North Star Electric Co-op
What
is North Star Electric Cooperative?
North Star is a
cooperative that was formed in 1940 for the sole purpose of providing electricity
to the rural areas in north central
Board
of Directors
North Star is controlled
by those it serves--the members purchasing electricity from the cooperative.
All members have the right to vote for their board representative. The current
board members are Julian Brzoznowski, Mike Trueman, Randy Bergan, Bruce
Polkinghorne, Steve Arnesen, Allan Nygaard, Mike Hanson, and LJ Anderson. The board generally meets the first Wednesday
of each month.
Management
Team
The board hired Dan
Hoskins in 2002 as the Cooperative’s General Manager. He is assisted by his staff: Ann Ellis (Finance Manager),
Early
History of the Cooperative
Up in the rugged North
Country of Minnesota, with its northern boundary formed by beautiful Lake of
the Woods and the fast-flowing
It was a time when war
clouds were looming up black and menacing on the horizon. Far-thinking men
could see the impact it would have on the
"If they
figure it wouldn’t pay to serve farmers in that area," many skeptics
pointed out, "how in the world could a farmer organization make it pay
out?"
It seemed like a
logical question to many doubting Thomases in the
area. And, for that matter, the skepticism wasn’t limited to the farmers and
townspeople. There was even some doubt in the minds of the Rural
Electrification Administration (REA) officials regarding the probability of
this Cooperative ever solving its many problems. However, they kept those
doubts to themselves.
Border
Electric Cooperative – The Beginning
The group promoting the
rural electric systems in
Much of the work
required to get the Border Electric Cooperative into operation had fallen upon
the shoulders of those who had signed the articles of incorporation. Einar Johnson of Ericksburg had
been elected president; Elmer Petrell, Ray, vice
president; L. Roy Lutz,
By May 11, over 200
members had been signed up.
The big problem facing
the officers and directors of the Border Electric Cooperative was that of
getting a suitable source of power. This required obtaining a contract for
power from a source able to meet present, as well as future, needs of
consumers. In addition, the wholesale price had to be approved by REA officials
in
Border Electric
cooperative’s board of directors always had assumed they would secure a
favorable contract for wholesale power from the generating plant of the
Border Electric
Cooperative was housed in the Baehr building in
North
Star Electric Cooperative
Meanwhile, North Star
Electric Cooperative was organized through the efforts of George Berggren,
Norman Clementson was elected president, William Rivard as vice president, A.N. Grems
as secretary and Edgar Bratton as treasurer. Frank Timm
was named attorney and a membership fee of $5.00 was voted with a minimum of
$3.50 for 40 kWh was agreed upon for each consumer.
Oddly enough, that
minimum of $3.50 per month for electricity was to cause many people to postpone
becoming members of the electric cooperative. It seemed like an unreasonably
large sum to have to pay for electricity since most farmers figured they would
be using electricity only for lighting their homes and possibly their barns.
The prospect of some day owning scores of electrical appliances was quite
remote from the minds of most members.
The directors
deliberated over a selection of project coordinators. Mr. Clarence Peterson of
Pitt, accepted the position with the stipulation he begin work July 24, 1940 at
a salary of $100 per month. North Star got its initial allocation of $196,000
approved January 30, 1941, with the understanding it would get its power from
the municipal power plant at Baudette. Bids for building the first section of
North Star’s lines were let February 13, 1941,with E.W. Wiley as the
contractor.
Common
Goals
Sears Roebuck & Co.
was awarded a contract to do the wiring of farms homes and buildings. Both the
North Star and Border systems were among the several in northern
The vexing problem of a suitable
source of power continued to haunt both systems.
Border
Counties Power Cooperative
The solution finally
came when representatives of three neighboring electric cooperatives, North
Star Electric, Border Electric, and Roseau Electric, met and formulated plans
to construct a generating plant at Warroad. This resulted in formation of the
Border Counties Power Cooperative with Einar Bergen
as the manager. Plans called for installation of three 350 kW engines first
with room for future expansion to add two more 1000 kW units. A booster plant
to be constructed elsewhere was also in the plan.
