The Mountain View Electric Association held its annual Lamplighter Dinner Oct. 24 at the Creekview Grill in Falcon. The meeting gave members a chance to dine with the board of directors and staff. Jim Herron, chief executive officer of MVEA, presented information about legislative issues and the continuing impacts of the Black Forest fire.The fire took its toll on MVEAís equipment.ìWe’ve repaired 819 poles and 28 miles of distribution line so far,î Herron said. ìWe had a total of $11 million of damage out of $300 million of our total infrastructure.îHerron said there is no insurance available on the market for an electric utility’s field infrastructure such as lines, poles and meters. He said association staff toured with representatives of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to show that the damage was enough to qualify for federal aid. ìThe fire got so hot that the aluminum melted off the overhead wires,î Herron said.Damaged and dead trees are being clear-cut in MVEA easements throughout Black Forest. However, trees outside their 20-foot-wide easements pose a greater danger to distribution lines if they fall into the wires. ìI understand people have an emotional attachment to their trees,î Herron said. ìThey think if there’s any chance it will survive, they want to leave it. But we have a short window of opportunity to deal with damaged trees outside our easements. Most of our members are being cooperative.îLegislative issues from the state and federal governments will also impact MVEA and its customers. ìSenate Bill 13-252 is doubling the amount of renewable energy we have to provide in half the amount of time,î Herron said. He said the bill passed as a surprise to the rural co-operatives in the last couple days of the legislative session. ìWe tried to work out a deal, and we thought we were good,î he said. ìThis new bill was heavily supported by the speaker of the assembly and the president of the Senate, John Morse.î He added a bit of humor in the presentation when photos of the two political figures appeared on the screen. He clicked the PowerPoint slide to update the Morse picture, saying, ìOh wait a minute, had to update that. Should say ‘former president’ of the Senate,î to applause from the members in reference to the successful recall election.ìAs far as bills go, this is one ugly baby,î Herron said. He asked members to support efforts to amend the bill at the state level and the new federal regulations by signing political action cards at the tables. ìYou can go to the website (http://action.coop) and fill out the form to show that we’ve got people in eastern Colorado who are concerned about these bills and regulations,î he said.The MVEA staff answered questions from members about power surges experienced outside Black Forest since the fire and outage information sources. ìI used to think computers didn’t work without electricity,î Herron joked. During a power outage, members can go to http://mvea.coop on their smart phones or battery-powered devices to learn up-to-the-minute information about service disruptions in the MVEA service area.
