an important part in bringing together the other electric utilities, ODOT, and Union County officials to efficiently power the 33 Smart Mobility Corridor,” says Anthony Smith, URE’s CEO/president. “Providing power to this project was unlike anything we had done before, and the team effort was critical to getting the job done right. We’re proud to have played a role in such an important mobility research program.”

Tags

smart mobility

Honda

Union Rural Electric Cooperative

Ohio history

Whooo’s there?

sbradford — Tue, 28 Dec 2021 16:16:24 +0000

Whooo’s there?

January 1, 2022

W.H. Chip Gross

Woods, Waters & Wildlife

Regular readers of Ohio Cooperative Living may recall a story that ran exactly a year ago titled “Give a hoot,” describing a statewide wintering-owl study to be conducted by Blake Mathys, an Ohio Dominican University associate professor and Union Rural Electric Cooperative member. Mathys asked for readers’ participation in the study, and co-op members responded in droves.

“More than 1,600 owl sightings were reported to the project,” says Mathys. “Of those submitted, about half were able to be assigned to species with some certainty, based on a submitted photo, recording, or description.”

He says he received reports from 87 of Ohio’s 88 counties, with only Jefferson County in eastern Ohio lacking. The top five counties for reported submissions were Hamilton (19.4%), Franklin (7.6%), Butler (6.1%), Warren (5.4%), and Clermont (4.8%).

Two of the more exciting reports were from rural residents who had long-eared owls roosting literally right outside their windows. “I visited both locations,” Mathys says. “One was in Union County and the other in Allen County. It was quite an experience to stand in a bedroom and look out the window at long-eared owls perched just a few feet away.”

Overall, eight species of owls were recorded: barred owl, barn owl, Eastern screech owl, great horned owl, long-eared owl, Northern saw-whet owl, short-eared owl, and snowy owl.

While Mathys had not finished his analysis as of early November, the data seem to support his hypothesis that there are a lot more owls around than previously thought. “For instance, Union County had only two long-eared owls ever reported to eBird before this study, but between submitted reports and targeted searches, five long-eared owls were found there during last winter alone,” he says. “Overall, it was a very successful project, and I really want to thank all my fellow co-op members who participated by sending me sighting information.”

For more details of the wintering-owl study, contact Blake Mathys at mathysb@ohiodominican.edu.

Tags

nature

Union Rural Electric Cooperative

wildlife

A little help

aspecht — Mon, 01 Mar 2021 14:51:53 +0000

A little help

March 1, 2021

Jeff McCallister

School districts across the country struggled with how to continue their operations through the COVID-19 pandemic. How could they keep kids and teachers safe during in-building instruction? If schools went online, how could they assure that everyone had access to the same level of instruction? Even more complicated, what if they needed to do both?

That was the issue faced at Black River Schools in Medina County. Superintendent Chris Clark and the school board looked at the data and determined their best option was to keep in-person instruction as much as possible. As a small, rural district — serving 1,200 students from Medina, Ashland, and Lorain counties — its schools already had relatively small classes, most of which could be spread out to maintain 6 feet between students during in-class learning.

But the coronavirus did force changes. The district needed to find a way to teach the 230 students who chose online instruction, while keeping those in the buildings safe with increased personal protective gear and gallons upon gallons of sanitizer for hands and high-touch surfaces, as well as other incidentals that came up every day.

“Contrary to what anyone may think, these expenses have not been just a drop in the bucket, and there has not been much help forthcoming from the state or federal government,” Clark says. “All of our COVID-related expenses have really added up.”

As entities everywhere were figuring out how to deal with those and other issues, Clark spent time in several community meetings that also included Ed VanHoose, general manager of Wellington-based Lorain-Medina Rural Electric Cooperative (LMRE), which serves Black River Schools.

VanHoose immediately began thinking about ways the co-op could help. Black River and LMRE have a long history of partnerships. This time, VanHoose and his staff were able to take advantage of a program through LMRE’s financial institution, CoBank, that turned $5,000 in LMRE money into $10,000 that Black River Schools used to offset a good chunk of those COVID-related expenses.

“We saw a need and we acted,” VanHoose says. “Doing what is right and necessary for our members and community is at the very core of what a cooperative does.”

Electric cooperatives have that same attitude; Concern for Community is one of the defining principles at the heart of what it means to be a cooperative, after all, and co-ops show that concern in lots of different ways. In the past few months alone, Ohio cooperatives have supported the Marion Palace Theatre, Marysville Uptown Theatre, Mercy Unlimited in Wapakoneta, and New Washington Little League — just to name a few.

Sometimes co-ops are able to secure matching funds through initiatives like CoBank’s Sharing Success program. But many also make use of a donation program that allows their consumer-members to round up their electric bills, and the co-ops in turn use that money for small grants to organizations and individuals in need of help. Ohio co-ops distributed more than $1.2 million in member donations through those programs last year.

