Message from the CEO

Strategic planning, the new 2021–2024 Work Plan, the cost of service study, and the 2021 budget—these were just a few things on my list for my first message to our members. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that six weeks into my new role as CEO I would be writing about a major outage that affected nearly half of our members and our distribution system. The devastation left behind by the derecho is hard to put into words.

I am humbled by the ECI REC team’s unfailing loyalty and service to our members. It’s just amazing how everyone pulled together and continues to push through to recover from the storm. I’d like to thank our team for their incredible hard work—they make my job easy, and I can always trust them to do what’s right for our members. I am so thankful everyone returned safely to their families each night.

I’d also like to thank the mutual aid personnel from North West REC and Raccoon Valley Electric Cooperative, as well as the Highline Construction crews, who left their homes and families to help get our members back online. They were instrumental in speeding power restoration, as was our power supplier, CIPCO.

Finally, I’d like to thank our members for their patience and their efforts to only use power as they absolutely needed it. Thank you to those who have reached out with words of encouragement and gratitude—we share those messages with our crews, and they are much appreciated!