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Nomination deadline With the Director Election date being set for June 15, 2018, the deadline for nominating petitions is 4:30 p.m., March 5, 2018. The terms of the directors for districts 3, 5 and 6 will expire with the June 2018 Annual Meeting. Any member who wishes to be nominated shall request a Board

Candidate Packet which includes a Request for Nominating Petition and a Statement of Qualifications demon­strating that he/she is qualified to serve as a director under the terms and provisions of Article V, Section 3 of Coles­Moultrie Electric Cooperative by­laws. Any member who meets required

qualifications may be nominated as a candidate for the board by obtaining the valid signatures of 20 or more active members of the cooperative on his/her petition and filing his/her petition in the office of the cooperative prior to the March 5 deadline. Candidate packets may be obtained from the president/CEO.

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A publication of Coles-Moultrie Electric Cooperative

P.O. Box 709 (104 Dewitt Ave., East)Mattoon, Illinois 61938

Phone: 217/235­0341 orToll­Free: 1­888­661­CMEC (2632)

Office hours:Monday­Friday

7:30a.m. ­ 4:30p.m.

ChairmanJeffery D. Hudson ............. Charleston

Vice ChairmanChris Christman .................... Sullivan

SecretaryJohn Bowers ...................... Lovington

TreasurerSteve Shrader .......................Westfield

DirectorDebbie Albin ........................MattoonDean Robison .....................WindsorScott Uphoff .........................Mattoon

President/CEOKim Leftwich

To report an outage

• First check your fuses or circuit breakers and see if your neighbors have power.

• If the problem appears to be with the cooperative's lines, call the office at the toll free number (888­661­2632), give the name the service is listed under, and report any hazardous conditions.

President and CEO ReportNovember 2017 Board Meeting Met with a CMEC member to

discuss implications of the Future Energy Jobs Act (FEJA), legis lation enacted by the Illinois General Assembly in December 2016; discussed criteria that renewable energy developers must meet as conditions to installing sizeable distributed energy resources (DER) in CMEC territory; CMEC staff was able to provide pertinent and unbiased assessment of the project for the member.

CMEC hosted several members, Board Director and staff for the Our Town Community Update Breakfast sponsored by Charleston and Mattoon Chambers of Commerce. Illinois Lt. Gov. Evelyn Sanguinetti spoke regarding the current Illinois business climate.

Met with United Way Executive Director Carolyn Cloyd to reaffirm CMEC participation in the annual fund drive.

CEO and staff met with Federated Insurance represen tative Joshua Samples to review our liability insurance renewal; reviewed each coverage comprehensively and chose/affirmed appropriate coverage levels.

Eastern Illinois University’s School of Technology selected Kim Leftwich, CMEC President/CEO, as their first Executive­in­Residence; November 9, Leftwich met with students, faculty and administration throughout the day and provided a keynote address in an evening symposium focusing on the electric industry – past and present.

Met with Blue Stem Energy Solutions, a Nebraska based energy developer, to discuss applications under the Future Energy Jobs Act and other measures Blue Stem could provide to CMEC.

Met with Eastern Illini Electric Cooperative to further discussions for build­out of CMEC internet

into the EIEC territory; member surveys have been completed and currently developing a business case.

Molly Lascelles, electrical engineering student at SIUE, visited Eastern Illini and Coles­Moultrie November 20; EIEC and CMEC are considering hiring a shared electrical engineer to meet our joint needs.

CMEC staff met with Coles County Airport Director Andrew Fearn to discuss a recent solar developer contact; provided Andrew details regarding interconnection and development issues as well as considerations he should evaluate in any proposal from developers.

Prairie Power, Inc. and CMEC met with Eastern Illinois University (EIU) technology department and physics department to help define and design an Electrical Engineering degree program to be instituted at EIU; the EE program would have a power and cooperative focus; low cost of living and reasonable tuition available at EIU could make the program attractive to students.

