A view from the top
Born out of politics George Kitchens General Manager/CEO
Board of Trustees Charles Segars
President
District 6
Charles Teague
Vice President District 7
Linda Owens
Secretary-Treasurer
District 5
Ricky Knouff District 1 Andrew McCay District 2 Joseph Dutton District 3 Jimmie Halbrooks District 4 Ray Long District 8 Shirley Livingston District 9 Milton Taylor District At-Large
Headquarters: P.O. Box 460 Trinity, AL 35673
256-552-2300 District Offices: Moulton:
Hartselle:
641 Big Nance St. Moulton, AL 35650
700 Sparkman St. Hartselle, AL 35640
4 JANUARY 2018
Where has the time gone? It seems like only er purposes. The other purposes became very yesterday that I was trying hard to remember important to Joe Wheeler EMC and the other to write 2017 on checks when paying the bills. newly formed utilities in the Tennessee Valley. Now it’s 2018, and we begin another new year The other purposes included selling excess filled with the hope of many good things to electricity not needed for national defense to come. co-ops like ours that were beginning to serve This issue of our magazine focuses on pol- the rural areas in Alabama. itics. Politics is and will always be very imThe REA, as the Rural Electrification Adportant to your electric cooperative. Electric ministration came to be known, was essencooperatives across the country were born tial in helping Joe Wheeler EMC and other out of politics. On May 11, 1935, during the co-ops begin to design and build new elecdark days of the Great Depression, President tric distribution systems. They helped with Franklin Delano Roosevelt issued executive engineering and design. REA had its own order 7037 which created the Rural Electri- construction standards. The REA developed fication Administration. a 7200-volt distribution In May 1936, the presvoltage standard which ident signed the Rucould support longer ral Electrification Act lines of up to about 40 which had been passed miles without significant by the Senate and House voltage drops. As the coin March and April reop built new lines, REA spectively. At that time, would inspect the work electricity was commonto assure quality and place in cities, but power make sure that the new was not readily available lines met their standards on farms, ranches, and for safety. They also proother rural places. The vided low-cost loans that organizers of Joe Wheelprovided much-needed er EMC were not too far start-up capital for the behind these events. Joe fledgling utilities. The Wheeler EMC was in- President Franklin D. Roosevelt created REA is now the RUS, corporated in April 1937, the REA on May 11, 1935. Rural Utilities Service and by the fall of 1937, and is a part of the Dewe were beginning to serve customers. partment of Agriculture. They still provide Just a few years earlier, in 1933, the Ten- loan funds but are also involved in pilot pronessee Valley Authority was created by con- grams to bring broadband Internet service to gressional action as a federally owned cor- rural areas. poration. The purposes of the TVA were: to So now you know the rest of the story about provide flood control on the Tennessee River; the relationship between politics and your to provide for reforestation and proper land electric cooperative and how that got us to use for marginal lands in the Tennessee Riv- where we are today. This is why we appreciate er Valley; to provide for the agricultural and it when politicians like Rep. Mo Brooks visit economic development of the Tennessee Val- to talk about issues and listen to our concerns. ley; to provide for the national defense by the We thank him, and all the men and women creation of a corporation for the operation of who serve our communities by helping to government properties at and near Muscle make the hard decisions that keep us moving Shoals in the State of Alabama, and for oth- forward.
www.alabamaliving.coop