co-op member

What if Midwest Electric was not a cooperative?

sbradford — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 15:57:28 +0000

What if Midwest Electric was not a cooperative?

February 2, 2026

There would be a number of differences if we were not a cooperative. For example:

You would not have “one member, one vote.” This means you would not have an eight-member board made up of consumers that is responsible for approving electric rates and policies that govern the cooperative, as well as setting the strategic direction of the cooperative.
You would not receive an allocation of your share of the co-op’s profits, or margins, and you certainly would not receive your share of the $1.6 million in patronage capital that was paid back this past November.
I expect, also, that you would not have the Midwest Electric Community Connection Fund board, which is responsible for awarding some $50,000 per year in round-up funds to local charities.
You also would not have the Midwest Electric Revolving Loan Fund, which has provided nearly $3.5 million in low-interest loans to area small businesses to help keep and create jobs in west-central Ohio.
Because of state law, we would not be able to own our power generation, which we do today through our ownership share of Buckeye Power. Instead, all of you — and us — would have to buy electricity from the market. Like most markets, electric prices rise and fall for a variety of reasons. Right now, market prices are rising quickly due to higher demand and shorter supplies. But Ohio co-op members have not been affected by the rising market prices, because we own all our power generation needs.

Allow me to take a moment or two to talk about the current state of the industry. We talk a lot about how important Buckeye Power is to you, our members.

Matt Berry, CEO
mberry@midwestrec.com

Almost all the electricity you use these days is made by burning coal. And most of that generation comes from dispatchable baseload plants like the Cardinal Power Plant. And, importantly, today and for the near future, Buckeye Power has more generation capacity than it needs to serve its members.

That’s significant at a time when we are hearing news reports about all the data centers locating in the region and the likelihood that those new electric loads will result in higher electricity prices — for those who have to buy their power from the market. This is not to suggest that the electric rates you will be paying in the future will not be going up — they will be. But we can take some comfort in knowing that Buckeye Power owns most of the generation that we will need for the near future. So our rate increases should be considerably less than what the other electric utilities in Ohio are paying.

We can also take comfort in the fact that we do operate as a cooperative and because of that, you have a board of directors and a group of employees who are focused on protecting your interests as a member-owner and committed to keeping your power as reliable and affordable as it can be.

And, we are proud of the fact that, as a cooperative, we continue to maintain very competitive electric rates, despite the fact that the cost to us is greater to serve rural areas with fewer meters per mile.

As we enter our 90th year of business, I am grateful that we have the cooperative business model, which serves us well at Midwest Electric. And I thank you for being a member.

Tags

Community

community connection

co-op member

Building bridges

sbradford — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 20:11:07 +0000

Building bridges

January 1, 2026

Theresa Ravencraft

Co-op People

Steve Stolte was a civil engineering student at Ohio State University when the Silver Bridge, which connected Gallipolis to Point Pleasant, West Virgina, on busy U.S. Route 35, collapsed into the Ohio River.

He had been inspired to study civil engineering while he worked at his father’s construction company in high school, but he didn’t start focusing on bridges until that 1967 disaster, which killed 46 people.

“The collapse of Silver Bridge impacted me significantly,” Stolte says. “It heightened my interest in bridge construction and changed the course of my career.”

After the collapse, Ohio began to require that all bridges in the state be inspected once each year. Seeing an opportunity to both make some money and potentially save some lives, Stolte and some of his college friends started up a new business.

They attended classes during the week, but on weekends they traveled into rural counties throughout the state to perform those mandated bridge inspections.

“We learned quickly to drive across each bridge prior to doing our inspection, because we often didn’t want to drive across after seeing the condition they were in,” he says.

The experience broadened his knowledge of construction and fueled his burgeoning passion for bridges — particularly the covered bridges of Union County, much of which is served by URE–Union Rural Electric Cooperative.

After he graduated in 1969, Stolte took a job in Union County and soon became a partner in the engineering firm of Fleming, Page, and Stolte. One of the other partners, Jim Page, an environmental engineer, worked together with Stolte to create the grid system that numbered all the homes in Union County. It was a massive undertaking, but it gave him a better understanding of the area.

In 1984, Stolte decided to run for county engineer. “It was time for change,” he says. “I wanted to be more progressive and apply for grants to make improvements.”

He would serve in that role for nearly 25 years, working tirelessly to update both equipment and infrastructure throughout the county. Later, he was elected as a county commissioner and served another 10 years in office. In that time, the county replaced more than 200 bridges, widened 100 miles of road, improved traffic signage, and installed thousands of feet of modern guardrails.

