Nearly 1,000 attend SWCE annual meeting

The Steele-Waseca Cooperative Electric (SWCE) held its ninetieth annual meeting over the lunch hour on Tuesday, June 2 in Owatonna in the organization warehouse. According to Services Supervisor Randy Sobrack, the crowd numbered nearly 1,000, with about half being cooperative members. A central purpose of the meeting was to reveal the results of a recent election: Daniel Maas will be serving District 7; Ron Sommers will be serving District 8; Scott Carlson will be serving District 9.

 

The Owatonna Legion, with assistance from the Owatonna and Faribault Middle Schools, presented colors before everyone stood to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Those in attendance had the chance to win door prizes, enjoy complementary popcorn, mints and donut holes, and to mingle from 9 to 10:30 a.m. 

 

Board President Rodney Krell and General Manager Syd Briggs shared announcements and introduced honorees, including member John Beal, who represented District 7 on the SWCE board for 24 years. Beal told the crowd: “I was born on Staten Island in New York. I was adopted by my father, Minnesotan Jay Beal who was also on the board. I have often said that growing up on a farm in Waseca County was a lot better than growing up on the streets of New York. I will forever be proud of Steele-Waseca, and all of you should be as well. I ask that you, all of you, keep attending these meetings, they are important. Get involved. Bless our police, bless our members, bless Steele and Waseca counties. Thank you for your support.”

 

It was also announced that former co-op board director Gerri Lienke passed away on April 18 at the age of 78. She served for 20 years and was the first woman elected to the board.

 

Two students will be going to Washington DC thanks to the SWCE scholarship program, Connor Louks from Ellendale and Leighton Richter from Faribault. Said Richter, “I want to thank the board and all the members for this opportunity. This is once in a lifetime for me, I won’t forget this. Thank you.”

 

During an open forum question and answer session, members were invited to ask anything of Krell and Briggs. One member asked, “I heard that there was going to be a 40,000-acre data center going up in the area. Is there any truth to that?” Briggs replied, “I have not heard about that. I believe the data centers we were considering were only 80 acres, not 40,000.” Another question, which also concerned data centers was: “If the power does go out, how do we assure dairy farms are the first priority before data centers are tended to?” Briggs replied, “From what I know about it, the data centers are able to take care of themselves.”

 

There were three raffle giveaways: winner of the largest prize was Linda Tollefsrud, who took home two $150 gift cards, one for Casey’s and one for Steve’s Meats in Ellendale. Mark Foster took second prize: two $100 gift cards, one for Casey’s and the other for Grandpa’s Old Home Meats in Medford. Third place was $100 Lerberg’s Grocery in Ellendale awarded to Patricia Blow. There were around 20 flowers awarded as well. For lunch, which was catered by Hy-Vee was steak, corn, coleslaw, and buns.