2024 Highlights and Happenings at The Frontier Power Company

• Scholarship winners were 1st Places Kamryn McGinnis, River View High School and Daniel Grewell, Indian Valley High School, 2nd Places Samantha Miller, Garaway High School and Reed Minton, River View High School. Kamryn was also awarded an additional $2,100 at OEC’s Children of Members Scholarship competition, held in April.

•  Youth Tour to Washington DC winners were Mackenna Armstrong, New Philadelphia High School and Body Richard, River View High School.

• Zach Jennings and Trent Warden were hired as summer help to complete various jobs for the right-of-way department.

• Hired new employee Trent Warden in the right-of-way department.

• Hosted Customer Appreciation Day on May 3rd at the Frontier Power facility with approximately 580 people in attendance.

• Rob Totten presented electrical safety demonstrations for Walhonding Valley Fire & EMS in May, Coshocton GEARS summer program in June and July, Coshocton Safety Town in June, and Camp Ohio in July. A total of 154 students and 12 adults attended these programs.

• Hosted our Annual Meeting at the Frontier Power facility on July 26th with nearly 700 members and guests in attendance. All members in attendance received a $10 bill credit and an insulated travel mug. Drawings included one member’s name for a $100 bill credit and 10 members’ names for a $25 bill credit.

• Board members were elected by mail and announced at the Annual Meeting. The Frontier Power winners were District A, Coshocton County - incumbent Bill Daugherty, and District B-I, Tuscarawas County – Incumbent Seth Gerber.

• Steven K. Nelson, General Manager, was re-elected as chairman of Buckeye Power, Inc. Board of Trustees for his 29th term.

• In September/October, Ken Hunter–Line Superintendent, Bill Mizer–1st Class Lineman Crew Leader, Blake McKee–1st Class Lineman, Corey Miller–1st Class Lineman, and Logan Wallace–3rd Class Lineman traveled to Cowpen, South Carolina to help our cooperative friends at Broad River Electric Cooperative after Hurricane Helene caused massive damage to their area.

• In October, Josh Haumschild–1st Class Lineman, Construction Foreman, Andrew Vickers–1st Class Lineman, Nick Beckett–2nd Class Lineman, and Trevor Cox–Right of Way Crew Leader volunteered to go to French Broad Electric Cooperative in Bakersville, North Carolina when Hurricane Helene devasted their service territory.

• Purchased several animals at the Tuscarawas and Coshocton County fairs supporting our local youth completing FFA and 4-H projects. Kelly Kendall helped clerk the Coshocton Jr. Fair livestock auction and Ethan Helmick served on the Coshocton County Fairboard.

• Returned $48,625 in credits on December electric bills for members with a water heater control switch to help beat the peak.

• Returned approximately $3,024 in credits on June, July, August, and September electric bills for members participating in the “Cool Returns” program.

• Issued grants with funds generated from the “Frontier Power Community Connections Fund” helping organizations totaling $40,925.

• Returned $299,677.37 in general retirement capital credits to current and former members and $271,805,.29 was paid to estates.

• Service progress included 138 new connections, 41 individual upgrades, 618 poles set, and 15 new security lights installed.

• Replaced and rebuilt approximately 3 miles of line.

• Purchased a new Track Bucket and a 300-gallon sprayer for right of way

• Sponsored the Annual Coshocton Hot Air Balloon Festival in June, a free event for the community. Employees served on the balloon committee, worked the T-shirt booth, and delivered propane to the balloons.

As you can tell, Frontier Power remains very active in our community and is always striving to bring better service to our members. This includes agreements with Spectrum having lines on our poles. This resulted in many new poles being set and is providing local areas with internet services through Spectrum, bringing education, information, economy, and health to our neighbors who have not had access in the past. We are especially proud of our employees who volunteer to go into disaster areas hundreds of miles away from home to help fellow cooperatives restore power to their communities, as well as those employees who continue to donate their time to various groups within our community, making our service territory a better place to live and work. We appreciate our members updating their contact information as this allows Frontier Power better communication with our members. We will continue to work for our members to provide the safest and most affordable electric service possible.