But one aspect of his tenure stands out: his work on covered bridges.

“We discovered the covered bridges in Union County when we inspected them in college,” Stolte says. “I’m most proud of building two new covered bridges, Buck Run Covered Bridge and North Lewisburg Covered Bridge. We also elevated all covered bridges from 5 to 8 tons to a higher load limit, so school buses and farm equipment could go over them.”

The Buck Run Covered Bridge, built in 2006, spans Darby Creek and is the longest single-span wooden bridge in Ohio at 160 feet in length. The two-lane North Lewisburg Covered Bridge was completed that same year to replace the original 1868 Pottersburg Bridge, which was relocated and restored — and dedicated to Stolte in 2022.

Together with his wife, Mardy, Stolte still devotes his time and efforts to educating visitors about covered bridges through local events, such as Dine on a Covered Bridge, designed to showcase and celebrate the history of covered bridges in Union County. The event draws hundreds of people from across the state. From July through October every year, visitors are offered guided tours, lunch or dinner made with locally sourced ingredients, and live music on the bridge.

After spending the bulk of his life restoring the old and building the new, Stolte is convinced it was the right thing to do. “Covered bridges are a link to the past, a past that was simpler and slower-paced,” he says. “They are also a link to our transportation history. They were the very first bridge that saw widespread use in Ohio. And they are still valuable today.”

Want to visit the covered bridges of Union County? Find more information at www.dineonacoveredbridge.com and www.unioncountyoh.com.

Tags

Ohio history

co-op member

Union Rural Electric Cooperative

Taking the reins

sbradford — Tue, 29 Oct 2024 19:47:44 +0000

Taking the reins

November 1, 2024

Margie Wuebker

Co-op People

Chelsey Keiser vividly remembers growing up in western Ohio and helping her parents, Darke Rural Electric Cooperative members Mike and Debbie Keiser, raise thoroughbreds at their North Star-area farm.

“My first horse was a pony with a yellowish coat,” she remembers with a chuckle. “I called him ‘Black Beauty.’”

Keiser, now 32, never lost her fascination with horses. A 5-foot, 3-inch bundle of energy, she’s living her dream as a professional jockey, compiling an impressive record that includes more than 400 wins and nearly $10 million in career earnings.

“I’ve loved horses forever,” she says, noting that she learned to ride even before she learned to walk.

As she got a little older, Keiser started helping out by galloping the family’s thoroughbreds as part of their training regimen. “I really enjoyed that aspect of working with horses,” she says. “The hard part was handing the reins off to a jockey at the track.”

She also took up barrel racing — a fast-paced sport pitting horse and rider against the clock on a cloverleaf-shaped course, where the fastest finisher wins.

“I went through high school dreaming of being a jockey,” Keiser says.

After she graduated from Versailles High School, she headed off to the University of Dayton to study nursing — which might not seem at first like a path to the horse-racing profession, but it was strategic. “I had visited nursing homes during high school, and I liked being around older people and loved hearing their stories,” she says. Also, “Most nurses work three 12-hour shifts, and that would give me four days to ride.”

But while her fellow students spent their weekends on campus, she would always go back home to work with the horses. By her sophomore year, she says, she could no longer ignore “the itch.”

After talking at length with her mother, she left school and took a job training horses in Florida. Later assignments took her to Virginia and then Maryland as she pursued the dream that grew stronger with each passing day.

She began her career as an apprentice jockey, or “bug rider,” in March 2013 at Maryland’s Laurel Park racetrack. Her first win came that same month, aboard a 2-year-old colt named Smileforthecamera. In keeping with tradition, her fellow jockeys saluted the milestone by pelting her with water, baby powder, and eggs. She rode the next heat with bits of shell still clinging to her hair.

“Being a female jockey came with challenges back then,” she says. “I had to prove I was as strong as the boys and not get pushed around. I quickly learned to turn off my emotions and accept things I couldn’t change. Now I ride and win just like them.”

She mounted up in almost 600 races that first year, and finished in the money (first, second, or third place) in more than a third of them.

By 2016, she decided she wanted to be closer to family and moved back to Ohio. She currently rides at Thistledown Racino near Cleveland, Hollywood Gaming near Youngstown, and Belterra Park Racino near Cincinnati.

