Consolidated "Reach" Winter 2024 by Consolidated Telcom

P.O. Box 1408 Dickinson, ND 58602

reach

Winter 2024

Page 3

Community Involvement The Consolidated Reach newsletter is a publication of Consolidated Telcom – Robbin Schwindt, Editor –

See Page 3 for Information!

Office Hours: Monday – Friday 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM (MST) Phone Numbers: Local: 701.483.4000 US Toll Free: 888.225.5282 Main Fax: 701.483.0001 Internet Support: 24 hours, Monday – Sunday 701.483.4638 or 701.483.INET Telephone & TV Support: 701.483.4444 or 800.247.1858 Mailing Address: Consolidated Telcom PO Box 1408 507 South Main Dickinson, ND 58602 www.consolidatednd.com

Programs! EMPLOYEE NEWS page 2

The Great Pumpkin Hunt Winners! (see photo on cover page)

Congratulations to Jadyn Roller, Jayli Roller, and Gabe Bast of Dickinson! Consolidated and 28 local businesses awarded them a prize package valued at over $2,800 for finding The Great Pumpkin. This year’s Great Pumpkin was found in the trees east of the Binek Coal Mine. A huge thank you to all the area businesses that contributed to the prize package!

Winners of The Great Pumpkin Hunt, see Page 8.

TV COSTS EXPLAINED page 4-5 BATTERY BACKUP page 7 COOKING CRAVE RECIPES page 6

Reminder to our TV customers:

Employee News

Effective February 1st, Cloud DVR recordings older than 360 days will automatically be deleted unless the recording has been “protected.” Please follow the steps below to protect individual recordings, or call our office at 701.483.4000 with questions.

• Ross Kuntz has moved into the role of Director of OSP Operations. He has been on the Consolidated team for over 30 years.

Ross Kunts

• Travis Ranum has moved to OSP Operations Manager. He has been with Consolidated for over 23 years.

Travis Ranum

• Chris Klaman has moved to the role of Business Development Manager. Chris has been with Consolidated for over 25 years.

Carl Ebert Receives The 2023 Eagle Award! CEO/General Manager, Bryan Personne, presented the Eagle Award to Carl Ebert at the Employee Appreciation Social in December. “Picking one employee each year for the Eagle Award is always challenging as we have so many exceptional employees that work for Consolidated,” Personne says. Carl has been employed with Consolidated since 2007 and is a Combination Tech in our Hettinger exchange. He serves on the Hettinger City Council and is Consolidated’s friendly, trusted face in Hettinger, Reeder, and beyond. Carl is always willing to help, has a smile on his face, and pride in his work! He is at the office early each morning to design his day around customer needs. On behalf of the Consolidated management team and board of directors, thank you Carl for a job well done!

Chris Klaman

• Brandon Schwindt has moved into the role of IT Sales Engineer. He has been with Consolidated for almost 10 years, primarily working with our business customers and their IT solutions.

2. Press the green button on the remote control for “Actions.” 3. Scroll down and press the “Protect” action.

Brandon Schwindt

• Craig Johnson has accepted a position as Lead Combination Tech for Dickinson. He has been on the Consolidated team for over 25 years.

Craig Johnson

• Kyle Koffler has accepted a position as Lead Combination Tech for the North Coop Area. He has been with Consolidated for over 19 years.

Consolidated Offers

1. Go to your recordings and scroll to the recording(s) that you don’t want deleted.

Kyle Koffler

A group of telephone cooperatives realized, more than half a century ago, that they could get farther by working together.

Computers Servers! Business solutions Security Cameras! Let us exceed your expectations! IT Services & much more! Go to consolidatednd.com/business

Thank you to all who donated to the 25th annual Toy & Food Drive!

This year, the drive was a huge success! We were able to distribute much needed household products and supplies as well as toys to the Domestic Violence & Rape Crisis Center which serves all of southwestern North Dakota. We were also able to contribute to Head Start, Kids Program and local food banks. We appreciate everyone who donated to the drive. Your generous spirit has touched so many and made the holidays brighter. Thank you from all of us at Consolidated!

