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001107 larry SparkS; Dir.. '. . Cola. Water C .onservat1.on State Services Bldg. DeJlver 2 I Colo Pioneering State's Rural Electrics Was Not A Simple Or Easy Task Gdi.lion Aone.er s SERVING COLORADO PEOPLE WHO SERVE THEMSELVES THROUGH PRIY ATE INITIATIVE RURAL ELECTRIC SYSTEMS Rural Electric Headquarters Then Contrasting office fQcllliies of toclC.lY with only 22 years ago Is this struc- ture which housed Moon lake Electric Association at Allamant, Utah, in 1940. The first office wos a single room rented for $10.00 per month. RuralEledrics Save Immense Sum ForWestern Colorado Use All of the "prefabricated" reports erroneously issued in recent months concerning rural electrics in the state, with a stepped-up barrage loosed the past month by Public Service Com- pany of Colorado, are now being dis_ closed as seUish diversionary tactics. A prime example has been the pub- licit"v blasts against the normal busi- ness procedures being pursued by Colo- rado Ute Electric Association Inc. In its program 10 provide needed power for its dependent consumers. "Manager John J. Bugas of the gen- eration and transmission association at Montrose, told Colorado Rural Electric News a loan for eatabllshment of a new steam generation plant on the West- el'n Slope hss just been approved by the Rural Electrification Adminlstra-' tion in Washington. Use of this loan is predicated upon subsequent" steps: l. Cel'tification by the Colorado Public Utilities- Commission; and 2. Selection of the most economic plant site. These steps are next In linE!. All of the news furor during recent Expansion months has indicated that Colorado- Ute was using high-handed tactics, ranging from "secrecy" in bOl'rowing 'of public funds to disregard of the state's Utilities Commission. all of which is being proven untrue. The as- s,ociation, serving 12 Western Slope c,ooperatives, has pursued its goal in normal, ethical business fashion. Bugas said. his generation and trarrsmission association hllll taken each step logically and. legaUy in planning for a program d&$igned to provide sufficient power for mem- bers. No olher' consideration is in- volved.. Bugas. explained that $15,600,000 of the loan is in new funds, with $6,000,- 000 of old loan funds originally allo- cated to Arkansa,s Valley G & T being transferred to Colorado Ute in setting up a partnership 150 megawatt coal steam plant. If the project meets ap- proval of Colorado Public Utilil,ies Commission, power will be sold to Arkansas Valley tor its' three mem- bers-Southeast Colorado Power Assn., Sangre De Cristo Electric Assn., and San Isabel Electric Assn. Another $10,000,000 allocated for the Salt River project in Arizona will als(l be pooled and that association will be sup- plied with its, share of the generated power. Bugas said C.olorado-Ute now has given Stanley Engineering Co. of Mus- catine, Iowa, the "go ahead'. for .tinal location study of the Coal-generated steam plant at the most. advantageous position _for the rural electric mem- bers and for the best erihancement of the Colorado River Storage transmis- sion system. This may be on the Yampa River or it may be on the North Fork of the Gunnison River. The reason Colorado-Ute, Arkansas Valley and Salt River got. together on the most effIcient and ,-economically . feasible project, Bugas said, was ,to in. sure power requirements after the Bureau of, Reclamation stated it could -Colorado rural 'eleclrlcs \11o>{ed--Wp~~' not- guarantee to supply the increasing IdlyforW.$ud,afteTWoi'ldWarll.O.E. needs of t~e area by 1964.from the . Sd\legel. t~en president of Empire is COlO~:a;lISR~:~ ~~:~:e J1=tCOIO_ shown clOSing the switch of the 44,000 rado River participafing projects volt substation 1n Mancos, marking planned foz the WelItem Slope in complelion of the lint step, ,in. the 1;0mJug_yelU'l.