I heard about a unique garden display today, so I went and checked it out.  Apparently, the son of a former Eastern Illini lineman decided to pay a tribute to his father.  The results are quite impressive!

The display incorporates many of the favorite things from the former lineman’s life, and it is neat to see the time and energy devoted to a great project to honor a loved one.  Richard “Dick” Hilligos retired from Eastern Illinois Power Cooperative in 1986.

Very interesting article in the Wall Street Journal about the potential “cap and trade” program to limit carbon emissions.

This is an issue we’re very concerned about and we’re following it closely.  If this gets passed in Congress, it will amount to a tax on electric use.  Especially for power companies (like EIEC) that get most of their electricity from coal-fired power plants.  This tax will surely get passed right on through to the end-user customers – YOU.  Pretty much everything we use/eat/do requires electricity at some point in the manufacturing process, so this will affect all kinds of products and services.

We obviously care about our environment, and we are concerned about protecting it – sensibly, and without putting a burden on our member/owners.  A big tax on electricity in the middle of a major recession doesn’t necessarily seem like the best way to achieve our goals, though.

To help make your voice heard, our national electric cooperative association has developed a campaign to easily communicate with our elected officials.  Visit the Our Energy Web site for more information.

It’s amazing to think that 10 years ago, email wasn’t a lot more than a novelty, especially for a rural electric cooperative.

This week, though, we’ve realized that email has indeed come full circle. Over the weekend, our domain name registration was switched to a different company. That set off a domino effect that rendered our email useless, and also affected a sister site of ours. Needless to say, folks around here were justifiably upset with no email.

If anyone has sent any email to us this week, and hasn’t heard back, please resend the message!

This issue reinforced my thoughts that there are a ton of things in life we simply take for granted – until it is taken away. Whether it is email, electricity that goes out during an ice storm, or the death of a family member, I really think we all need to remember to be thankful for the joys in our life. Even if it’s as simple as hearing “you’ve got mail.”

We just received a great report from Kentucky. As you may know, they were hit with a HUGE ice storm recently. One so bad, it put our recent ice storms to shame. Anyway, we sent some linemen down there to help with the restoration. As a cooperative, we love being able to help our fellow co-ops – just like we received help during our ice storms.

Last week I found out about a “letter to the editor” in our local Paxton Record. Check this link for the very touching letter.  It’s amazing that we would send guys all the way to Kentucky, and they would restore power to a couple that attended the U of I.