The job is much more than saddling up for races. Keiser is up by 4:30 a.m. almost every morning and arrives at the stable 60 minutes later for what will likely be a 15-hour day.

Taking care of her four horses means time galloping or breezing each of them on the track, four feeding times, and four cooling baths. She hurriedly walks from one pen to another, waving to other stable personnel or talking on the cell phone along the way; there is no time to sit and rest. Often, she’ll log more than 20,000 steps before noon.

“If you don’t take good care of the horses, you won’t get good results on the track,” she says. “Jockey and horse have to work together as a team. You spend hours working toward those couple of minutes that you fly around the track.”

Horse racing, of course, can be a dangerous sport (as attested by the ambulance stationed at every track), and Keiser’s 114-pound frame has sustained numerous injuries in her career — a broken collarbone, a bruised spleen, and a broken sternum among the most serious — but she has no plans to step away.

“I absolutely love riding,” she says. “Winning gives me the highest of highs; losing, the lowest of lows. I would rather have a bad day doing something I love than a good day at something I hate.”

Tags

Darke Rural Electric Cooperative

co-op member

Good shepherds

sbradford — Wed, 28 Feb 2024 20:34:39 +0000

Good shepherds

March 1, 2024

Margaret Buranen

Co-op People

Beth Murray didn’t quite know what she was getting into when she adopted her first border collie, a rescue, from the Parkersburg (W.Va.) Humane Society. “At the time, I had a horse, and since (the dog) was young and wanted to herd something, she herded the horse,” says Murray, a retired veterinarian and a member of Lancaster-based South Central Power Company. “The first time she was kicked, I thought she would smarten up.”

After a couple more incidents, however, Murray decided she’d better divert the dog’s attention, or else. While border collies are even-tempered and eager to please, Murray says that they don’t always make good household pets, because if they don’t have another outlet, they will herd household pets or children (or horses).

So Murray soon had a small flock of sheep on her farm near Lynchburg, and after watching their interaction, she decided to get into competitive sheepdog trials, a sport in which handlers direct their dogs to move sheep around a field and into enclosures.

The breed’s natural herding instincts are sharpened by training and practice in herding sheep or cattle. Murray says that “some people send their dogs to trainers, but I really enjoy training them myself.”

She now has five smooth-coated border collies — and a bevy of awards and recognitions. Three of the dogs — Rena (the youngest, named for Murray’s sister because “they share the same temperament”) and littermates Audrey and Petra — participate in trials with Murray, and all three qualified to participate in the national championships last year. Her two oldest dogs have retired from top-level competition, but since Pi, now 12, can still do the easier novice-level classes, the dog has a special role: giving Murray’s handler student an experienced dog with which to learn the skills. For a beginning competitor, Murray says, “training is hard with a puppy. You know nothing and the dog knows nothing.”

She says it takes about four years for a dog and handler team to be good enough to compete in open classes, the most challenging.

There are five commands a sheepdog must learn: basically, go left, go right, stop, go to the sheep, and a recall signal meaning “That will do.”

While handlers are permitted to use voice commands, they typically use whistles or hand signals to direct the dogs. “If the dog is far away, he can’t hear your voice unless you yell, and yelling sounds to him like anger,” she says. “He thinks he has done something wrong and gets anxious or confused.”

So five different whistle sounds convey the commands without causing stress. Murray says that the dogs “learn your style, read your body language, predict what you want them to do.” But she also notes that some sheep are smart enough that “they can size up dogs. They learn what they can get away with.”

In each round of competition, the dog must, within a certain time frame, move a herd of sheep from one pen to another, driving the sheep around a post or two on the way. In the more advanced classes, the dog must also separate one sheep, marked by a ribbon or a spray of paint across its fleece, from the rest of the herd and get it into a different pen.

Murray says there are lots of variables that can make a difference during competition; sometimes a competitor’s turn comes in the afternoon when the sheep are hot and tired and therefore less cooperative, or other times you just have bad luck. Usually, though, when a team makes a mistake, “99% of the time it’s the handler’s fault, not the dog’s,” she says.

Murray says competing in sheepdog trials requires a lot of learning for both handler and dog. The process involves training, watching successful handlers, and, through persistence, finally being able to compete with top handlers and their dogs. “There’s nothing like that moment when your dog gets it, when they’re really partnering with you,” she says. “Dogs have such a desire to do what you want them to, and on a day when you and your dog work well together, get a good group of sheep, and the stars are aligned just so, you can actually beat that top handler that day. But the big prize is always going home with your wonderful dogs.”