Battery Backup Voice Telephone Services during Power Outages: For many years, your home telephone would allow you to stay connected to emergency voice services during a power outage. Now your telephone service may be provided over fiber optic or cable modem, rather than the traditional copper-based line. These technologies require backup battery power to continue functioning during a power outage. To avoid a disruption of home voice service during an outage, and to maintain the ability to connect to 911 emergency services, Consolidated provides you with a battery for the backup power for your residential voice telephone service at the time of the initial installation at no additional cost. What Your Battery Can and Cannot Do for You: The backup battery provided by Consolidated allows you to continue to use your home voice services during a power outage. Without a backup battery or alternate backup source such as a generator, your residential telephone service will not be able to make any calls, including emergency calls to 911. The only way to maintain use your telephone is by using some form of backup power. Our backup battery does not provide power to any services other than voice. Home security systems, medical monitoring devices and other equipment will not run on a voice telephone backup battery. Proper Care and Use of Your Battery: If you do not place your battery correctly, it may shorten its useful life. Environmental factors such as temperature can shorten the battery's life. We recommend placing your battery above 41°F and below 104°F, and it should be replaced every 3 to 5 years, or when the battery’s indicator light shows that it is low or out of charge. Also, periodically unplug your battery backup from AC power to test the battery/cable modem to verify its condition. Please remember to plug the AC back in after this test. Provided Backup Power Duration: The backup power duration differs based on the technology that provides your telephone service to your home. For Fiber Optic / Cable Modem, backup batteries are expected to last at least 8 hours. Replacement Options: As previously noted, a backup battery has been provided by Consolidated during the initial installation. However, the battery provided may need to be replaced every three or five years or when it is no longer functioning. Consolidated will provide and install a replacement backup battery at no cost to you, upon appointment. A 24-hour battery is available upon request. Call 701-483-4638, 888-873-4638 or email support@consolidatednd.com.

Homemade recipes made easy on TV with your chef hosts Laverne & Rhonda!

Au Gratin Macaroni & Ham 5 oz. elbow macaroni 1 Tbsp. butter 1/2 cup chopped onion 1 Tbsp. flour 1 cup milk 1 cup shredded Swiss cheese 1/4 tsp. nutmeg 1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper Salt & pepper to taste 2 cups chopped ham 1 cup thawed peas Preheat oven to 400 degrees; grease 1 quart casserole dish. Cook macaroni until al dente; drain and set aside. In a sauce pan melt butter; add onion, cook for 1-2 minutes. Add flour to onions, stir until butter is soaked up. Slowly add milk, stir constantly; cook for 1 minute until sauce thickens. Remove from heat; add Swiss cheese; stir until melted, add nutmeg, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper. Stir in ham and peas; add to macaroni. Transfer to casserole dish; bake for 15 minutes until bubbly.

Note to All Home Cooks! Send in your favorite recipes by either method listed below and become part of the Cooking Crave TV show! Laverne and Rhonda will share your favorite recipes with their viewers! 1. visit Website at: consolidatednd.com/cookingcrave 2. Mail to: Consolidated/Rhonda Fitterer PO Box 1408 Dickinson, ND 58602

Ham, Egg, and Cheese Biscuit Wafflewiches 1 (16.3 oz.) package Pillsbury Grands! Flaky Layers Refrigerated Biscuits 6 eggs, lightly scrambled 8 slices cheddar cheese 8 slices thinly sliced smoked ham Preheat a waffle iron to medium heat and lightly spray it with nonstick cooking spray. Open the biscuits and separate each biscuit in half. Stretch the layers thin to about 5 or 6 inches in diameter. Top one half of the biscuit with a piece of cheese, a slice of ham, and a generous heaping tablespoon of scrambled eggs. Top with the other half of the biscuit and pinch to seal the edges closed. Place in the waffle iron and close. Cook 4 to 5 minutes or until the biscuit is golden brown & cooked through. Serve immediately.

