|
History of GEC |
History of GEC
While the first true cooperatives were formed in England well over 175 years ago, the earliest cooperative in this country was formed just over 100 years ago. Interestingly enough, those cooperatives were established to sell fire insurance. Today, there are cooperatives organized for credit unions, electric and telephone service, housing, insurance, farm marketing and supply, health and day care, news services and even art galleries and orange juice companies. Today, over 1,000 cooperatives exist in rural as well as urban areas.
In every cooperative, the member owner has a voice and vote in co-op matters and can be elected to the board of directors. This makes cooperatives a true example of democracy in action, and electric co-ops have become recognized as one of America’s true success stories. The fact that the co-op is locally owned and controlled also means that it serves the entire community. Whatever benefits the co-op and its member-owners, benefits everyone.
As we mentioned, the cooperative method of doing business is not new. And by the 1930’s, the process of organized electrification of rural America had begun. In 1932, President Franklin D. Roosevelt pledged himself and the people of America to a “New Deal.” Part of that New Deal was the establishment of the Rural Electrification Administration (REA) which was proposed by Morris Cooke in 1933. On May 2, 1935, F.D.R. signed Executive Order 7037 which created the R.E.A. The organization has paved the way to the electrification of more than six million farm homes and rural communities over the past 60 years. It was this same program which was instrumental in creating Glacier County Electric Cooperative in 1945.
Cut Bank was not totally without power prior to the formation of Glacier Electric. Electric service came to the area early in the Twentieth Century with the advent of steam and diesel generators. In addition, part of the electricity for Cut Bank was provided by a dam and hydro generation system. The dam was built on the Cut Bank River around 1915 by local innovator and electrical wizard Frank Seale. However, it was short-lived, as a major ice jamb destroyed most of the generation facility barely a year after it was completed. Parts of the structure exist today, and many Cut Bank natives can probably recall swimming, fishing, or sneaking out for a smoke at the “Old Dam” site.
In comparison to today’s electrical requirements, the dam was quite small. When operating at full capacity, it would only supply 50 kilowatts of less than the needs of Glacier Electric’s Cut Bank office.
For the most part, during the teens, 20’s and ‘30’s, very limited electric service was supplied to Cut Bank, Browning and Shelby by diesel generators. There was also a steam generator located in Shelby which was operated by the Great Northern Railway. The generators in Cut Bank and Browning were owned by Frank Seale’s Cut Bank Electric Light and Power Company, and operated until 1935 when Great Northern Utilities (owned by the Great Northern Railway) built lines to rural towns along the Highline.
But still, there was no power to rural farms and homesteads, many of which used either 6 or 32 volt wind chargers, with storage batteries usually located in the basement. Even though the wind was high, battery life was low, and the power was only useful for very limited lighting purposes. If you were especially affluent, you may have owned a DelcoLight generator which operated on gasoline or kerosene.
Great Northern Utilities was not interested in electrifying rural areas around Cut Bank or Browning, and no expansion was planned as the war years loomed close in the distance. Of course, during WWII, there was virtually no expansion anywhere except for projects critical to the war effort. But the time was finally right in 1945.
After many months of planning, on August 13, 1945, an event that was to become vitally important to rural Glacier County took place in Cut Bank. There was very little fanfare, no speeches were made and there was only a small news headline. However, the meeting held at 8:30 that evening was to have a profound effect on virtually every facet of rural living, industry and entertainment in Glacier County. That night, E.L. (Ernie) Anderson, Lester Gardner, G.K. Bilstad, James McAlpine, R.K. Vastine and Archie Corrigeaux met in the office of Anderson Implement on Railroad Street. While planning had been taking place during most of the war, they finally met to “…adopt bylaws, elect officers, adopt a corporate seal and consider and act upon forms of application for membership and for electric service….” The organization was dubbed Glacier County Electric Cooperative, which was shortened to Glacier Electric Cooperative a few years later.
All of the goals the group had set out for themselves were achieved that evening and we can be sure that the committee of six departed late that night feeling they had finally completed a job well done. The first officers were E.L. Anderson, president, R.D. Vastine, vice president and Archie Corrigeux was to serve as Glacier Electric’s first secretary-treasurer. They also became the original applicants to the cooperative, paying $10 each for their electrical service including a membership and deposit.