Tags

farming

South Central Power

co-op member

A ray of light

sbradford — Tue, 30 Jan 2024 20:03:18 +0000

A ray of light

February 1, 2024

Margie Wuebker

Co-op People

Matt Light learned plenty of important lessons while playing football. A three-year two-way starter at Greenville High in Darke County, Light earned a scholarship to play at Purdue University, where he spent three years protecting the blind side of future Hall of Famer Drew Brees and helped lead the Boilermakers to their first Rose Bowl appearance in 36 years.

He was chosen in the second round of the 2001 NFL draft by the New England Patriots, who had finished a lowly 5-11 the year before. But that 2001 season was a momentous one — for the nation, for the NFL, for the Patriots, and for Light himself.

Two days after New England lost its opener to the Cincinnati Bengals, the 9/11 terrorist attacks shut everything down, everywhere. The NFL was among the first organizations to return, to try to give the nation a sense of normalcy, and among the first games scheduled was the Patriots against the New York Jets.

That game is iconic in NFL history, first as a symbol of the country’s patriotism and resolve, and also because the Patriots’ quarterback was injured and replaced by little-known backup Tom Brady, who would go on to become arguably the best football player of all time.

Less celebrated, perhaps, is that it also marked the first career start for Light at left tackle — the position most responsible for protecting the quarterback. Light would spend 11 seasons in that spot, starting 153 of his 155 professional games — including five Super Bowls, three of which the Patriots won. He’s already in the Patriots Hall of Fame and was one of 173 players nominated for this year’s class of inductees to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton.

It was that first year of professional football when he started making good on one of his earliest lessons.

“My grandmother (Arlene Light) used to tell me, ‘To whom much is given, much is required,’” Light says. “I always wanted to make a difference and help people succeed, and I dreamed about starting a program where young people could learn lifelong skills.”

His wife, Susie, shared that same vision. The two had met at Purdue and married during his rookie season with the Patriots, and together, they created the Light Foundation.

The foundation is headquartered at Chenoweth Trails, near the Ohio-Indiana border west of Greenville, where it is served by Darke Rural Electric Cooperative. The foundation began developing the rustic 500 acres of land in 2009, adding trails and infrastructure, and today the facility hosts more than 7,500 young people and a small army of dedicated volunteers for its numerous programs each year.

Camp Vohokase (which means “light” in the Cheyenne language) represents the premier component of that programming. Considering applicants’ essays and recommendations, Light selects four incoming high school freshmen per year to enter the program. The boys come from at-risk communities in various parts of the country that have a connection to the Lights or the foundation. “Our mission is to take young people out of their everyday environment and provide them with unique opportunities that ignite their passion, purpose, and motivation to succeed,” Light says. “This aspect of the foundation will always hold a special place in our hearts.”

Light considers the nightly fireside chats during the Chenoweth Trails experience as a special highlight, with participants creating dialogue about the real and frequently difficult issues they face away from the peaceful Darke County setting.

Another program that draws eager participants is Timber Frame Leadership Camp. Working with local artisans and volunteers, youths learn to turn standing timber into lumber. That wood, along with hand-hewn beams and other rustic material Light salvages from old barns throughout Ohio and beyond, then forms the basis for many of the facility’s structures — a covered bridge, the bell tower, indoor kitchen and bathroom facilities, a timber-framed banquet hall, and the rustic headquarters building. Two large environmentally friendly yurts provide more overnight accommodations.

Participants work on base structures during the three-day events, with the foundation staff completing structures as time permits. “I guess my goal is to create a timber town, one building at a time,” Light says. “We’ve made progress over the years, but there are still more projects in the planning.”

The camp also hosts programs that reflect Light’s love of football, the outdoors, and fishing and hunting.

Various youth groups and nonprofit organizations use the facilities throughout the year. Interested parties must apply, but there is no charge to the groups. In addition, the foundation supports a reading program that supplies books for first-grade students throughout the county, and awards $10,000 in college scholarships to graduating seniors.

The Lights and their four children continue to live in New England but spend much of each summer in the Greenville area, working at the foundation’s various camps and special events. The foundation has a national board of directors and maintains an office in Massachusetts that handles 90 percent of its fundraising activities.

Light has no doubt the foundation will continue its work in years to come because it is family based — Matt and Susie’s four children also take part — and committed to community service. “Having it be a family affair is something that really sets us apart,” Light says. “Our goal is to inspire kids to work hard, put their best foot forward, and strive to become champions in the game of life.”