Hawaiian Ham & Cheese Sliders Cooking spray 1/2 cup butter 1 onion, minced 3 Tbsps. Dijon mustard 1 Tbsp. poppy seeds 2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce 1 – 12 count package Hawaiian sweet rolls, split 1 lb. sliced deli ham 8 slices Swiss cheese Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9 x 13 inch baking dish with cooking spray. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat; cook and stir onion until softened, 5-10 minutes. Add mustard, poppy seeds and Worcestershire sauce; cook and stir for 5 minutes. Arrange the bottoms from each roll in a prepared baking dish. Spoon 2/3 of the onion mixture over the roll bottoms. Add ham and Swiss cheese to each roll. Put tops of rolls over the cheese layer. Brush the remaining 1/3 onion mixture over tops of rolls. Cover dish with aluminum foil; bake for 15 minutes. Remove foil and bake until tops of rolls are lightly browned – 5-10 minutes.

Ham Rice Bake 1 1/2 cups hard rice 2 cups ham, cubed 1/4 cup onion, chopped 1 can cream of mushroom soup 1 cup cream 1/2 cup half and half 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese 1 cup corn flakes, crushed 1/3 cup butter melted Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook rice according to package; set aside. In a 3 qt casserole, combine ham, onion, soup, cream, half & half, shredded cheese. Add cooked rice to mixture. In a separate bowl, mix together corn lakes and butter then sprinkle on top of casserole. Bake uncovered for 40 minutes.

Community Involvement Consolidated Scholarships!

AMEN Food Pantry!

The employees of Consolidated held a Holiday Food Drive in November for the AMEN Food Pantry. Together we helped make a brighter holiday for those in need.

Consolidated has invested in our youth through a scholarship program for over 35 years. Our goal is to help students from our service area to further their education. – Parents must be customers of Consolidated. – Judging is based primarily on the essay. Only in the event of a tie are the other items included on the application considered. – Children of Employees and Directors of Consolidated are not eligible to apply. Scholarship applications, essay topics, and details can be found at consolidatednd.com/programs/#scholarship. — 2024 Consolidated Telcom Scholarship: Ten (10) Scholarships at $1,000 each. Eligibility Requirements: High school student that will graduate in the year the scholarship is awarded and whose parents receive at least one service from Consolidated. Must submit the application and the essay by March 1, 2024. 2024 Essay question: How has technology contributed to your community? — NEW 2024 Dual Credit Scholarship: Eight (8) Scholarships at $250 each. No limit on number awarded to each student. Designed for high school students taking college courses online or in person where there is cost to them. Eligibility Requirements: Must submit the application, essay, a tuition bill (proof of payment) and a completion report with minimum of a C grade by January 15, 2024 or June 15, 2024. Essay question options available at: consolidatednd.com/programs/#scholarship

Coin for a Cause Committee!

Consolidated employees gathered for the annual Employee Appreciation Party not only to celebrate, but to make a difference for those in our communities who may need some extra help during the holidays. The silent auction items were donated by employees and departments, with a contest for the department that had the highest bid item. Consolidated employees Coin for a Cause Committee was able to donate $4,000 split between the following organizations: • Able Inc • Sunset Senior Center • Eldercare • Camp Recreation • St. Vincent DePaul • Women Empowering Women • Dickinson Public Schools (lunch money)

— NEW 2024 Consolidated Tech Scholarship: Two (2) Scholarships at $2,000 each. Designed for college students who have completed their first year with a degree in a technology related field that would be relevant to Consolidated. Eligibility Requirements: Must submit the application, essay, and transcript showing degree program with minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0 by July 15, 2024. Essay question: How do you see your field of study benefiting our region?

FRS Scholarship Opportunity!

The Foundation for Rural Service (FRS), in cooperation with NTCA– The Rural Broadband Association, seeks to sustain and enhance the quality of life in rural America. Through its various programs and initiatives, FRS strongly supports the continuing education of rural youth. The FRS Scholarship is for students who will graduate in the year the scholarship is awarded and whose parents receive Telephone, TV, and/or Internet service from Consolidated Telcom. The scholarship is awarded by the NTCA scholarship selection committee from a nationwide base of students. Visit consolidatednd.com/programs/#scholarship to complete and submit the online application. Applications must be submitted by the end of day on February 16, 2024. 3

