Lake Region Electric Cooperative
Lake Region Electric Cooperative (LREC) held its 85th annual meeting on Thursday evening, June 2, at Life Church in Fergus Falls, with satellite in-person meetings in Frazee and Parkers Prairie. Approximately 950 members and friends attended the event in-person, with an additional 278 watching the event online via livestream.
"By expanding our annual meeting model to include three in-person location options, one in Fergus Falls, one in Frazee, and one in Parkers Prairie, we were able to connect with more of our members at places closer to their homes and businesses. This new model allowed 98% of our members to be within 25 miles of an annual meeting location. I am confident that this year’s attendance ranks as one of the highest in the past few decades,” states LREC CEO Tim Thompson. “We also continue to provide our members with the option to livestream the annual meeting at a location most convenient for them and we encourage those who were unable to attend to watch the annual meeting videos at www.lrec.coop/annualmeeting,” Thompson further adds.
Before the meeting and during the catered meal by Betty’s Pantry, Tim Eggebraaten, known as the “Off Duty Chief,” kept the members and attendees entertained by playing live music and interacting with the crowd.
Meeting Topics
Opening the meeting, LREC’s Board Chair Tom Jennen spoke about being grateful for his opportunity to serve on a board elected by LREC members, and how the cooperative model allows LREC to locally make decisions on matters that are extremely important to the members and their communities. Jennen recognized the retirement of directors Joyce Valley and Robert Shaw, both of whom served the cooperative for 15 years and expressed their appreciation for the LREC employees.
LREC CEO Tim Thompson reported on the successful year the cooperative had in 2021, including positive member feedback, rate stability, the prioritization of reliability shown by recent upgrades made by LREC and Great River Energy to transmission lines and substations, increasing equity reflecting the financial strength of the co-op, $1,838,490 of capital credits paid to members in 2021, making it nine consecutive years of record capital credit retirements paid to members, and the growth of LREC’s natural gas subsidiary, Lake Region Energy Services (LRES).
Thompson also addressed the massive Memorial Day storm that caused almost 10,000 members to be out of power and reported that all services were back on within 72 hours. Thompson acknowledged the LREC employees in attendance and recognized them for their dedication and determination to get the power back on. The crowd in attendance applauded the hard work and efforts of the employees.
Special guests included GRE Vice President and Chief Business Development Officer Mark Fagan and retired CEO of Minnesota Rural Electric Association (MREA) Mark Glaess. Fagan reported on GRE’s energy transition and GRE’s focus on reliability and rate stability. Glaess provided a historical perspective on how electric cooperatives changed and improved the lives of millions of people living in rural areas across the country.
Director elections
LREC welcomes two new directors, Gary Olson and Charlie Blixt. Olson was elected by acclamation in District 9 and Blixt was elected in a two-member race in District 6. Incumbent director Mike Brasel of District 3 was elected by acclamation.
Photos: CEO Tim Thompson delivers his address during the LREC 85th Annual Meeting on June 2, An overhead view of LREC’s membership enjoying their dinner at Life Church in Fergus Falls.
Lake Region Electric Cooperative (LREC) is a member-owned, member-controlled electric utility serving more than 28,000 member-consumers in the counties of Otter Tail, Wilkin, Grant, Douglas, Clay and Becker. LREC has a strong commitment to its member-consumers who represent all 50 states. To best serve its member-consumers, LREC has 30 substations which power approximately 4,065 miles of overhead lines and approximately 1,777 miles of underground lines. LREC’s service territory is located in west central Minnesota and has 1,000 lakes and a diverse topography.