Chenoweth Trails, 440 Greenville-Nashville Road, Greenville, OH 45331. www.mattlight72.com.

Tags

Darke Rural Electric Cooperative

co-op member

camping

summer camp

Artist in residence

sbradford — Tue, 19 Sep 2023 16:21:44 +0000

Artist in residence

October 1, 2023

Margo Bartlett

Co-op People

A Mac Worthington piece of art is almost instantly recognizable. Worthington’s work (he’s best known for his metal sculpture) can be found in public, private, and corporate collections across the country and around the world. His unique cityscapes, flags, urban landscape paintings, and modern interior decoration have captured the attention of the art community since even before he opened his gallery in the Short North arts district of Columbus 35 years ago.

“Here’s what I think it is,” Worthington says. “Most — not all, most — guys that are doing metal sculptures and making functional art came from a welding background, from fabricating sheet metal. I was the artist first, and had to learn to weld.”

And just as he taught himself welding, he also taught himself to build frames and stretch canvases when he took up painting. “That’s what it means to be self-taught,” he says. “You learn this stuff as you need it.”

Worthington was born in Canton, the son of artists. His father, Jack, made many of the bronze busts in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. His mother, Marion, worked with enamel and silver.

Before turning to art, Worthington built washing machines, served in Vietnam, and worked for a finance company — all good experiences that proved useful when he opened his own galleries.

His current gallery is unlike most of those from his past, and certainly night-and-day different from the one he operated in the Short North for 35 years. Right before the pandemic, he decided to relocate to Ostrander in Delaware County, where he’s a member of Mount Gilead-based Consolidated Cooperative. “It wasn’t a decision; it was just luck,” he says. “But it’s worked out fine.”

His Houseman Road property is replete with trees and sculptures. He hires high school students to clean the artwork. And now, he has only to step out his front door to give visitors a tour of his shop, his studio, his gallery, and the sculpture park that’s also his yard.

The art and the visitors’ parking lot suggest a public park, and passersby frequently pull in to take a walk. When that happens, Worthington often offers the full tour. That includes the gallery, a space packed with paintings, metal works, and other pieces of the functional art he’s been known to create, including a table and chairs.

Guests may browse, flip through the stacked canvases, and consider a T-shirt featuring Worthington’s image, which looks like some sort of mashup of Einstein and John Lennon; he resembles them both.

With the more spacious location, visitors not only can see his artwork, they can observe the process as well.

In his shop — a little shed that grew — stands a recently finished sculpture, a piece that suggests a silver musical note hanging in midair or a dancer holding a pose. Nearby, a multicolored waterfall of paint has been allowed to drip and dry on the edge of a workbench, and the contrast between the paint ribbons and the sculpture is stark.

Is the sculpture standing in his shop waiting for paint? “Oh no, it’s done,” Worthington says. How does he know when a piece is done? Worthington shrugs.

“At some point, you just have to stop,” he says.

It was during his time in the Short North that he took up painting. “Everybody there’s a painter,” he says, “so I bought some supplies and said, ‘Well, we’ll see.’” Worthington, now in his mid-70s, does more painting than sculpture these days. He paints abstracts and cityscapes, flowers and butterflies, hearts and faces. He creates as the spirit moves him.

But, as a working artist and an interior decorator, he also knows it’s a business. “People say, ‘I like this, but …,’” he says, as in “But they want it in blue; but they want it bigger; but they want it smaller.”

“I do this for a living. It isn’t a hobby,” he says. “I have to do what people like,” he says. “This is something for you; I’m not making this for me.”

Mac Worthington’s studio-gallery-sculpture park is at 5935 Houseman Road, Ostrander, OH. For information, call 614-582-6788, email macwartist@aol.com, or visit www.macworthington.com.

Tags

Consolidated Cooperative

co-op member

artist

art

Built to last

sbradford — Tue, 19 Sep 2023 15:49:12 +0000

Built to last

October 1, 2023

Pat O'Loughlin

Up Front

For more than 80 years, electric cooperatives — and our business model — have proven to be resilient. In fact, most electric cooperatives are as vibrant and healthy today as at any point in our history. Much of this success can be attributed to the founding principles that electric cooperatives have adhered to through generations of members and cooperative leaders.