-..C.lU1-.be. paid for out giant 1)0S,t.war constr,,!cllon prOQl'am of ReYln" made bv fltCfInt "_1,,0. by Eph C. Johnson (EdilOr~NO/e: the following ~tory wriuen _byEphC. Johnson, one of Highlin_Elmric Auocialions pion..r~. lells the ~rory of Ihe orvanizalion of an assodation from the firSI discussion 10 rh~ddl. rhelimW<lremraiuit. .We'arerure rhal the people who.,,;o'y Ih. benrfilsof rural electric loday, willapprecial' Ihfirele,trical """rvanl" Wen more from Ihis detailed account.) At the office of the Co-operative Oil Company' in the spring of 1937 the writer together with Mr. Eaxl Nelson, who then was manager of the Harris. Grain Elevator in Paoli, were discuss- ing the incapability {If our present lighting system of the Town of Paoli. This system was a D.. C. plant, which supplied its patrons. with electricit;; and power during the day by the op- eration of a generating motor. From twelve o'clock midnight until seven o'clock in the morning electricity was supplied by storage batteries. In order to supply the increased de. mands fot electricity and power, a larger plant was the need that con- fronted the citizens of the Town of Paoli. The cost of a plant large ,enough to take care of the present load and for a- normal growth was out of the question. We discussed the possibility of build- ing a Power Line from Haxtun to Pa- oli, a distance of about ten miles. To finance such a project was the insUl'~ mountable barrier. We decided that the only way a project of this size could be built was to write to Washington and see~ government help to make it an REA Project. The next morning I mail- ed ,a letter to the Rural Electrification Administration in Washington explain- ing as well as I could our plans 10 build a power line to our town and we want- ed to make it an REA Project. 'Within ten days we received a letter from Washington informing us that the R u I' a I Electrification Administration would not cons.ider the building of a power line less than 100 miles. Such a project seemed insurmountable, but- there was no harm in trying. So we contacted Gust Anderson, Verne MlI- ler, A. O. Mitchem and other men in the community to find out if they thought enough interest could be so- licited to, build a power line lOO miles long. We decided that a meeting should be called to discuss the matter with all who were interested in such a pro- gram. A general alarm was given onr the telephone lines announcing a Rural Electrification meeting at the Paoli School House. The program of the meet- ing was to discuss the interest and feasibility of bringing electricit), and power to Paoli and to the surounding' communities. (Continued on page 7) ,~-,. KC Now Serves 4,000 Members Pioneering was not confined to the 'SOs in Colorado rural electric history. One of the most progressive of toda3"S cooperatives is K.C. Electric Associa- tion of Hugo which was started in 1948. Arthur E. Gaines of Flagler became the first president Qf, KC and has con. tinued in that capacity to the present. time. To indicate the stability of the association the first manager John E. Rose still guides KC under direction of his Board of Directors. The KC system was launcAed when the cooperative purchased generating plants in Hugo. Stratton and Cheyenne Arthur E. Gaines Wells from the Inland Utilities Co. to. gether with the dilltributing lines. in neighboring communitiElll. Rose was an official with Inland - at the time and assumed management for the new owners. In later y~ars KC hooked into the Bureau of _Reclamation power grid, progressing rapidly as the demands of its consumers grew in the rolling east. ern Colorado farm and ranch lands ranging to the Kansas border. Elmer Kueker was the firs t KC treasurer, and is still a directol' and a member of the state associa'tion board. Bringing KC up 10 the minute, the Rural Electrification Admini- ~lraiion has announced a loan of $308,000 to Kit Cauon Eledric As- sociation at Hugo. Calc.. These and funds from prior loans w~il enable KC to finance construction of 28 miles of distribution line to serve 98 new rural COl1llUmerS, and to make extensive system improvements. The additional program includes 9 miles of new tie line, a new substa- tion at Smokey and conversion of 71 miles of existing-line. Upon completion of the facilities pro~ vided for in thi<; and prior REA loans KC will be operating 2,016 miles {jf line serving 3,954 consumers In four counties. Old Generators Part Of Past Recognize this generator in your rurol electric associatian's early begin- ning? The portable generator with wheels off and set up on blocks provided the power for many homes when Colorada rural eleclrics were getting starled. Some sources would like to hold our rur<:tl systems tied to this. kind of operafion rather than allow us to plan for the future, This particular "plant" was one of Iwo with which Empire Electric started serving its origin41 260 consumers . t in 1941. II was located at Lewis_ Colo. _ Phntn .-nllrt,,~vl~"'7h~: /~li'.+inn~,_ , lLi