Understanding Your TV Bill Over the past decade, broadcasters have abused outdated rules to boost their bottom lines. To this day, they continue to threaten viewers with blackouts. Retransmission consent fees (“retrans fees”) are the payments that TV distributors (cable, satellite, and other TV providers) make to broadcasters to carry their TV channels. Retrans fees are a relic of a time before the Internet. Consider that: • Retrans fees were established by the 1992 Cable Act • The rules were written at a time when most of us had only one choice for pay TV service • Today, we have multiple TV options, but our video rules are still based on the old model of only one pay TV provider “Reverse Retrans” is a Bad Situation: National broadcast networks are forcing local stations to charge higher retransmission consent fees and demanding a cut of the profits. Retrans fees were intended to support local broadcast journalism, but station owners in faraway places are stripping resources from local communities to fatten their profits. If the demands for higher fees are not met, broadcasters yank their signals from consumers, leaving you without your favorite programming indefinitely. Broadcaster’s blackout their channels until their ransom demands are met. And when they are, it results in much higher prices to you the consumer. Big broadcasters are paying an army of Washington lobbyists to keep the current retrans fee system in place because they want to continue to charge higher and higher fees for their programming. Despite tremendous changes in how consumers watch TV, the rules governing the video marketplace have stayed the same. The “Big 4” networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX) provide programming such as morning and nightly national news shows, some daytime dramas and prime time and late night shows. That programming is then shown by their owned and operated (“O&O”) stations or their affiliate stations. 4

Cable and satellite TV providers already pay more than a quarter billion dollars in royalty fees each year for the programming content carried by these broadcast stations. Retransmission consent fees are charged in addition to these payments, meaning that Pay TV subscribers are essentially being charged twice to watch the same content. How does Retrans lead to Blackouts? Who Wins? Broadcast Networks hold all the cards and win every time. Retrans fees are soaring – the fastest rising part of the monthly Pay TV bill. The fact that there are so many choices for Pay TV (and the same old video rules) enables broadcasters to play Pay TV companies off of one another and jack up the rates. When broadcasters can unilaterally blackout their programming and harm consumers with impunity, they are guaranteed to win. Pay TV companies want to give their customers the programming they love, but in order to do so, they have to either pay the exorbitant amounts networks demand or put their customers at risk of a blackout.

Who Loses? The broken retrans system is a lose-lose situation for consumers. Broadcasters abuse retrans rules and blackout innocent consumers until they get what they want. Pay TV subscribers are caught in the middle, they either experience TV blackouts when a broadcaster blacks out programming, or they see higher bills when companies give in to broadcaster’s demands – retrans fees are the fastest rising part of the pay TV bill. Either way, broadcasters are giving consumers the shaft. On January 1, 2024, Consolidated will implement the following TV price changes: · Essential Package: No change

· Elite Package: Increasing $4.00/mo. · Premier Package: Increasing $4.00/mo. · Premium channels (HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, STARZ): No change

· Local Network Retransmission: Increasing from

$27.18 to an estimated $34.26/mo. Covers the cost of providing ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX.

With so many choices, why choose your local TV Provider? It’s not complicated. We are your one-stop shop for communication services in your community. We offer a wider variety of services and extended discounted rates when you choose multiple services. We are your friends and your neighbors, and sometimes even your family! As a member of your community, we care about the quality of the service we bring to you, and we appreciate you and your business.

Since 2009, retransmission consent fees charged to Consolidated by local Networks have changed by over 3,426 percent! Consolidated feels that you have been paying TOO MUCH for these channels, which are available for free over the airwaves. To voice your concerns contact North Dakota’s local Congressman Kelly Armstrong and the local affiliates to let them know these price increases are unfair. Washington Office: Congressman Kelly Armstrong 1740 Longworth HOB Washington, DC 20515 Phone: 202-225-2611 Bismarck Office: Congressman Kelly Armstrong 220 East Rosser Ave Federal Bldg. Room#228 Bismarck, ND 58501 Phone: 701-345-6700 KXMA (CBS, CW) Tammy Blumhagen 1811 N 15th Street Bismarck, ND 58501 Phone: 701-223-9197 KQCD (NBC, FOX, MeTV) Barry Schumaier 200 N 4th Street Bismarck, ND 58501 Phone: 701-255-5757 KBMY (ABC, Xtra, Justice) Joshua Rohrer Phone: 701-241-5338