CMEC met with University of Illinois professors, associates of the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center, to discuss collaboration on various energy innovation projects; among opportunities are collaboration on electric vehicle projects as well as developing data analysis/data mining capabilities on the wealth of data CMEC collects across its system.

Accounting/Finance/Human Resources Completed audits during the

month of all employee files; verified employee elections and beneficiaries for benefit plans; insured that all required forms and documents were complete in each employee file.

Conducted training with the NRECA for our Benefits Administrator (HR Manager).

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NRECA benefits representative met with employees to discuss benefit options as we enter the benefit Open Enrollment period; armed with good information, a number of employees chose new/different ben­efit levels; we intend to continue the approach in future years.

CFO Amy Borntrager attended the Financial Summit at Prairie Power; the summit helps all PPI member co­ops gain a better understanding of budgets and cost direction.

Inside employees have moved to “paperless time entry” eliminating the old time clocks and improving efficiency in developing time keeping and payroll. The infor­mation is directly entered into the payroll system on our NISC plat­form for review, approval and pay.

Member Services/Marketing/CMEC Connect CMEC and Anixter had a friendly

competition designed to raise funds for a local individual fighting cancer. Over $1,600 was collected. Anixter won the competition and CMEC provided and served lunch to the Anixter group.

CMEC staff member Sam Adair attended the Cooperative Balloon Associates board meeting.

Painting and construction on the North building has been completed; two overhead doors were replaced to offer more clearance for larger trucks; painting is complete on the Northeast building; installation of motorized lot gates, both head­quarters and pole yard, is underway and expected to be completed shortly.

Installation of equipment for a CMEC Connect expansion is moving forward on both Kirksville and South Shores water towers as we received approval from the Moultrie County Water Board.

CMEC marketing staff completed a case study for NRECA on the HomeServe program as CMEC led the way as the first cooperative to institute the program.

Engineering Fall substation testing was

completed the week of

November 13 by Premier Maintenance; subs tested were Marathon, South Mattoon, East Charleston and Union Center. No major issues found. Currently awaiting test results to learn of any internal transformer issues. Prior to taking subs out of service for testing, we performed FLIR camera reviews to identify any “hot spots” and performed maintenance on issues found while the subs were down. The effort we believe will preclude potential equipment failures for the future.

Installed a 3 phase, 75­amp regulator bank to assist with voltage support to MPMI during back feed situations from Lake Land feeder 9­2; the installation performed well during substation testing, main­taining voltage in the 490­volt range (MPMI is a 480­volt service).

Operations Bob Schafer achieved Journeyman

Lineman status on October 27. H1, H2, & H3 Miles –

Construction Work Plan. Poles have been stake­dropped and material placed on­site in a secure trailer, saving considerable time and effort. Additionally, it is safer for CMEC crews; starting to lean existing poles and set new poles for the complete rebuild.

Completing installation of gang­operated switches for 2017. In total, we’ve installed 20 switches during 2016/2017. The switches serve to protect the system and are much safer, more convenient to operate under all conditions.

IT/SCADA Visited Corn Belt Energy

Corporation to learn about their experiences with the IP phone system in preparation for implemen tation at CMEC.

Completing movement of all AMI servers to the PPI cloud; presently testing functionality and final debug­ging by Trilliant, our AMI provider.

Developing CMEC email accounts, adding iPads, and AppSuite for paperless time entry for outside employees.

GIS Continue our effort to add

easements to our GIS system; so far, we’ve added 5,058 easement documents to the data set.

Formatting our map locations into our new format consistent with GIS as well as working on data automation scripts to import data from our NISC platform.

Tyler Wright is developing a training session for employees to implement the Avian Protection Plan.

Safety and Training Jim Wallace attended the

International Construction and Utility Equipment Expo in Louisville, KY.

David Welsh attended a Volt/VAR Management Class at Fletcher Reinhardt Service Company in St Louis, MO.

