Attica, OH – North Central Electric Cooperative (NCE) is pleased to welcome back multiple employees who have safely returned from Gallipolis, Ohio, and assisted other linemen in the Buckeye Rural Electric Cooperative (BREC) territory after the February winter storms. Linemen Dan Reer, Mike Stahl, Donovan Roth, Paul Weaver, Aaron Lindsey, Curt Reiter, and Apprentice Linemen Alex Scheiber and Andrew Willman represented NCE during the power restoral efforts. The linemen went down in two groups, one week at a time, to assist the fellow not-for-profit electric cooperative to get its thousands of members' power back on after extremely severe and dangerous ice storms wreaked havoc on trees, powerlines, and homes. 

NCE operates by seven cooperative principles as part of its daily operations, including "Cooperation Among Cooperatives." Therefore, when BREC put out a call for assistance, it was no hard decision for the co-op and its employees to send the requested aid.

The six Linemen (Reer, Stahl, Roth, Weaver, Lindsey, Reiter) and two Linemen Apprentices (Scheiber and Willman) answered the call. The first group left in mid-February shortly after the storm spread several inches of snow, formed heavy ice on transmission lines, busted multiple poles, and froze many pieces of equipment. Gear in tow, the employees worked several long-hour days before being relieved by the second group that headed down when they returned. In all, more than 10 different co-ops sent assistance to BREC. 

"I know I can speak for all of the Board and other employees when I say that we are extremely proud of the linemen who went down to a very challenging environment of extreme cold, ice, and snow to help out a fellow cooperative.  We are very happy to have you all back home safe and sound.  As you do every day at home, you continued to uphold the cooperative's longstanding principle of Cooperation Among Cooperatives," says Ed VanHoose, General Manager of North Central Electric. 

NCE is not unfamiliar with helping other co-ops during times of need. Cooperatives serve their members most effectively and strengthen the cooperative movement by working together through local, national, regional, and international structures. At NCE, a management and shared services cooperative known as Federated Energy Services Cooperative was formed in 1998 with Lorain-Medina Rural Electric Cooperative in Wellington, OH, to share personnel and equipment.

Not-for-profit North Central Electric Cooperative provides power to approximately 9,600 consumer-members in Crawford, Hancock, Huron, Richland, Sandusky, Seneca, Wood, and Wyandot counties in Ohio.

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