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Manager’s Message


“This is not your father’s electric cooperative!” locations.


This is not your father’s Oldsmobile! Do you remember this advertising campaign


from back in the late 1980’s? Oldsmobile was working hard to change their image of being an automobile for an older generation to being the car of the future. They even incorporated the assistance of Star Trek celebrities Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner, to communicate the idea that Oldsmobile was a “futuristic” car. Mr. Spock himself told us that it was the “logi- cal” choice of a new generation. One of the first American car manufacturers to use fuel-injec- tion and on-board computers, Oldsmobile re- ally did look space-age compared to their first vehicles back in 1897.


Since that advertising campaign, the catch phrase has been used endlessly for other prod- ucts and services. “This is not your father’s…” and then fill in the blank with whatever it is you are describing. Though it is a little tired, I’m go- ing to use it one more time today and say, “This is not your father’s electric cooperative!”


With just 10% of rural Americans having electric service to their homes and farms, Presi- dent Franklin D. Roosevelt issued an executive order on May 11, 1935, creating the Rural Electrification Administration. Just over one year later, Congress passed the Rural Electrifi- cation Act, providing long-term financing and


making rural electrification a reality. Within less than fifteen years, over 90% of American farms had electricity. Still today, the REA Act of 1936 is regarded as one of the most important and successful pieces of legislation passed dur- ing the era of FDR’s New Deal.


Why was the REA necessary? It was because distribution of electricity was provided either by municipalities (muni’s) to their own citi- zens or by investor-owned utilities (IOU’s) to provide a return on investments to their stock- holders. The economics simply were not there to extend miles and miles of line to serve one or two homes or farms. The REA filled a void and brought rural America into the modern age when no one else would do it.


As local rural electric cooperatives (REC’s) like Northfork were formed across the country, specifications were developed by the REA on how to build distribution systems to provide this need. The loads to be served were small, as well as few and far between. Construction was light and spans between poles were long to help hold down the cost of building the REC systems. These systems served their members well for many years, but were weak and vulner- able to weather and other rural elements. Re- liability was not great, but members were still appreciative to have the service in their remote


Today, while Northfork’s density of meters is still very low (2.6 meters per mile of line, compared with 35.1 and 46.6 for muni’s and IOU’s, respectively), we are expected to deliver comparable service and reliability at compara- ble rates. Taking into account that Northfork’s revenue per mile of line is roughly 1/10th


of an


IOU’s, and our plant investment per consumer is 46% higher, comparability is a pretty tough assignment. We pride ourselves, however, in meeting the challenge.


In recent years, Northfork’s distribution sys- tem has been experiencing a transformation. Although there are still areas of our system that are lightly loaded, most of our main circuits have been rebuilt to handle the increased de- mand of additional loads. You may be surprised to know that 68% of Northfork’s annual sales are to large and industrial customers. Bigger poles, higher capacity conductor, increased voltage, and shorter spans between poles have all played a part in higher reliability. Increased revenues from the new load have been pumped back into the system in all aspects of mainte- nance, especially in the form of a more aggres- sive right-of-way program.


Use of new available technology has also


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