The relatively straightforward mission of electric cooperatives — at first simply to make electric service available, and now to also make it reliable and affordable — certainly has helped provide direction. Because we were founded by and for our local communities, we’ve been able to stay connected to the enduring values of the people we serve. Finally, the adoption of formal guiding principles has allowed us to adapt to changing circumstances and new challenges.

Probably the most powerful of these principles is the trust that democratic control by consumer-members will get it right. Even when a cooperative may occasionally stray off course, the democratic process has proven to be a self-correcting one. The fact that our service has become so essential to daily life means people will notice when the members’ needs are not being met.

Electric cooperatives still serve largely rural communities, and that breeds a commonsense approach to most of the issues that we face, including a recognition that we can’t afford to squander the scarce resources we have available. It also means that we must remain politically engaged in issues that directly affect our members.

The term “resilience” seems often misused these days. It’s the ability to withstand or recover quickly from difficult conditions and, to me, “resilient” is what your electric cooperative was born to be. That resilience is how it continues to provide value through changing times and challenging circumstances.

Tags

cooperative difference

Cooperative Principles

co-op member

Back in time at the Ohio Renaissance Festival

sbradford — Fri, 25 Aug 2023 16:49:43 +0000

Back in time at the Ohio Renaissance Festival

September 1, 2023

Jodi Borger

Features

Peggy Kelly first attended the Ohio Renaissance Festival about 15 years ago. Even then, the festival had been a well-established mecca of history-meets-fantasy escapism that drew attendees by the tens of thousands to Waynesville during autumn weekends each year.

Kelly, a member of Butler Rural Electric Cooperative in Oxford, remembers enjoying the merrymaking at the time, but still wasn’t fully enthralled enough to make it an annual pilgrimage. But after she decided to give it another go, now she’s all-in.

“The first time I went, I thought it was fun,” Kelly says. “But we went again about five years ago, and that’s when it really got in my blood. It’s grown. There are more shows now, more things to look at, and different themed weekend activities, and I really enjoy it.”

The festival lasts eight to nine weeks, and Kelly, who is a season passholder, says she’ll typically attend six to eight times during that period. She attends often enough that she says her husband knows exactly where she’s headed if she gets up early — and that she’ll be gone for most of the day.

A rich history

Established in 1990 by Cincinnati entrepreneur Peter Carroll, the RenFaire (as loyal fans know it) has evolved into a premier event that invites attendees to step into a re-created 16th-century English village, where they can rub elbows with royalty or feast with fairies.

“When you step through the gate, you can leave your cares in the parking lot and get away for the day,” says Cheryl Bucholtz, a member of Lancaster-based South Central Power Company and the Renaissance Festival’s marketing director.

And that’s exactly the appeal for folks like Kelly. “I usually go with my family, but I have also gone by myself before and you are just so welcomed by everybody,” she says. “The characters, everybody that dresses up, and the staff, they are all just a fun bunch of people to be with.”

The festival started as a weekend event on a small field in Warren County, and over the years, it has grown into one of the largest and longest-running in the nation. Depending on weather, more than 200,000 festivalgoers may enter the now-permanent grounds on September and October weekends.

A full-time staff of seven spearheads the planning and execution of the festival year-round. During festival days, however, the staff balloons to between 500 and 750 people, encompassing volunteers and workers who contribute to the smooth operation of the event. “I love that they bring in groups like the Scouts and local school choirs to help,” Kelly says. “It’s a great way for those groups to raise funds and to support the community.”

Continued growth

With an additional 5 acres added to the grounds in 2023, the nearly 40 acres now can accommodate even more vendors, food and beverage options, shaded seating areas, and entertainment.

“The festival’s mission is to create unforgettable experiences where history and fantasy collide,” Bucholtz says. “To ensure success, the festival strives for ongoing growth while maintaining its dedication to delivering unforgettable experiences.”

The Renaissance Festival successfully meets its mission by striking a delicate balance between historical authenticity and imaginative elements.

Visitors like Kelly enjoy a rich tapestry of entertainment, including jousting, musicians, strolling characters, and troupes such as the Swordsmen, the Cincinnati Barbarians, and the awe-inspiring Kamikaze Fireflies.

Something for everyone

The festival also boasts a diverse group of vendors offering handmade wares such as glassware, clothing, jewelry, pottery, home décor, and various crafts. Kelly also enjoys the many different types of food available during the festival.

“I think the joust show is probably one of my favorite things and one of the most popular shows, because everybody seems to want to see that,” she says. “They always get a really good crowd.”