That money went to groups like the Homeward Bound Dog Shelter of Ashland County, through Firelands Electric Cooperative in New London; the Ohio Dyslexia Center in Fresno, through Coshocton-based Frontier Power Company; and Hope’s Closet in West Chester Township, through Butler Rural Electric Cooperative in Oxford. Guernsey-Muskingum Electric Cooperative helped a Wills Township family stay off the streets by paying an unexpected medical bill. The Marion Fire Department purchased three new water rescue suits with a grant from Mid-Ohio Energy Cooperative in Kenton.

Co-ops’ concern for their communities, however, goes beyond monetary donations.

Nearly every co-op offers scholarships to children of members as those students prepare for life after high school. Many cooperatives conduct food drives throughout the year and only added to their pace in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic increased the need at food banks across the state.

Millersburg-based Holmes-Wayne Electric Cooperative has sponsored four Honor Trips to Washington, D.C. Helped by donations from community sponsors, the co-op has made it possible for nearly 100 veterans and their escorts to take what’s described as the trip of a lifetime.

Co-ops also encourage employees to show local community pride through service projects. With support from Paulding-based Paulding Putnam Electric Cooperative (PPEC), employee Peter Niagu put together and implemented a plan to install welcome signs to greet visitors entering the town.

“Part of being a cooperative is being a vital part of our community,” says PPEC President and CEO George Carter. “Cooperatives help build a better America, and that starts with making a better, more empowered local community.”

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Community

charity

Lorain-Medina Rural Electric Cooperative

Firelands Electric Cooperative

Holmes-Wayne Electric Cooperative

Frontier Power Company

Butler Rural Electric Cooperative

Guernsey-Muskingum Electric Cooperative

Mid-Ohio Energy Cooperative

Union Rural Electric Cooperative

Paulding Putnam Electric Cooperative

Co-op Spotlight: Union Rural Electric Cooperative

aspecht — Tue, 01 Dec 2020 14:24:35 +0000

Co-op Spotlight: Union Rural Electric Cooperative

December 1, 2020

Ohio's Electric Cooperatives

Co-op Spotlight

Just to the northwest of Columbus, Union Rural Electric Cooperative (URE), based in Marysville, is a not-for-profit electric and natural gas distribution cooperative serving over 10,000 consumer-members. Alongside the city of Marysville and Union County, URE has enjoyed prosperous growth over the last three decades. The communities served by URE have a proud agricultural heritage but celebrate the increased investments made in the advanced manufacturing, smart mobility, and research and development sectors in recent times.

Diverse membership

Unlike the typical rural electric cooperative, URE boasts an impressive mix of residential, commercial, and industrial accounts. The mix includes automotive manufacturing facilities and several automotive suppliers, which are critically important to the economies of Union County and the state of Ohio. The cooperative serves a few K-12 school facilities and families with students enrolled in five school districts. Also included in the member mix are city and county government facilities, chain and locally owned restaurants, automobile dealerships, hotels, and various retail accounts, all of which contribute to the economic strength and diversity of the area.

Commitment to its community

Commitment to community is a top priority at URE. Each year the co-op sponsors various activities, such as youth sports, 4-H, farmers markets, and local fairs and festivals. All sponsorship efforts are designed to boost economic development and improve the quality of life in Union County. The future is bright in and around Union County, and URE is positioned to be there powering the way.

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Union Rural Electric Cooperative

The right way

aspecht — Tue, 01 Dec 2020 14:16:41 +0000

The right way

December 1, 2020

Jeff McCallister

Power Lines

Every now and then, Anthony Smith, president and CEO of Union Rural Electric Cooperative in Marysville, finds he’s dashed out of the house in the morning without eating breakfast, so he ends up in the drive-thru lane at the fast-food place next to his office to grab a bite on his way to work.

It’s nearly always quick and without incident, but one recent morning, the worker who handed him his sandwich stopped him. Because Smith lives in the community and writes a regular column in URE’s local pages in Ohio Cooperative Living, folks often recognize him when he’s out and about, and he’s never quite sure what to expect when they do.

“Sometimes, people might want to talk to me about their rates or some little problem they might be having,” Smith says, “but she just looked at me and said, ‘Thank you.’ She wanted to tell me what a difference we had made to her family by providing an unexpected bill credit on her last electric bill.”

It’s nearly always quick and without incident, but one recent morning, the worker who handed him his sandwich stopped him. Because Smith lives in the community and writes a regular column in URE’s local pages in Ohio Cooperative Living, folks often recognize him when he’s out and about, and he’s never quite sure what to expect when they do.

Like many electric cooperatives, URE issues capital credits to its consumer-members. When the amount collected from electric bills is more than the cost to provide electricity, that excess money is returned to the members who pay those bills. Customers of investor-owned utilities like AEP and Dayton Power and Light don’t see those returns — profits are given to shareholders instead.

