History and Service Highlighted the 75th Annual Meeting

The rain stayed away and a gorgeous summer day occurred for Northwestern REC’s 75^th Annual Meeting celebration at the Crawford County Fairgrounds. The Co-op welcomed to this annual event a crowd of around 3,000, including Cooperative members and their families.

Those in attendance enjoyed numerous fun-filled activities for all ages including children’s games, a variety of local exhibitors, a petting zoo, horse drawn wagon rides, and more. Members received a complimentary gift and many won numerous door prizes. Also known as the Co-op’s “annual chicken dinner”, the members enjoyed Kentucky Fried Chicken meals.

Although this is quite a fun-filled day, an informational business meeting was held from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. During this meeting the membership elected new board members. This year’s elections resulted in: Kim Docter in District 6, David Rectenwald in District 7, Robert Davis in District 8 and Larry Proper in District 9.

Presentations from Kathryn Cooper-Winters, Board President, and Michael D. Tirpak, General Manager & CEO, focused on past, present and future Cooperative business. Cooper-Winters presented Ronald Wineland with a thank you and recognition of his 11 years of serving on the Board of Directors. Both Tirpak and Cooper-Winters spoke on the Cooperative history and importance to rural America.

Northwestern REC delighted in the honor of welcoming Glenn English, CEO of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association as the guest speaker. English remarks explained how electricity changed rural America. Congressmen Mike Kelly and G. T. Thompson congratulated the members on 75 years of successful electric service and community involvement.

Senator Robert Robbins, Representatives Brad Roae, Michele Brooks and Tracy Koon of John Evans office presented Northwestern REC with a special citation noting the 75 years of dedicated service to the membership.

Northwestern REC is a distribution electric cooperative serving 20,000 members in Crawford, Warren, Erie, Venango and Mercer counties in Pennsylvania and Ashtabula County in Ohio.