The next month, notice was received from the R.E.A. that the sum of $990,000 had been allocated for the purchase of properties from Great Northern Utilities by Glacier County Electric Cooperative and by the fledgling Marias River Electric Cooperative. The two neighbors nearly started out as one organization. Finally, after much negotiation, the transaction for purchase of Glacier County Electric Cooperative’s share of the properties was proposed to the R.E.A. in the amount of $343,450. President Anderson stated that, “such purchase would enable the cooperative to construct additional electric lines to serve a substantial number of persons on rural areas who would otherwise remain unserved.” The date was February 23, 1946 and the cooperative and the cooperative was a reality. Full approval was granted from the R.E.A. on March 29, 1946, and Great Northern Utilities turned the plant over to Glacier Electric. At that time, 98 percent of the electric lines served only the towns of Cut Bank, Blackfoot and Browning.
By May of 1946, upon the advice of the R.E.A., the number of members on the board of trustees had been increased from five to nine. Due to the substantial amount of work facing the cooperative, the final loan amounted to $881,000 which was obtained at a 2 percent interest rate. That month, John J. Green was retained as attorney and the firm of Harper and Fussell would handle the technical aspects. The coop’s first manager, Rudy Rudeman, was hired and the wage scales for employees were set. Some of the post-war wages were quite high at: $1.34 for a foreman, $1.225 for a lineman, a laborer received $.975 per hour and an office clerk was happy to receive $.845 per hour for his or her efforts. In that first year of business, the cooperative had four employees.
By October of 1946, ambitious plans were being made for the first major project of the new cooperative which was the electrification of the Seville area West of Cut Bank. Since the war had been over for less than a year, construction materials were still difficult to find. Poles were scarce and transformers could not be purchased new. The new manager spent much of his time driving through the Northwest looking for equipment and line vehicles so construction could be started. Much of the office furniture was war surplus from the Cut Bank air base. The Winter of 1946-47 slowed progress temporarily, but over 50 miles of line was built to Seville homes in 1947.
The construction crews, bolstered by a post war work force and the increased availability of copper and new aluminum wire, hit their stride in 1948 when 275 miles of distribution lines were run north and south of the Cut Bank area. By 1952, the mileage had been increased to 300 for the year. That construction was to the northwest from Cut Bank and to the south field west of the Cut Bank Creek which would serve the rapidly developing oilfield area. There was also extensive construction north of Browning continuing to the Babb and St. Mary areas. Three hundred miles more, south of Browning, were finished in 1954. At that time, Glacier Electric claimed that 97 percent of the county had been electrified in less than eight years. In 1955, power was finally provided to the Many Glacier Hotel area and to cabins west of Summit.
Understandably, the number of electric meters also expanded dramatically. In 1915, Cut Bank had 33 electric meters. In 1928, that had jumped to 108 with no service to the rural areas. In 1946, when the cooperative started, there were 886 meters in town with only a few in the country. That increased to 2,900 system-wide by 1955, with the majority of the expansion taking place in rural areas. By 1955, the co-op work force had also grown from the original four to 26.
Always progressive, as early as 1946, the board of trustees proposed building the power system large enough to handle the loads of the oilfields around Cut Bank and north to the Canadian border. At that time, some thought that the electric service rate of five cents per kilowatt-hour was too high to be helpful to the oilfield. But it wasn’t long before oil producers began to replace old gas powered reciprocating engines with modern electric motors.
Nearly 60 years after its creation, Glacier Electric has well over 1,800 miles of power lines, 7,100 meters and operates with a work force of 35 employees. And, while the building boom has pretty much disappeared, we are faced with the continuous job of maintaining a plant that is, in some cases, over a half-century old.
Our customer base is changing, too. While some folks can still remember life without power, the vast majority was not around in those days,and most don’t understand cooperative concepts. Today’s customer is more concerned with computer or Internet issues, blinking digital clocks or video games. They take electric service for granted. Over the years, the cooperative has changed its business approach accommodate the newer generation as well as the older members.
Even though attitudes and objectives are vastly different than they were 50 years ago, the underlying philosophy of the cooperative remains the same. Above all we are still vitally interested in and dedicated to our members and our communities. That’s still what it’s all about no matter if you grew up in the days of kerosene or the days of computers.
