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Rolling Hills Holds Annual Meeting

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The Rolling Hills Electric Cooperative, Inc. held their Annual Meeting at the NCK Technical College Gymnasium in Beloit Friday evening with 139 registered members and a large number of guests attending the free meal and the business meeting that followed.

During his message to the membership, Cooperative President, Gary Frieling told the audience that in July 2011, the board decided to begin a consolidation study with the DS&O Cooperative of Solomon, Kansas. A joint committee was selected by each Cooperative to study the idea.

"We have been looking at our common goals. We have talked about our strengths and weaknesses and how the two co-ops are alike and different. We have compared owner's equity, capital credit retirement, rates, customer service charges, and wages and benefits for our employees. We compared our customer base and where we can grow and change," Frieling said.

Freiling said the reason they are looking into the idea of consolidation is that the board realizes the cost of electricity will be going up because of many things out of our control, like the cost of fuel and more government regulations. "The only way we can keep the cost down is to become more efficient."

The crowd had mixed reactions to this announcement as they did a few years ago when a consolidation move was announced to Jewell-Mitchell Cooperative members. However, Frieling assured them the board will weigh all the facts and if they decide this is the way they need to go it will be brought up to a vote and the memberships of both co-ops will have the final decision on whether or not the consolidation will take place."

Doug Jackson, Manager of the Cooperative, added his thoughts to this pending decision in his report. "We still have a lot of work to do before this decision would be made and many issues to study before moving forward. We will have to decide if this would be a good sound business decision and if the savings we would get from the merger would be worth the effort to do it. He estimated it would be the first or second quarter of 2013 before this decision would come to a vote.

"The management and Board are continuing to look at viable opportunities to control costs in order to maintain and provide safe, reliable and affordable electricity for our members," Jackson said.

Jackson said, Rolling Hills is currently working on the completion of two weather events in this area that took place in 2007 and 2009 that qualified as FEMA natural disasters. It is taking a lot of time and work but he said they are on schedule and anticipate an estimated completion date of mid 2014. The cost of repairs from the damage that came from these two storms was in access of 35 million dollars. FEMA has been very helpful with financial assistance to cover a vast majority of the cost, he said.

Steve Bahan, Assistant Manager of Rolling Hills reviewed the financial statements and explained where their money comes from and how the money was used. A general retirement of capital credits of $256,484 (two hundred fifty six million -four hundred and eight four dollars.) was paid to the cooperative members from the capital credit retirement fund in 2011.

Mark Barbie, Vice President of Engineers with KEPCO (Kansas Electric Power Company, the power company that supplies power to Rolling Hills. Barbie addressed the membership on the current utility environment. He explained the difference between demand and energy charges their company sets, the types of power they handle and where they purchase the power they sell to Rolling Hills. Barbie. He also discussed some of the problem they face due to State and Federal regulations.

Bruce Graham, who is with KEC (Kansas Electric Cooperatives) out of Topeka, explained the many services this state agency provides. One of the lesser known services KEC provides is lobbying to Kansas Legislator's in Topeka, on behalf of Electric Cooperatives in an effort to keep State and Federal regulations down as much as they can. Since there was no other new or unfinished business on the agenda, President Frieling adjourned the meeting.

Address from Youth Scholarship and Trip Competition Winner
One of the highlights of the evening was the address given by Audrey Boeken, the winner of the 2011 Rolling Hills Youth Scholarship and Trip competition who accepted the "Government in Action" trip to Washington D.C. last June.

The competition was at an all time high with applications from 28 high school juniors competing and 20 completing the required documentation to be eligible to receive the $500 scholarships and trips. Audrey was the high scoring winner of the competition.

Audrey, the daughter of Terry and Melinda Boeken, was chosen as a member a group of fifty talented youth leaders picked from the 2000 youth attending the conference to represent Kansas on the Youth Leadership Council (YLC). As part of the YLC she attended educational workshops covering topics such as the cooperative business model, grassroots advocacy, community service, and careers in public service. She also made a return trip to Washington D.C. and a trip to San Diego, CA as a member of the Youth Leadership Council.

Boeken listed one of the highlights of her trip as getting to meet Kansas Senator Jerry Moran and told of other activities she enjoyed while in D.C. She thanked the Cooperative for making it possible for her to have the opportunity to take part in the trip to Washington D.C. and for the $500 scholarship to further her education.

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Beloit, KS 67420, USA