page 7
A SENTINEL PUBLICATION I
COQUILLE VALLEY MUSEUM SPECTACULAR
The creation of a community utility
Nearly 7 decades of providing electricity - the cooperative way
Nearly 70 years ago,
George Jenkins, Coos County
extension agent and Ivan
Laird, considered the father of
Coos-Curry Electric
Cooperative, Inc, (CCEC),
began to discuss the idea of
forming an electric cooperative
with their neighbors and with
the REA.
Ivan lived with his wife Daisy
on a 20-acre ranch bordering
the East Fork of the Coquille
River. The road running by their
Sitkum Valley ranch was built in
1872 to serve as the main artery
between the rich coastal mining
and jogging operations and the
inland valleys. Sitkum Valley is
exactly halfway between
Roseburg and Coos Bay,
Even now, it is remote; but
in those early days before i
electricity, it was nearly the last
frontier. When Ivan first began
thinking and dreaming about
bringing electricity to the valley,
he had no idea that he would
become a leader in power
development. In his words, “In
1929, the California-Oregon
Power Company (COPCO)
came right down this road
(Coos Bay- Roseburg Wagon
Road) by our place with a main
transmission line to bring
power into parts of Coos
County. When I went to town
(Coquille) and asked about
getting service, I was told it
would be just about impossible
to run distribution lines off the
main transmission line to serve
Sitkum.”
But after meeting with
COPCO, Ivan and an REA
field engineer toured the farms
in rural Coos County and the
field engineer explained that
loan money was available for
providing service to perhaps
all of the rural areas in Coos
and Curry Counties and
maybe even Del Norte County
in Northern California.The idea
of Coos Curry Cooperative
was really born then, accord­
ing to Laird.
The outcome was Coos
Electric Cooperative, Inc.
which was incorporated on
June 1, 1939 to serve 255
members in the Daniel Creek,
Sumner, McKinley, Fairview
and Sitkum areas of Coos
County. The cooperative
acquired the Port Orford
Electric Light and Power
Company in 1942 and the
Brookings Light and Power
Company in 1945. In 1946, the
name was officially changed to
Coos-Curry Electric
Cooperative, Inc. That next
year, the cooperative acquired
the Rogue River Power
Cooperative located in Gold
Beach. Through existing and
new distribution lines, most of
the rural areas were served by
the late 1950s with the excep­
tion of Agness, which was
added in 1961.
The cooperative philosophy-
a commitment to join together
for the common good of the
membership as a whole - is
the cooperative’s foundation.
Now, CCEC has 1619 miles of
lines, Including 52 miles of
transmission line between Gold
Beach and Brookings.
Employees in four offices pro­
vide service to nearly 15,000
members. Wholesale power is
purchased through the Pacific
Northwest Generating
Cooperative (PNGC), which
consists of power primarily
obtained through the
Bonneville Power
Administration.
Rates are set to recover the
cost to provide power as well
as to cover the costs of con­
ducting business. Costs are •
recovered in a fair and equi­
table way, which means each
member pays for the invest­
ment the cooperative has
made on behalf of the entire
Ivan Laird, a Sitkum Valley
logger, helped trailblaze a
path for creation of Coos-
Curry Electric Cooperative
over 65 years ago.
membership.
A Board of Directors, elected
by the membership, guides the
cooperative, sets rates and
establishes policies. With their
leadership, your electric cooper­
ative has adapted to changing
times both good and bad for
nearly 70 years. Yet, the com­
mitment to doing things that are
in the best interests of the
membership as a whole while
respecting each members
needs is still there. That’s the
heart of the cooperative philos­
ophy and it hasn’t changed
since the very beginning.
2006 BOARD OF
DIRECTORS
COOS-CURRY
ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE,
INC.
Presiiient/Chairman
Terry Hanscam
Vice-President
Grant Combs
Secretary
Dale Thomas
Treasurer
David Itzen
Gary Doran
L. Monte Lund
Peter Radabaugh
Port Orford
Brookings
After Hours
Emergency
and Outage
866-352-9044
541-332-3931
541-469-2103
www.ccec.coop
Coquille
Gold Beach
541-396-3118
541-247-6638
to ' tc;’
«■„ ar