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This is Chris Redgrave for Zions Bank Speaking on Business.
In 1938, a group of farmers in the Altamont area started Moon Lake Electric, now located in Roosevelt ....It was formed under the old REA program — that's Rural Electrification Program — a program initiated so that the government could assist in bringing electricity to rural America..... They offered inexpensive loans so, as people formed cooperatives, they could acquire cheap funding to help build small power plants..... This was the case for Moon Lake Electric ....
Now, some 75 years later, Moon Lake Electric is no longer funded in any way by the federal government... They paid off those old loans and obligations years ago.... As a cooperative, they're now member owned, and that's different from being investor owned....
They currently serve over 11,000 members over an area roughly 8,000 square miles, from the top of Daniel's Canyon by Strawberry Lake, which is their furthest west point, to most of Uintah Basin area excluding Vernal, all the way into Northern Colorado... And here's something you won't hear every day from many other power companies — they haven't had a rate increase since the mid 1980s, so they're now sporting some of the lowest rates in the nation...
Their 90 employees include Alan Haslem, the CFO, who has been with the company for 32 years... He's the first to point out how Moon Lake Electric has lots of employees who've been there 20 years or more, and some … for over 40 years .... They're an important employer for the Roosevelt area and are contributing to Utah's employment base with the unemployment rate now sitting at 4.6 percent.
Moon Lake's reliability is very high, and their greatest success is just being able to offer what they consider as very good service at a competitive price... They've tried to establish the attitude that even though people have to come for them for service, they watch the money like it's their own...
The future looks bright for Moon Lake Electric, and Alan sees no rate increase on the horizon, barring any political complications...
For Zions Bank, I'm Chris Redgrave, speaking on business.
Moon Lake Electric 800 W. Hwy 40 Roosevelt, UT 84066 435-722-5400 www.mleainc.com