Wallace and Welsh attended Shark meter training; Shark meters will be purchased in 2018 to individually meter substation feeders providing highly accurate information collec­tion to calculate/manage line loss, power factor, power quality, load factor and other measures.

David Welsh attended the AIEC JT&S committee meeting and filled in as a judge for the AIEC Lineman’s Rodeo on Jim’s behalf.

Shaun Vester and David Welsh attended the Cooperative Technology Conference in Indianapolis; the event was the first joint conference between Indiana and Illinois statewides; the next conference will be held in Illinois.

Hunter Rawlings attended Underground Residential Distribution (URD) training at the AIEC training grounds.

AIEC performed the monthly Safety Training for CMEC; Jim Miles and Thad France were the instructors; Thad recently was added to the team of instructors to help provide better service to cooperatives across the state.

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Meter tampering can result in electric shock, is illegal and increases electricity rates for other co-op members.

If you know or suspect that someone has tampered with their meter, please contact

us immediately.

DO NOT TAMPER WITH YOUR ELECTRIC METER

Never break a meter seal.Never open a meter base.Never remove a meter or alter an entrance cable in any manner.

Preparation is power: Weathering winter outagesAnyone who has weathered

prolonged outages due to an ice or winter storm will tell you it is more than inconvenient. Such an outage during cold weather creates an additional set of challenges and safety requirements. Prepare now to ensure you’re not left in the cold when the next one happens.

Safe Electricity recommends assembling an emergency kit with essential items such as: Flashlight, portable radio and extra

batteries First aid kit and essential medicines Non­perishable food Bottled water Basic tools and related materials Extra blankets and clothing to dress

in layers Outerwear at the ready, including

hats, gloves and scarves Rags or duct tape to seal air leaks

If you have a wood stove or fireplace, have plenty of wood on hand, and if you have a fuel­based heater, have extra fuel and the means to vent the fumes.

Know how you can get area weather updates, such as a weather radio, mobile notification system you can enroll in, mobile app, etc. Visit state and local websites for emergency

outage plans in your area. Develop an emergency plan with your family so everyone knows what to do in an outage. Keep your mobile devices fully charged and ready to use when a storm is headed your way.

Additional tips for weathering a cold weather outage: Dress in several layers of warm

clothing. Wear a hat to avoid the loss of heat from your head

Reduce the amount of wasted heat during an outage by closing doors to rooms not being used and securing curtains and blinds to reduce heat loss from windows

Never use an oven or charcoal grill to heat the home

Reduce the risk of spoiling food during an outage by lowering the temperature of your refrigerator as low as possible, and avoid opening the refrigerator doors unless it becomes necessary. By doing so, you can keep your food cool for up to 24 hours

Protect your sensitive elec tronics by unplugging devices such as televisions and computers. Use surge protectors to protect electronics when power comes back on

Be alert to the signs of frostbite, which can include loss of feeling in

Electric wires are larger and can be easily identified by the three separate twisted wires, one being uniquely silver or uninsulated.

Cable lines are round and look similar to the coaxial cable that connectsto the TV inyour home.

Telephonewires are typicallysmaller, flat wires.

ElectricWire

Cable Wire

Phone Wire

Stay Back!Know the difference between types of lines and wires. If you see a downed electric line, be aware that it could be live and dangerous!

the extremities, and hypothermia, such as shivering, memory loss, incoherence or drowsiness

Use caution when going outside. Downed power lines could be hidden by snow or ice. If you see a downed power pole or line, stay far away and report it to your electric utilityA portable generator can provide

power in the event of an outage. Have an electric cord long enough to keep the generator at least 20 feet from any door, window or vent to keep car­bon monoxide out of the home. Read your instruction manual before use and operate your generator in well­ ventilated areas.

Never use a portable generator in the home or garage. Never plug it into a home wall outlet or connect it directly to the home’s electrical system. Install battery­powered or battery back­up carbon monoxide detectors near floors on each level of the home.

For more information on electrical safety, visit SafeElectricity.org.