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Co-op
Annual Meeting Set for March 29
3 Trustee Seats Up for Election
Three
trustee seats will be up for election and other business will be conducted
at Flathead Electric’s annual meeting, scheduled for Saturday, March 29,
at the Flathead High School gymnasium in Kalispell.
Registration begins at 9 a.m., with the business meeting at 10 a.m.
The morning’s agenda will include reports from the Board of Trustees and
management. The meeting will conclude by noon.
Because of a bylaw change approved last year that allows voting by mail,
trustee candidates will be nominated, but not elected, at the annual meeting.
Ballots will be mailed to all members after the meeting.
Trustee terms that expire in March are:
District
2, Lower Valley
Brent Hall
District 3, Whitefish
Jay Downen
District 5, North Kalispell
Alan Ruby
Persons
interested in running for one of these seats must reside in the district
and be nominated at the meeting by another member who resides in the district.
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Long-time hunter education
instructor, Pat McVay, works with a student during a Hunter Education
Course. The Roundup For Safety program helped fund the fluorescent orange
vests worn by these students.
Roundup
For Safety Helps Communities
Program
Has Awarded $730,000 in Grants
Each
month a group of volunteers gather for what sounds like a dream assignment:
distribute money to local non-profit organizations to help pay for safety-related
projects in the Co-op service area.
The money comes from members who voluntarily allow their electric bill
to be “rounded up” to the nearest dollar, with the extra money (an average
of $6 per year per member) going to the Roundup for Safety program. Average
monthly income for the program is $19,000.
Funding appropriate projects is a rewarding, if time-consuming job that
the nine board members take seriously.
“The hardest part is deciding if it’s really a valid safety item,” said
Marie Hanson, Secretary -Treasurer, who has been on the board since the
program started in 1997. “A lot of them are valid projects, but they don’t
fit into the category of safety as we see it.”
The board has allocated
more than $730,000 to several hundred projects since the program began,
including $282,000 for roughly 60 projects during 2002.
“I think we’re all really conscious of trying to do a good job and be
as fair as we can,” Hanson said.
Applying for a grant is simple. Non-profit groups that need money for
a safety-related project are asked to fill out an application, which can
be picked up at Co-op offices in Kalispell or Libby or from any board
member.
Organizations that have benefited from the program include numerous schools,
volunteer fire departments and a variety of other groups that need help
with safety projects.
“We really weigh the safety factors and we’re very
careful to make sure that these funds are spent the way the contributors
want them spent,” Hanson said. “There’s a lot of things they wouldn’t
have if we didn’t help them.”
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