Kelly’s grandson was knighted by the royal court last year at the Renaissance Festival and has since left for boot camp. She says he should be home in early September, and Kelly looks forward to taking him back to the festival when he gets back.

“Some people really, really get into it, to the point where the entire family in some way, shape, or form is dressed in character,” says Kelly, who also dresses in character when she attends. “One year, I saw a stroller transformed into a castle. Some people are so creative and artistic and just have fun with it.”

Ohio Renaissance Festival, 10542 State Route 73, Waynesville, Ohio 45068. Open weekends (and Labor Day) Sept. 2–Oct. 29. Visit www.renfestival.com for tickets or season passes.

Tags

Butler Rural Electric Cooperative

A trip down memory lane

sbradford — Fri, 25 Aug 2023 16:03:15 +0000

A trip down memory lane

September 1, 2023

Theresa Ravencraft

Co-op People

We all take a trip down memory lane once in a while, reminiscing about special times and meaningful life events. Beth Sanders, founder of LifeBio, has made it her mission to document those trips — to improve the quality of life for older adults by preserving their family history, one life story at a time.

It started in the 1990s. Sanders’ grandmother, Margaret Stitzinger, had early-stage dementia, so Sanders decided to conduct an interview with her to learn more about the family. What she found were vivid memories, such as the flu epidemic of 1918; growing up in Erie, Pennsylvania; and getting married.

“I didn’t know my grandma as much as I thought I should,” says Sanders, a member of URE–Union Rural Electric Cooperative in Marysville. “It was like discovering gold. I could have lost that information if I hadn’t taken the time to really talk to her.” Sanders compiled her grandmother’s biography and passed it along to family members at the funeral after her grandmother died a few years later.

That experience helped her realize two things: first, that she proudly came from a long line of strong, influential women; second, how important it was to engage with her grandmother, listen to her story, and record her family history before it was lost forever. “Listening is good for all of us,” Sanders says. “When they tell their story, it gives them purpose. There’s a reason they’re here.”

LifeBio uses a simple app interface to allow relatives to record stories and memories that otherwise might be lost.

Sanders knew she could help aging adults improve the quality of their lives simply by helping them tell their life stories. It became her passion, which she turned into LifeBio in 2000.

The company initially focused on capturing life stories using journals and an online biography system. Since then, LifeBio, located in Marysville, has grown into a health-tech company, developing apps that are used by seniors, health care workers, health systems, and educators.

Today, LifeBio employs more than 45 people in 10 states and works with major health care plans nationwide to provide memory-care services. “We have to know people to deliver the best quality care for them,” Sanders says. “For us, it’s about the process, not the product.”

Beth and Jeff Sanders

Her husband, Jeff, is LifeBio’s chief technology officer. He builds and oversees the company’s apps and works with the technology team to develop and introduce new initiatives. Together, they have developed three main programs for use in memory care.

MyHello is a social support program designed to reduce loneliness. It’s funded by a national health care plan. “Incredible technology has enabled us to connect people to each other,” Sanders says. “They sign up online or by phone, answer a few questions, and are matched with another participant. Then once per week for 13 weeks, the participants call each other at a designated time to share life experiences.”

MyHello aims to foster a feeling of connection, which in turn reduces depression. “We have done clinical studies that prove we reduce depression and increase happiness by connecting people who can share stories and reminisce with one another,” Sanders says.

The LifeBio Memory app prompts users with a series of questions, encouraging them to recount life moments, and records and transcribes their responses. The app is the result of a substantial grant from the National Institute on Aging to improve the quality of care for people with dementia.

They’re currently developing a third component called LifeBio Brain, an app that will be used as a 10-minute cognitive screening tool for dementia. “We have partnered with Brown University to move the test away from being a paper-and-pencil test to an interactive app for users,” she says.

And there is more on the horizon. The Sanderses are looking to further expand the company and develop additional memory care initiatives.

“My legacy is helping others realize their legacy,” she says, “thus helping people experience more love, hope, and peace.”

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Why am I a member?

sbradford — Tue, 30 May 2023 15:14:34 +0000

Why am I a member?

June 1, 2023

Jeff McCallister

Power Lines

Emily Bania has been a member of an electric cooperative for as long as she can remember. Growing up around Belle Valley, she and her family were members of Marietta-based Washington Electric Cooperative.

