In this Edition:

• Legislative News
• November Ice Storm Affects East River Service Area
• Co-ops Host Legislative Events
• Sioux Falls Rejects Proposed Ordinance 
• East River Holds New Employee/Director Orientation
• East River Honored with SESHRM Workplace Excellence Award
• Basin Electric Holds Annual Meeting
• Madison Izaak Walton League Receives Donation from East River
• Celebrating Employee Years of Service
• Well Wishes to Retiring Employees
• Thanksgiving Food Drive a Success
• Madison's Magical Christmas Parade

In National races, Democrats lost the U.S. House majority but will retain control in the U.S. Senate. Republicans earned enough seats in the House of Representatives to regain control of the chamber. In the Senate, Democrats picked up a seat from Pennsylvania that was previously held by a Republican when Democrat John Fetterman beat Republican Mehmet Oz. The Democrats retained seats in Arizona and in Nevada that were very close races and won a runoff in Georgia in early December. Sen. Kirsten Sinema of Arizona left the Democratic Party and registered as an Independent, but Democrats still have enough seats to retain the majority. 

At the state level, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz will serve another four-year term after defeating Scott Jensen in the November election. The Democrats held onto all of the statewide constitutional offices and also flipped the State Senate from Republican to Democratic control. The Republicans had held a 34-33 advantage in the Senate for the past four years, but the DFL will take control in the new year with the same slim 34-33 majority. The DFL continues to control the Minnesota House with a 70 to 64 majority. U.S. House seats from Minnesota are still split evenly among Democrats and Republicans with all incumbents winning re-election with four Democrats and four Republicans.

In South Dakota, statewide races Governor Kristi Noem and Lieutenant Governor Larry Rhoden won re-election for another four-year term in the Governor’s Office with 62 percent of the vote. Senator John Thune also won re-election, gathering 70 percent of the vote. And Representative Dusty Johnson beat his Libertarian opponent with 77 percent of the vote. Chris Nelson won another six-year term on the Public Utilities Commission, Monae Johnson will be the new Secretary of State, while Marty Jackley ran unopposed in his return to the Attorney General’s Office. Rich Sattgast won re-election to the State Auditor’s Office and Josh Haeder will remain the state treasurer. Republicans retain an overwhelming majority in both the House and Senate in South Dakota. Democrats flipped one seat in the Senate, but Republicans still hold a 31-4 majority in the chamber. Republicans flipped a House seat, so will go into the session with a 63-7 advantage. 

There were two ballot measures in South Dakota in November. Amendment D, the Constitutional Amendment to expand Medicaid benefits to more South Dakotans, was passed by voters with a 56 percent majority. Recreational marijuana was on the ballot again as Initiated Measure 27 and failed with 53 percent voting no. 

Parts of East River’s service area spanning a line north of Pierre to Summit were impacted by winter weather in November as a rain and icing event with high winds moved through the Midwest. The storm began in the early morning hours of November 9 with rain and wind, which turned to ice as the temperatures dropped and continued to build through the 11. The combination of ice buildup on lines, from a half to two inches in some areas and wind from the storm caused line galloping and momentary outages in some areas. Other issues from the storm included insulator bolt failure, impact to breaker operations, relay issues, and cross arm breakage.

Heavy ice loading continued to persist in the Aberdeen area due to the cold temperatures into the week of November 21 which brought warmer temperatures and melting of the ice. Crews worked diligently to remove ice from the affected spans and make repairs quickly returning lines to service. In total, this storm event impacted over 9,000 member-consumers served from ten co-op members and 24 distribution substations. A total of 33 breaker operations affecting 10 transmission circuits resulted in outage durations ranging from brief momentary breaker operations to outages of just over one and a half hours. Photo courtesy of Northern Electric.

East River members in southeastern South Dakota kicked off the legislative event season on November 21 at Yankton. Eleven incoming and current legislators attended the event held at JoDean’s Restaurant. The event was hosted by B-Y Electric, Clay-Union Electric, Douglas Electric, Union County Electric, and Southeastern Electric. The cooperatives did an outstanding job planning and executing a fantastic event. 

Steve Barnett, who became the new SDREA general manager December 5, was also in attendance. The legislators appreciated the opportunity to meet cooperative leaders and discuss issues important to our cooperative family. 

Some of the lawmakers detailed legislative issues that they will discuss during the upcoming session including whether or not to end the sales tax on food along with other tax issues. Medical Marijuana regulation will continue to be a topic of discussion, along with implementing Medicaid expansion that was passed by voters in November. 

Southeastern Electric Cooperative and Sioux Valley Energy teamed up to hold a legislative luncheon for Sioux Falls and Brookings-area Legislators. About a dozen lawmakers attended the event in Sioux Falls. Central Electric held an event with area legislators Dec. 19 in Mitchell. We appreciate our member systems for including East River in these annual events. The South Dakota legislative session officially begins on January 10. Photo courtesy of Central Electric.

Sioux Falls city voters rejected a proposed city ordinance in November that would have banned any future livestock processing facilities from being built within Sioux Falls city limits. The proposed ordinance was brought forward through initiated measure by a group that was opposing Wholestone Farms’ plans to build a hog processing plant in an industrial park in the northeast edge of the city. Although the vote was very close, voters rejected the proposal 48% yes to 52% no, leaving existing city zoning ordinances in place. In addition to blocking any future facilities, whether those be large, such as the proposed Wholestone project, or a small custom slaughter facility, the proposed ordinance also stated that existing facilities could remain in business and even expand, as long as they did so at their existing location. The only existing facility at the present time in the city is the Smithfield Foods plant in downtown Sioux Falls. Discussions between city and state officials and Smithfield have been ongoing for several years, considering future potential relocation options, as many other manufacturing and processing businesses have relocated out of that downtown area over several years, allowing for expanded redevelopment in that area. If this proposal would have passed, the process of potentially relocating Smithfield would have halted. 