Often, cooperatives hold those excess funds in reserve for a number of years, using them for improvements and maintenance to the electrical system, before issuing the credits. But this year, Smith and the URE board recognized that the community was being hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic and decided on an early distribution of the entire 2019 credit to try to ease that burden. It was enough in many cases to pay nearly an entire month’s electric bill, even for newer members who usually have to wait much longer to be eligible for that distribution.

“That’s just who we are,” Smith says. “We’re not here for the big profit — we provide a service and we improve lives, in lots of ways besides just keeping the lights on.”

Ohio electric cooperatives don’t just give lip service to customer service. Anyone can say they care about the customer, but the co-ops live that attitude every day. Nearly all survey their members, using the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) to put actual data behind the anecdotal evidence they get in the drive-thru lane.

ACSI is the only national cross-industry measure of customer satisfaction in the United States. In Ohio, electric cooperatives ask their members about such things as member service, cost and quality of electric service, social responsibility, bills and payment options, communication, and employees.

In the latest survey, which was completed in the early stages of the pandemic in Ohio, 14 of the state’s 24 co-ops earned their highest-ever scores. In an industry where the average satisfaction score is 73, Ohio’s co-ops averaged 87, and five — including URE — were at 90 or above.

“Members recognized everything the co-ops did to safely and positively respond to the COVID-19 crisis,” says Doug Miller, vice president of statewide services for Ohio’s Electric Cooperatives, the statewide trade association that provides services to the co-ops. “When we do the right thing each and every day, we build up a bank of capital in the form of loyalty and trust among our members. Then when have to make difficult decisions like rate increases or a return to normal collection procedures after the voluntary suspension of disconnections, the members understand that we’re doing what we need to do.”

“We’re definitely proud of our ACSI score,” Smith says, “but it’s really just a side effect of who we are in the community. Since we’re right here, we can make decisions and take action a lot more quickly than maybe some of the larger investor-owned utilities can to take care of any needs that might come up.

“It’s also a way to help us tell our story,” he says. “That number reinforces that, hey, this is another reason you can be proud of this co-op, which, by the way, you also own and are an important part of.

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Union Rural Electric Cooperative

covid-19

member satisfaction

Healthy innovation

aspecht — Thu, 29 Oct 2020 18:37:36 +0000

Healthy innovation

October 29, 2020

Alicia Adams

Co-op People

At first glance, the interior of Soda Pharm looks like your typical coffeehouse: exposed brick wall, comfy chairs and couches that welcome lingering stays, and a variety of chalkboards displaying the seasonal menu and the daily coffee roast.

But then, alongside the espresso and treats selection, you’ll notice some not-so-typical offerings: probiotic lemonade, elderberry handcrafted soda, and a fire cider shooter.

Welcome to Soda Pharm, where the old-fashioned pharmacy soda fountain concept is reborn — this time with the modern twist of innovative self-care through functional food and natural medicinal herbs.

Dawn Combs and her husband, Carson, members of Marysville-based Union Rural Electric Cooperative, own the Marysville-based storefront apothecary. “We wanted to bring health to the level where you are — make it accessible in a way that hasn’t been done before,” says Combs, a certified herbalist who holds an M.A. in ethnobotany and is a nationally recognized functional food specialist. “We approach it from a completely non-judgmental angle. You don’t want to give up your weekly Big Mac and fries? No problem. But let’s replace the Diet Coke with a healthy, tasty soda made with an herbal syrup that will help your digestion.”

Whether it is the genuine sourdough bread, the syrup and seltzer sodas that are made to order right in front of you, or the medicinal product selection, Soda Pharm provides a unique and tasty space to explore health.

The store shelves feature Dawn’s own herbal tinctures and syrups with names like “Happy” and “Revive,” honey-and-herb mixtures like “Focus,” and a selection of loose-leaf teas with labels that read, “Headache Ease,” “Good Night,” and “Swallowed Emotions.”

“When I do a personal consult with my clients, I address not only the physical side but the emotional side as well,” she says. “You can’t just focus on the physical only and expect to fully heal. It has to be more holistic: spiritual, psychological, and nutritional.”

Dawn’s passion for health originated from her own struggles with infertility issues. Her quest for answers took her beyond the idea of eating vegetables and exercising to fully understanding the complex relationship between the modern environment and the human body, including reproductive health. Now the mother of two children, she’s poured her knowledge into articles, podcasts, an online study school, and three books on health and herbalism. She has been nationally recognized for her therapeutic honey spreads and other herbal products — all of which come from the Combses’ herb and honey farm, Mockingbird Meadows, also a URE member.

“Our motto here at Soda Pharm is, ‘Let your food be your medicine and your medicine be your food,’” Combs says. “You’ll leave a little healthier than when you came in.”

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Union Rural Electric Cooperative

nutrition

health