The power cooperative
was allocated $315,000 for the construction of the two plants. Work was started
on the project February 12, 1941 – ten months before the attack on Pearl Harbor
at
A nine-man board of
directors was appointed to govern the operations of the generating plant. North
Star’s representatives on the board were William Rivard,
Chris Christensen and Peter Sorensen. Border named as its directors Einar Johnson, Neil Watson and Albert Dobbs, while
The Two
Merge Into One
Before long, it was
apparent that a consolidation of Border Electric and North Star Electric would
be in the best interests of both cooperatives. Two-thirds of the memberships of
both cooperatives had given their written consent to the merger March 15, 1943,
and this union was effected. At a meeting held the next day, it was decided
that Peter Sorensen, Chris Christensen, Norman Clementson
and A.N. Grems would be the representatives from the
North Star board and Melvin Johnson, Adolph Hartje, Einar Johsnon and A.W. Palas from the Border board. Emil Ramberg
was picked as the ninth member.
The first manager of
North Star Electric Cooperative was Charles H. Carl of
During World War II,
North Star Electric was in the wiring business. The crew would wire houses and
build line.
During the war the farm
people would have to have so many cows, chickens, hogs or sheep to get a line
built into their farm place. They were called "animal points". One
cow, 75 chickens or three hogs would be required to build 100 feet of line.
Rumors have it that the cows changed hands to get the animal points, to have
line constructed during the war years. North Star did not get started in
building many lines until 1946.
Littlefork
Links Up
On March 15, 1944, Mr. Melvin
Johnson gave a report on the probability of purchasing the power plant and
distribution system in the
Service
Quality Improved
On May 14, 1946, there
was a delegation of members that appeared before the Board of Directors stating
that voltage variation was from 125 volts in the daytime and 85 volts in the
evening, and fluctuation voltage was causing damage to electrical equipment.
Members of the Cooperative were buying light plants and disconnecting service
from North Star Electric to save their refrigeration equipment. The load on the
east end had grown about 33% from 1945 to 1946.
A discussion was held
with the Manager from Border Counties Power Cooperative and in May 1946, a 60
KW portable generator was installed at
Also in May of 1946 a
new three-phase line was constructed from the Border Counties Power Plant in Littlefork
to one mile west of the junction of highways 11 and 71. The line was tied into
Border Counties, fed from Warroad, and operating in parallel so it also brought
the voltage up on the east end of the project. In September of 1946, a 150 kW
diesel plant was paralleled with Border Counties Power Coop.
In April of 1947, North
Star Electric began construction on 313 miles of line to serve 500 new members,
and to improve service to 350 members who were not receiving adequate electric
service.
The first item on the
agenda was to build 18 miles of three-phase line from Littlefork to Ray to
improve the voltage at the
A meeting was held with
Border Counties Power Cooperative, and they agreed to build a new generating
plant at Littlefork scheduled to be on line in November 1947.
The construction of
lines continued around the Littlfork area. Some of
the townships that were connected to North Star were: Lindford,
Forsythe, Jameson, Meadow Brook, Cingmars, Nett River Dentaybow, and
The Baudette crews were
busy building line to Haycreek, north and south of
Williams, south of Baudette to the Carp area,
In the winter of 1948, a
line was constructed to Rainy Lake and
On December 14, 1948, a
discussion was held regarding the need for a transmission line and a substation
in the vicinity of Pitt, as recommended by the Engineer. Points brought out in
the discussion were: low voltage problems especially evident toward the
extremities of the area and the desire of members over the whole system to
expand their consumption.
Big
Falls and Margie Join the Ranks
On November 4, 1950, the
Board approved the joint purchase of Croswell Power Company of
Border
Counties Power Merges with Minnkota Power Cooperative
A joint meeting was held
with North Star Electric Cooperative and Roseau Electric Cooperative to discuss
the alternatives for increasing the capacity of Border Counties Power
Cooperative, and specifically the possibility of integrating Border counties
Power Coop with Minnkota Power Cooperative to insure the most economical and reliable
power possible at all times. Integration with Minnkota Power was approved by
the board in September 1955. Manager Farel reported
he had been to a membership meeting of Minnkota Power Cooperative on December
20, 1955, at which North Star Electric and Roseau Electric Cooperatives were
accepted as members of Minnkota. At the March 27, 1956, board meeting the
contract was signed to become a member.
Citizens
Utilities Splits the Blanket
By February 1958
Citizens Utilities had been sold to North Star Electric and Roseau Electric and
service boundaries were established. Now consumers between Williams and Warroard were North Star Electric Cooperative members.
Today
Today North Star
Electric Cooperative serves over 5,300 members (more than 6,300 accounts) with 1,369
miles of distribution line in Lake of the Woods, Koochiching, St. Louis and
69 years after
incorporation North Star Electric Cooperative continues to serve the needs of
its members. Cooperatives are owned by those it serves, controlled
by those it serves, and dedicated to those it serves.
At your service we remain…
