Kiersten Hansen Kaitlin McClimon Allie Wolf Adam Schott
At this time, approximately 150-200 Cooperative members are without service due to flooding along the Wapsi, Iowa, Cedar and Mississippi Rivers. Flooding has also closed and damaged many area roads including U.S. Highway 61 and State Highways 22, 92 and 99. Other local rural roads and bridges have also been impacted by floodwaters. This will mean crews from Lone Tree, Wapello and Wilton will be covering additional areas as needed. Crews will respond to all power outage calls throughout the extent of this flooding situation, but travel times may be extended due to road conditions and the ability of crews to reach some portions of the service area may be impacted.
To report a power outage, call toll free, 1-800-728-1242. Cooperative dispatchers are on hand 24 hours a day.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is now taking applications for disaster assistance. Call, toll free, 1-800-621-3362 or apply online at www.fema.gov. Please have the following information available when you call:
A phone number and a reliable alternate number for call backs.
Address of damaged property.
Social Security Number.
Current mailing address.
Brief description of damages.
Insurance information (if you have insurance).
Bank account information (if you are found eligible
for
assistance, you may have the check directly deposited).
After registering with FEMA, you can call, 1-866-434-4692 (Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. - 4 p.m.), if you have questions about other needs assistance including repairs, or replacement of personal property, repair or replacement of an essential vehicle, moving and storage expenses, disaster-related medical, dental and funeral expenses, or miscellaneous expenses.
Fourteen outstanding local high school students have been honored by Eastern Iowa REC with college scholarships this year. Since 1987, the Cooperative has rewarded some of the area’s finest young adults from more than 40 different communities with a total of $116,500 in scholarship funds. All of the scholarship winners will be honored at their respective district meetings in July.
The $1,000 scholarship winners for 2008 are: Kiersten Hansen, daughter of Chris and Beth Hansen of Grand Mound; Kaitlin McClimon, daughter of Will and Chris McClimon of DeWitt; Allie Wolf, daughter of Scott Wolf of New Liberty and Denise Thede of Wilton; Adam Schott, son of Tom and Lori Schott of Tipton; Kate Glenney, daughter of Dwight and Dianne Glenney of Muscatine; Adam Kappeler, son of Keith and Amy Kappeler of Stockton; Andrew Sonderberg, son of Robert and Malinda Sonderberg of Muscatine; Jill Thomann, daughter of Jeff and Bonnie Thomann of Ainsworth; Rhiannon Hurt, daughter of Brian and Rosann Hurt of Wapello; and Erika Thye, daughter of Brian and Debra Thye of Wapello.
The $500 scholarship winners for 2008 are: Rebecca Christensen, Yale and Brenda Christensen of Calamus; Hunt Wilkerson, son of Gene and Lois Wilkerson of West Liberty; Trevor Schaper, son of Kevin and Teresa Schaper of Letts; and Katherine Boeding, daughter of Ken and Delain Boeding of New London.
Kiersten Hansen
Kaitlin McClimon
Allie
Wolf
Adam Schott
Kate Glenney
Adam Kappeler Andrew Sonderberg
Jill Thomann
Rhiannon
Hurt
Erika Thye
Rebecca
Christensen
Hunt
Wilkerson
Trevor Schaper Katherine
Boeding
The 2008 Eastern Iowa REC district meetings will be held in July. Elections for directors will be held at these meetings. Your name must appear on the Eastern Iowa REC membership in order to seek election to the board or to vote during the election. An example: If just the husband's name appears on a membership, the wife cannot be a candidate for the board or vote in the election. Two unmarried adults may become joint members. There is no charge to take out a joint membership. Joint memberships have been available for about 10 years.
Joint membership applications are available HERE. You can also obtain joint membership forms at any Cooperative service center or at each district meeting, but both the husband and wife must be present to sign the application. Bring your completed joint membership form with you to your district meeting or mail it to the Cooperative prior to the meeting: Eastern Iowa REC, PO Box 3003, Wilton, IA 52778-3003.
Saving money and energy this year can be as simple as installing an ENERGY STARâ
qualified compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL). Eastern Iowa REC
now offers a rebate
of $2 per bulb up to a total of 12 bulbs. By replacing their standard light bulbs with
ENERGY STARâ qualified
CFLs. By changing to energy efficient CFLs, a household
$60 a year in energy costs, reducing utility bills as well as saving energy and
preserving
the environment. Obtain
a rebate form HERE. The Cooperative will also be offering
members a means to safely recycle old CFLs. These bulbs contain small amounts
mercury
and therefore should be disposed of in an environmentally friendly way. Special
recycling
containers for old CFL bulbs will be located at Cooperative service centers in
DeWitt, Lone Tree, Wapello and Wilton for this purpose..
The Energy Policy Act of 2005 amended the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA) and required all utilities covered under this legislation to study and consider five new standards: net metering, fuel diversity, fossil fuel generation efficiency, smart metering, and interconnection for distributed resources. The Cooperative utilized a public written comment procedure to gather input from the membership. The board of directors evaluated the comments from the membership, as well as material provided by the Cooperative's staff, and took action on each standard. The links below provide the full text of these decisions.
Standard
11--Net Metering
Standard 12--Fuel Sources
Standard 13--Generation
Efficiency
Standard 14--Time-based Metering
& Communications
Standard 15--Interconnection
Standards For Distributed Resources
Eastern Iowa REC, like all electric utilities, wants everyone to use electricity as safely and efficiently as possible. These two new web sites offer a variety of materials to make that possible.
Through the UseElectric.com web site, you can obtain information about specific electric appliances, calculate home heating/cooling costs, obtain safety information and find contacts for contractors to help with electrical-related home projects.
Safe Electricity is a multi-media public awareness program that
provides life-saving information through its comprehensive web site. The site
includes information for home owners, children, teachers, contractors and agri-business
professionals.
All Eastern Iowa REC service centers are open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. All Cooperative service centers are staffed with billing representatives and member service specialists to meet all member needs. In addition, secure drop boxes are also available at each service center.
Eastern Iowa REC has established new e-mail service which is tied to the
Cooperative's web site. This will provide better avenues of communications
for several departments. You can now reach personnel (with the exception
of the line crew) who work out of the Cooperative's Wilton service center by
name. For example jim.williams@easterniowa.com.
Other important e-mail addresses are:
General
Information
info@easterniowa.com
Billing
Information
billing@easterniowa.com
Member Service Information member.service@easterniowa.com
To submit Market Place ads market.place@easterniowa.com
What stands more than five feet tall, has four hands, two
feet, a pair of antennae and gets children to laugh while learning about
electricity? Many eastern Iowa elementary school students could easily
provide the
answer-- Louie the Lightning Bug. For the past 16 years, Eastern Iowa REC
has used Louie the Lightning Bug shows to teach children about electric
safety. The Eastern Iowa REC
Louie program consists of a special Louie video and musical review of
safety tips. By the end of the current school year, more than 20,000
students throughout the Cooperative's service area will have seen and heard
Louie's safety message since the program was started in 1986. To schedule
a visit by Louie the Lightning Bug, contact Janet
Twait at the Cooperative's Wilton
service center 1-800-728-1242..