December 2020 | Volume 82 | Issue 12
Fighting Hunger in the Northland
Platte-Clay Electric Cooperative distributed eight Hunger Relief Grants to Northland area food pantries in November to prevent families in need from going hungry this holiday season.
Many charitable organizations have struggled this year with declining donations and volunteer hours due to COVID-19. Platte-Clay’s 2020 hunger relief program aims to counteract those declines so food pantries have the resources they need to continue serving Northland families.
Benefiting organizations include: Kearney Food Pantry, Good Samaritan Center of Excelsior Springs, Lawson Food Pantry, Smithville Food Pantry, Plattsburg Food Pantry, Platte County R-3 School District Treasure Chest Program, Weston Rotary Club and Community Action Agency of Greater Kansas City located in Tracy.
“It was important for us to continue our commitment to community service despite not being able to hold our annual in-person events this year that usually benefit these organizations,” said Dave Deihl, Platte-Clay Electric Cooperative CEO. “We’re proud to partner with these great organizations in their battle to fight hunger in the Northland.”
According to a study published by the Institute for Policy Research, food insecurity has tripled this year for families with children due to the pandemic. This has made the work done by food resource centers more important than ever before.
Concern for Community is one the Seven Cooperative Principles that guides Platte-Clay’s decisions as an organization. PCEC’s commitment to community runs year-round and includes supporting nonprofits and providing volunteers to assist with a wide variety of causes.
Making the Best of an Unusual Year With No Shortage of Challenges
Dave Deihl, General Manager
From the General Manager
This year has been the perfect example of why we spend so much time at Platte-Clay Electric Cooperative planning for the unpredictable. No one thought last December as we approached a new decade that its first year would center around fighting a pandemic while maintaining the service reliability our consumer-members deserve. Starting in the early spring that’s exactly where we found ourselves.
Balancing the important priorities of supporting our community through its public health battle and keeping trucks rolling to make sure the lights stay on in the Northland has been no walk in the park. Our team at Platte-Clay has made difficult decisions to ensure both of those goals can be met and I’m proud of our employees for stepping up to the plate to make that possible.
Very early on in the pandemic, we began plotting out potential actions we could take to respond to COVID-19 when cases began rising in the Northland. When they did, our workforce temporarily switched to a remote model – a first in the cooperative’s 82-year history. We also closed our offices to the public for a period of time to help stop the spread and give us time to put adequate preventative measures in place.
When it was time to return to our offices, we installed plexiglass barriers in our lobbies, created enhanced sanitation procedures, provided employees with masks and deployed hand sanitization stations throughout our facilities.
Stay-at-home orders and businesses shutting down put extreme financial hardship on many of our members, which is why we decided to temporarily suspend disconnects and late fees. Although we have returned to normal billing practices since then, we continue to work with members who have been impacted by COVID-19 on a case-by-case basis with payment plans and community resources.
The early return of $2.7 million of capital credits and moving our Board of Directors election to a remote format were two other important steps we took to adjust to this unusual year. Although these changes required a lot of work and strategic thinking, we’re confident they provide an important blueprint for how the co-op can adjust its functions in the future to adapt to changing times.
Being a community-led cooperative gives us the flexibility to react quickly to changing circumstances and make decisions that are best for our members without outside pressure from investors or anyone else. COVID-19 put our business model to the test, and it passed with flying colors.
Not all of 2020 was focused on responding to COVID-19. Once procedures and policies were put in place for our employees, we went back to working on our long-term goals of improving service reliability and building infrastructure for future growth in the communities we serve.
Tree-trimming and other vegetation management practices have seen significant progress this year. This ongoing project will help prevent outages this winter caused by frozen tree limbs breaking off and falling into power lines.
COVID-19 not only threatens the physical health of our community, it also threatens to steer organizations off course when it comes to their long-term goals. I’m proud to say we haven’t let it do that here at Platte-Clay. There’s no shortage of adjustments and new procedures that we now must follow until the battle with COVID is over, but we’re ready to tackle those challenges without losing sight of the steps we need to continue taking to provide our members with top-notch service for decades to come.
