community news
september1
2016
Report from the WOEC 2016 Annual Meeting
The West Oregon Electric Co-
operative (WOEC) Annual Meeting was
held on Saturday, August 17 at the Cabin
in Vernonia.
Board of Directors President
Robert VanNatta called the meeting
to order and introduced the rest of the
Board and special guests, State Senator
Betsy Johnson and State Representative
Debra Boone, along with Guest Speaker
Clair Hobson from Bonneville Power
Administration (BPA). Previous min-
utes were approved and new members
were voted in.
Election Director Chuck Fade-
ley announced the candidates for the
Board: Robert VanNatta for District #2,
and Robert Paleck and Nick Galaday for
District #5. There were no nominations
from the floor and the voting was closed.
Later in the meeting it was announced
that VanNatta and Galaday had been
elected.
Guest Speaker Claire Hobson
from the BPA addressed the audience
and discussed the operations of BPA
and the challenges of competing with,
and balancing, the proliferation of other
forms of renewable power like solar and
wind. “The changes we’ve seen in the
last five years in the utility industry were
far more dramatic than the first fifty
years,” said Hobson, “and I have no rea-
son to believe that the next ten or fifteen
or twenty years are going to be any dif-
ferent. We’re going to see lots and lots of
changes.” Hopson also talked about the
aging infrastructure within the BPA and
the need for all of it to be replaced in the
near future.
Board President VanNatta spoke
and discussed some factors that deter-
mine WOEC’s rates. He addressed the
lack of industry that creates a consis-
tent demand in the service area, which
VanNatta termed “an undesirable load
curve,” and how high demand charges
increase the cost of power to WOEC.
He noted that most utilities in Oregon
and the rest of the country have 50%
of retail power sales coming from com-
mercial and industrial customers, while
WOEC gets about 20-25% from those
customers. He also addressed the high
7
maintenance cost in the WOEC service
area due to the high number of trees.
VanNatta also stated that, while WOEC
rates may seem high, “High rates are
relative,” said VanNatta, and compared
WOEC rates as being comparable to the
average rates in California, New York,
and New England.
New Financial Officer Dan
Huggett explained the billing process
and discussed billing options for cus-
tomers. He also discussed the impact of
the weather event that occurred in No-
vember/December of 2015 that included
heavy rains, wind, and landslides that re-
sulted in damages to the system and long
outages in several areas.
Operations Manager Don Rose
discussed the weather event last year
and the attempt to collect a 75% FEMA
reimbursement for the cost incurred by
the co-op. He also discussed upcoming
upgrade projects scheduled for this year
that include pole replacements through-
out the system, the replacement of a bad
continued on page 8
The Upper Nehalem Watershed Council (UNWC) will be screening
Behind the Emerald Curtain on Thursday, September 15, 6:00 pm at the Verno-
nia Schools Commons, 1000 Missouri Avenue.
This is a documentary by the nonprofit Pacific Rivers. The film ex-
amines logging practices in Oregon--especially the hidden impacts of indus-
trial style clearcutting, road building, and pesticide application, all of which are
largely hidden behind propaganda and beauty strips.
The UNWC will screen this 30 minute video and then have a conversa-
tion. This promises to be an eye-opening look at forestry in Oregon.
For more information contact Michael Calhoun (503) 704-7837.
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