Ever since the first pole to provide power to rural Rice and Reno counties was set on November 23, 1939, the Ark Valley Electric Cooperative has continued to deliver the convenience and efficiency of electrical power to all its members. All too often we become oblivious to the fact that nearly everything around us is run by electricity. The only time we begin to see how good we have it is when, for example, a terrible ice storm hits, takes out the power, and the temperature plummets to -20. In that situation we are scrambling to get the old kerosene lanterns out, and clean out the wood stove to keep ourselves warm and alive. It’s in those times we feel we’ve been thrown back into the Stone Age; that we really begin appreciating the cooperative’s present values to its members and community. Without the electric cooperative, I couldn’t imagine where we’d be at now. Investors never have, and never will, see the few people who live in rural areas as being worth the hefty …show more content…
The fact that people in the cooperative are members and not customers, the fact that the coop allows for every member to shape policies and influence the coop, the fact that the coop focuses on service and not profits, and the fact that we, ourselves, make up the cooperative, is just a summary of the benefits of being in the coop. This list of benefits will always far outweigh the benefits of being under any commercial utility company.
I wonder if you, the reader or listener of this speech, is old enough to remember the cost of things back in the “good ‘ole days”. I am, as a junior in high school, certainly not old enough to remember gas costing 49¢ back in the 90’s. Or going way back through the annals of history to 1936 where a loaf of bread would have cost only 8¢. In todays currency these costs have increased, in some cases, up to 50 times their original