When she married her husband, Matthew, they moved to their place between Pleasant City and Sarahsville, in northern Noble County, where they still live with their kids, Kora and Lane. They have remained members of Washington Electric for the past 10 years. “It’s just what we’ve always had,” Emily says. “We’ve always just appreciated being members. We know several people who work for the co-op, including one of our neighbors, who’s a lineman. They’re always friendly and helpful and I haven’t given it much thought past that.”

Emily’s story is typical for co-op members. They get their electricity from, and pay their bills to, one of Ohio’s 25 electric distribution cooperatives; usually vote in the election for the co-op’s board of directors; and maybe attend the annual meeting of members. They might even get capital credits in the form of a check or a bill credit at the end of the year when the not-for-profit co-op’s revenues outpace its expenses.

It’s also typical for members not to think much about why their home or business gets electricity from a cooperative and not from one of the investor-owned utilities that operate in Ohio.

Co-ops, in fact, only came into being because the large, for-profit electric companies had no interest in stringing power lines out to farms and other rural areas — there was little or no profit to be made from doing so.

So, the farmers did it themselves. Thanks to the New Deal’s Rural Electrification Act back in the mid-1930s, funding became available for local co-ops to form and build out the infrastructure needed to turn on the lights on farms and in hamlets that were ignored by the power companies.

The first electric cooperative pole in the nation, in fact, was set by Piqua-based Pioneer Electric Cooperative in 1935, when only one out of every 10 rural Ohio farms and homes was electrified. By June of 1937, more than 36 percent of rural Ohio had electricity, and by 1950, it was almost 100 percent.

There have been as many as 57 distribution cooperatives in Ohio since that time. Through mergers or attrition, 25 still operate within the state. (West Virginia’s one co-op is a member of Ohio’s Electric Cooperatives, which provides shared services such as Ohio Cooperative Living magazine; Michigan-based Midwest Energy and Communications serves 1,000 members in northwestern Ohio.) Click here to view a map and list of Ohio's 25 electric cooperatives.

The co-ops determined the areas they’d serve when they formed, mostly based on geography and whether service was available from anyone else. Those territories remained mostly constant, though they were not legally defined. The situation led to some areas of overlapping service, which not only created confusion and safety issues, for example, for first responders arriving on an accident scene, but made it difficult for the utilities to plan for future growth.

Then in 1978, co-ops banded together to push the Ohio Legislature to pass House Bill 577, which defined service territories and mandated the Public Utilities Commission to certify the areas where each electric provider in the state has both the obligation and exclusive right to provide electric service. The legislation protected both co-ops and consumers, who could no longer be denied service for simple reason of convenience to the electricity provider. With the publication of the PUCO map, all co-ops, municipal systems, and investor-owned companies were granted specific, legally defined, and agreed-upon areas they serve. Co-ops serve about 400,000 homes and businesses in areas within 77 of Ohio’s 88 counties.

Service territories remained unchanged in the 1990s despite the deregulation that allowed competing energy providers to supply electricity to consumers through energy choice; co-ops and municipalities were specifically exempted. The PUCO’s regulatory authority does not extend to either government-run municipalities or member-run cooperatives.

And while that history is nice, members like the Bania family are just happy the place they live happens to be served by a co-op. “When our power was out for a couple of days during that winter storm a while back, we would watch our neighbor go out at all hours to get people reconnected,” Emily says. “He kept checking on us because he knew it might be a while and wanted to make sure we were OK. I can’t imagine you get that with the bigger companies.”

Service territory FAQs

What is a service territory?

Electric certified territories (ECTs), often called “service areas” or “service territories,” are geographic regions where an electric company — which may be either an investor-owned utility or a rural electric cooperative — has the obligation and exclusive right to provide electric service. The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio is the authority regarding ECTs, and you can view the PUCO’s interactive map of ECTs here.

What’s the difference between my co-op and an investor-owned utility?

Investor-owned utilities are business organizations that are intended to be profitable. An electric cooperative is a not-for-profit, member-owned utility that provides electric service solely to its members. Each cooperative has its own unique set of bylaws and is governed by a board of directors elected from and by the members of the co-op. Nationally, more than 800 distribution cooperatives serve about 56% of the U.S. land area and more than 21.5 million homes, schools, businesses, and farms.

Why does the PUCO not regulate cooperatives?

The PUCO does not have jurisdiction over electric cooperatives and municipalities by the definitions of a “Public Utility” as defined in 4905.02 of the Ohio Revised Code, which states that an electric company that operates its utility not for profit, or that is owned and operated by any municipal corporation, is not included.

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