In August, East River Electric’s board of directors passed a resolution of opposition to this proposed ordinance. Since that time, many organizations from the agricultural and business communities publicly joined East River Electric’s position and worked together to educate city voters on the benefits this processing project would bring to the region, along with the negative consequences if the ballot measure would pass. 

Several positives came from this event, including the entire agricultural community, even the agricultural community in southwest Minnesota and northwestern Iowa, coming together and supporting an issue that was important and larger than just the pork industry. A second, and more important positive, was the Sioux Falls business community proactively stepping forward to educate city voters on the importance the agricultural industry has on the city of Sioux Falls and how reliant the city is on the ag industry. Many bridges were built and relationships strengthened through this campaign and East River, on behalf of our member systems, looks forward to continue building these relationships for the benefit of our rural electric member-owners. 

East River held its New Employee/Director Orientation at our main campus in Madison on November 14. It was a great opportunity for member staff and directors to learn more about their power supplier. The event hosted 68 total attendees from our member systems and a number of new East River employees. The day began with an overview of East River’s history and services, detailed information about Basin Electric and the Western Area Power Administration and some other information about the mission and goals of East River. Then the group split off and toured East River’s facilities and learned about system operations, planning, engineering and construction, telecommunications, cybersecurity, and other areas of the cooperative. Then the group traveled to the East River Service Center to tour the substation building, service center and warehouse facilities to learn more about how East River crews keep the members’ transmission system running.

East River Electric Power Cooperative was awarded a Workplace Excellence Award in the Community Impact category. The Sioux Empire Society for Human Resource Management Chapter (SESHRM) honors local companies for excellence in the categories of diversity, culture, and community impact.

Read the full story on EastRiver.coop.

Basin held its 61st annual meeting November 8 - 9 and reported that more than 700 member cooperative employees, directors, public officials, and utility representatives attended. The theme of this year’s meeting was “Courage. Commitment. Cooperation.” 

The Basin Electric board announced that it had approved a $100 million dollar bill credit that will go back to members at the end of 2022. That is in addition to patronage retirement and bill credits over the recent past. With the $100 million dollar bill credit, over $263 million has been returned to members over the past two years. 

During the annual business meeting, delegates were asked to consider a change to the Basin Electric bylaws to increase the cap on deferred revenue that Basin is allowed to carry. The previous limit was $300 million dollars with a sunset date of the end of 2023 where the limit would go down to $200 million dollars. The Bylaws Review Committee proposed an adjustment to $500 million dollars and a sunset of the end of 2024 because Basin Electric’s consolidated financials showed a large margin that would go well above the $300 million dollar limit. After a thorough explanation of the issue and some discussion for and against the proposal from the floor, delegates passed the bylaw change by voice vote, increasing the deferred revenue limit to $500 million dollars with a 2024 sunset. 

The Madison Izaak Walton League received a $3,800 donation from East River Electric Cooperative in November. East River participated in CoBank’s Sharing Success Program and Basin Electric’s Charitable Giving Program, both of which provide matching grants, to raise the funds. Bob Sahr, East River CEO/General Manager, said, “East River appreciates the monetary support from Basin Electric and CoBank. The matching grants allow our cooperative to reach more nonprofit organizations and make a bigger impact.”

Read the full story on EastRiver.coop.

East River Electric Power Cooperative recently presented service awards to 16 employees with years of service ranging from five to 40 years. East River celebrated the years of service awards with a luncheon held at the Dakota Prairie Playhouse.

Photo caption: East River Electric service awards were presented to (back, left) Ken Clements, Josh Rundell, Stephen Haider, Jackson Entringer, Weston Resmen and Jamie Denne; (front, left) Tyler Wermers, Erik Traxler, Michele Whitlock, Joanne Lovro, Devin O’Day, Travis Olson, Doug Engbrecht, and Bob Gale.

Read the full story on EastRiver.coop.

East River Electric Power Cooperative wishes the best to our retiring employees. We thank you for your many years of service and commitment to electric cooperatives.

"East River helps people to grow within their profession, and when possible, encourages movement within the company to better themselves and the cooperative at the same time. I feel fortunate to have been able to work in the field and in the office and can appreciate the challenges that go with each area. It has been a great experience having worked closely with field and office co-workers at East River (and member cooperatives), and I couldn’t have asked for a better group to work with,” said Doug Engbrecht.

"It’s been such a great experience working for East River over the years. It is amazing how the whole company can come together and pitch in on storms jobs! Thanks to East River for giving me a chance to be part of this great team. I am going to miss all the co-workers and friends I made over the years," shared Rory Johannsen.

"I have enjoyed working in the Utility industry for nearly 43 years. I have really appreciated the opportunity to work with some very talented and dedicated employees at East River the last years of my career. I am looking forward to spending more time in the fitness center, completing flight lessons, and enjoying life on the lake. I still hope there are palm trees in my future!" said Steve Arbach.  

East River employees participated in a Thanksgiving food drive for the Lake County Food Pantry. Employees donated a combination of groceries and $60 in cash to provide 24 complete Thanksgiving meals for local families. The meals included ham, dressing, potatoes and gravy, side dishes and desserts. Thank you to the Employees Committee for organizing the food drive.

This year, Madison held their first lighted parade during the Madison Magical Christmas event. East River was proud to be a sponsor of this community event. The employees committee had fun decorating the bucket truck. Unfortunately, during the parade our generator malfunctioned causing our lights and music to go out. Although this was disappointing, we ended up winning the award for "most humorous" float!