Mountain View Electrical Association held its first virtual annual meeting June 4, because of Colorado directives regarding the COVID-19 pandemic.Joseph Martin, president of the MVEA board of directors, called the 79th meeting to order. He announced the results of the annual election; Rick Gordon won the board seat for District 2 and Jim Riggins won the seat for District 7. The amendments to the Articles of Incorporation were approved by the voting members. Despite being a virtual meeting, door prizes were awarded, which included 50 – $50 bills, an electric lawnmower, a TV and gift cards. Martin said they held an electric power equipment giveaway this spring; two winners received an electric lawnmower and electric weed eater. The next giveaway will be in November for an electric snow blower. He said members can enter the giveaway on the website or through the Colorado Country Life magazine.Martin talked about the scholarship program. ìMountain View is proud to give back to the community by supporting future generations through our scholarship program,î he said. MVEA funded 21 of the 23 scholarships totaling $25,000; two were funded through affiliated organizations, Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association Inc. and Basin Electric Power Cooperative. ìWe congratulate all of these young people and wish them the best of luck in their future,î Martin said. He discussed the presidentís report, and said there were no rate increases for 2020 and there has not been any since 2017. Martin said their rates are directly influenced by Tri-State, which does not anticipate an increase in the next year.The board elected to retire $4.3 million dollars in capital credits and more than 40,000 checks were sent out to members at the end of 2019, he said. To date, MVEA has retired more than $67 million in capital credits to their members. Martin said the board thinks it is an important part of being a co-op.Martin thanked all the employees on behalf of the board for all their hard work through the year and thanked the members for their continued support of the cooperative.He then turned the meeting over to Jim Herron, chief executive officer. ìThis pandemic has changed so much in our daily lives, but the one thing that has not changed at Mountain View is we continue with business as usual regarding our priority of keeping the lights on, serving the members Ö and staying true to our cooperative principals,î Herron said.Mountain View is in sound financial condition; they had a clean financial audit and met all mortgage obligations in 2019, Herron said. MVEA provides more than 6,000 meters, more than 6,100 miles of energized line and has a service territory of 5,000 square miles in Eastern Colorado. They processed 1,908 applications for new services that ranged from single family homes to large commercial projects and assisted 308 members transition to solar power in their home or business.They have 23 substations and two new substations; one in the planning stage and one in construction, Herron said. The digital meter upgrade continues to go forward; in 2019, they installed the communication infrastructure for the new meter system; and, in 2020, 56,000 meters will be added or upgraded.Herron said, ìWe look forward to next year when we can meet in person and celebrate the annual meeting.îVisit the website at https://mvea.coop or read Colorado Country Life magazine to view the annual report and find out the winners of the scholarships and door prizes. The next annual meeting is June 3, 2021, in Limon.
