LIGH READING
Inland students take on D.C.
From monuments and museums to Arlington National Cemetery and cultural visits, more than 1,800 high school juniors from around the nation descended on Washington D.C., for the 2024 National Rural Electric Cooperative Association’s (NRECA) Youth Tour.
Zach Emtmen of Spokane Valley and Katie Nelson from Deer Park represented Inland Power as part of the Washington delegation. They were accompanied by two students from Benton Rural Electric Association.
“I really liked meeting all the kids from different states along with listening to the people who worked with NRECA on the hill,” Nelson said. “Seeing all the sights was also really cool. I thank everyone who helped organize the trip for us to go on, and a huge thank you to Inland Power for sponsoring us.”
Students on the tour learned about electric cooperatives, American history and U.S. government. They attended educational seminars and met with legislative personnel. Their schedule was action packed as they saw historical sites in and around Washington such as Arlington National Cemetery, the monuments, the U.S. Capitol, multiple Smithsonian museums, other museums, a Washington Nationals game and countless other places.
While on the tour, Emtmen was selected to serve as Washington’s representative on the Youth Leadership Council (YLC). These leaders meet virtually throughout 2024 and participate in additional leadership training, co-op forums and community activities like voter registration drives. The YLC students will also represent their states at the 2025
PowerXchange, which is NRECA’s annual meeting.
“I think that sending kids to this type of program is important is because it allows kids like me to experience something I never thought I could,” Emtmen said. “As the YLC candidate, I think this is a great program because it allows me to grow more not only in my ways of communicating with others, but to learn the importance of my community and why these types of things are valuable.”
Information and applications for next year’s Youth Tour will be sent to schools within Inland Power’s service territory at the beginning of the 2024-2025 school year. To learn more, you can check out the Youth Tour web site at youthtour.org .
2024 Inland Power Scholarship Recipients
The Inland Power Community Foundation recently awarded 16 - $1,000 scholarships to legal dependents of Inland Power members. Funding for the Inland Power Excellence Award is made possible by the Inland Power Community Foundation. The Foundation’s committee also serves as the scholarship committee.
The Inland Power Community Foundation was developed to generate and collect charitable donations to improve the quality of life for the communities we serve through individual, family and nonprofit organization donations. To learn more or donate to the Foundation, visit inlandpower.com/community-foundation.
Congratulations to this year’s group of recipients!
The electric grid is a vital piece of our lives by powering homes and businesses, and allowing our communities to thrive. However, aging infrastructure, extreme weather events, and the transition to cleaner energy sources pose significant challenges. At Inland Power we are committed to identifying areas for enhancement and improvement and want to take a moment to share with our members what we have been working on to ensure we provide affordable and reliable power along with the highest quality of service.
RECENT PROJECTS
• Re-conductor project for our Springhill and Jerita substation locations
Crews successfully replaced 1.4 miles of line at Springhill and 1.2 miles of line at Jerita.
• Milan substation maintenance
Mitigation of a several hundred locations by upgrading cutouts, crossarms, insulators and arrestors were recently completed and will continue to be worked on throughout the year.
Mobile substation
Last year the Inland operation and engineering team identified the need for a mobile substation to handle increasing load demand. As a result, we secured a
unit and are excited to have this asset as a crucial response tool to help better serve our members.
We have many other projects in the works and will continue to update and communicate to our valued members the progress we make!