As we approach the end of the year, our entire team at PCEC wishes you a safe and happy holiday season. As always, if you have any questions or concerns you can reach me by email at GeneralManager@pcec.coop.
Poster Contest Winners Announced
Safety is a top priority at Platte-Clay Electric. To help increase awareness of electrical safety the co-op held a safety poster contest during the month of October. It was clear that these young learners invested a lot of time and talent into their work. Congratulations to the winners, and thank you to all the students who entered their creative safety messages. Check out the winning posters below and stay tuned to social media for an upcoming contest!
Doxo Not Affiliated With Platte-Clay
Some Platte-Clay Electric Cooperative consumer-members may have signed up for an account on a website called Doxo believing they were directly accessing their PCEC billing account. Please note that Doxo is not affiliated with Platte-Clay in any way and is not a direct payment processor. Doxo is an unnecessary third party bill payment platform.
Not only does Doxo charge an additional processing fee that you wouldn’t otherwise have to pay, using their service also creates a risk that your payment is not passed through to PCEC in time to avoid late fees or past due balances.
The best way to pay your bill is directly through the co-op by utilizing the online billing portal found on the website (www.PCEC.coop), calling in a payment by phone, visiting our office in person or mailing your payment with the stub from your bill.
PCEC Mutual Aid Crew Assists With Hurricane Zeta Restoration
Four Platte-Clay Electric Cooperative linemen traveled to Jackson, Alabama following the landfall of Hurricane Zeta to assist Clarke-Washington Electric Membership Corporation, a fellow cooperative, with restoring services to those impacted by the hurricane.
The PCEC crew joined others from across Missouri and several other states to offer assistance to Clarke-Washington. This followed the deployment of PCEC crews to Louisiana earlier this year to assist with restoration efforts at Beauregard Electric Cooperative after Hurricane Laura.
A core cooperative principle, cooperation among cooperatives is the concept that fellow co-ops should coordinate and offer mutual assistance for the benefit of their consumer-members. Platte-Clay has been the recipient of mutual aid in the past, making it even more important to the cooperative.
The statewide effort among Missouri cooperatives was coordinated by the Association of Missouri Electric Cooperative, who also organized crews for deployment to Louisiana.
Youth Tour Leadership Development Program Applications Now Open
High School juniors can now submit a 600-750 word essay or produce a video for a chance to win a trip to Washington, D.C. or Jefferson City next summer through Platte-Clay Electric Cooperative’s 2021 Youth Tour contest.
The theme of this year’s contest is: “Platte-Clay Electric is a member-owned electric cooperative, organized in 1938 by farmers who had to be resilient to bring electricity to their local communities. Tell us about a time your resilience helped you overcome a challenge.”
The deadline for the contest will be Friday, February 12. After the deadline has passed, a committee at the cooperative will evaluate the essays and videos to select the top six contestants. The top six will then be invited to the final competition where they will present their project to a panel of esteemed judges from the Northland community in a virtual format. Final scores are tallied from a combination of the written and presentation portions of the contest.
Two students will win a trip to Washington, D.C. and four others will get to participate in the Youth Cycle Leadership Conference in Jefferson City. Both trips offer students an opportunity to develop as leaders in their communities. If the trips are cancelled for any reason, scholarships will be rewarded in an amount equivalent to the value of the trips.
Platte-Clay Electric Cooperative has been sponsoring students to attend Youth Tour since 1964. The national conference gives students the chance to visit historical sights, meet with elected officials and connect with other students from across Missouri and the nation.
The contest is open to juniors who attend high school in PCEC’s service territory. More information is available online at www.PCEC.coop/YT.
Working For You
Platte-Clay Electric Cooperative is led by consumer-members like you. PCEC’s Board of Directors is elected by the membership and gives them a seat at the table when it comes to the cooperative’s decisions and long-term planning.
The Northland Connection is published monthly by Platte-Clay Electric Cooperative, Inc., 1000 W. 92 Highway, Kearney, MO 64060. Postmaster: Please send address changes to: Northland Connection, PO Box 100, Kearney, MO 64060 or mail@pcec.coop.
Platte-Clay is an equal opportunity employer.