1. Friendship Centers of Emmet County, Petoskey: $2,000 for a Meals on Wheels vehicle.
2. North Country Kids, Harbor Springs: $882 for books, scholarships and art supplies for a children’s literacy enrichment program.
3. Gaylord Gators Swim Club, Gaylord: $625 for a laptop computer and printer.
4. Crossroads Ministries New Life Pregnancy Resource Center, Petoskey: $969 for a computer and camera.
5. Otsego Conservation District, Gaylord: $5,000 for an amphitheater at the Otsego County Alternative Landscaping Demonstration Garden.
6. Grandvue Medical Care Facility, East Jordan: $6,000 for a wheelchair accessible van.
7. Kalkaska Historical Society, Kalkaska: $600 for a laptop computer.
8. Compassionate Hearts, Boyne City: $5,000 for emergency assistance for people in need.
9. Raven Hill Discovery Center, East Jordan: $10,000 for the Evolving Technologies building.
10. Au Sable Institute of Environmental Studies, Mancelona: $800 for improvements to their trails.
11. Eta Nu Charities, Boyne City: $2,000 for the Dress for Chill program that provides winter outerwear to children in need.

For more information about the People Fund visit http://www.gtlakes.com/people-fund/program-details/.

As part of the cooperative difference, Great Lakes Energy members will see a capital credit allocation message on their June bills. Since Great Lakes Energy is a member-owned cooperative, members are entitled to a share of the margins, or profits. Those profits appear as a capital credit allocation on the June bills showing the amount members earned in 2012.  The allocation is not a refund but a record of a member’s annual investment in the cooperative.

Members will be notified when part of their capital credit allocations are refunded. The next refund, pending board approval and good financial conditions, is expected to occur in December or January. Members receiving less than $1,000 will see the refund as a credit on their bill.  In the past 10 years, Great Lakes Energy has returned over $29 million in capital credit refunds to members. That’s the cooperative difference.

Congratulations to the following GLE kids who won new art supplies.  Winners will be contacted by mail or phone in the coming week. Thank you to all who entered!

4 years and under

1^st place: Austin Berman, Allegan

2^nd place: Inara Gray-Edel, Kent City

3^rd Place: Isiah Kellogg, Delton

5-7 years old

1^st place: Claire Howard, Petoskey

2^nd place: Stella Estes, Irons

3^rd Place: Carder Burgtorf, Ravenna

8-10 years old

1^st place: Melissa Tomko, Gaylord

2^nd place: Madison Warnke, Rockford

3^rd Place: Aric Rich, Zeeland

Seasonal residential members will receive their last quarterly bills in either June or July, depending on the billing cycle. In August, seasonal members will receive a monthly bill for energy usage for the billing period listed on that statement. Effective Sept. 1, 2013, seasonal members will transition completely to monthly billing and rates will fall under the new rate structure that was approved in March by the Great Lakes Energy board.

Seasonal residential, year-round residential and general service single phase members will be billed on the same rate structure effective Sept. 1.

The People Fund is supported solely by Great Lakes Energy members who allow their electric cooperative to round up their bill each month to the next dollar. Since 1999 more than $2.3 million in grants have been awarded to charitable and community organizations throughout Great Lakes Energy’s 26-county service area, which stretches from Kalamazoo to the Mackinac Straits.

Non-profit organizations can read program details and request a grant application online or by calling Great Lakes Energy at 1-888-485-2537, ext. 1313. Non-profit organizations that serve communities located in the Great Lakes Energy service area are eligible to apply. 

 Organizations that are unable to apply by June 1 will have another opportunity to apply later this year.

• Fuel, vehicles, maintenance and related transportation costs for covering a service area that is one of the largest of all electric cooperatives in the country. Vehicles include bucket trucks that can cost over $200,000 apiece.
• Labor, equipment, supplies and other fixed costs for operating eight local offices that help GLE respond more quickly to outages and provide better service to members.
• Costs to maintain the member services, 24-hour emergency dispatch, metering, accounting and administrative functions for handling billing, outage calls, and other co-op services.
• Costs for unexpected events, such as storm outage restoration expenses, depreciation on equipment, vehicles, etc.; interest on long-term loans, insurance, taxes and other normal business expenses.

Recovering the fixed costs of the minimum system in the fixed monthly charge rather than in the energy usage charge means GLE members can reduce their kWh use without negatively impacting the recovery of the revenue the cooperative needs to provide each member with the minimum system needed to access the electric grid. Members who have lowered their kWh use will now be paying their fair share of the fixed costs of the minimum system necessary to serve them while still benefiting from their share of any cost reductions the cooperative experiences due to decreased purchases from the cooperative’s supplier.

The Great Lakes Energy board of directors unanimously approved the residential rate restructuring proposal at a special meeting held today at the cooperative’s Boyne City office.

The rate changes will take effect for billings rendered on or after Sept. 1, 2013. Calculate your bill using the new rates using the online rate calculator and a recent bill.

As part of the survey, 140 Great Lakes Energy members will be surveyed.  If you are contacted, please note that the survey is voluntary and callers are not trying to sell anything nor will they ask for personal or bank information. As previously reported, we will not contact you in person to take a survey.