On September 18, 1940, the Directors of Columbia Basin Electric Cooperative, Inc. met and signed the Articles of Association. The first electric service provided by the Cooperative was nine years later at the Ralph Potter farm on October 14, 1949. This was an accumulation of many months of work by folks who knew that in order to secure electricity for their home and farms they must organize.
An office was established in Heppner, Oregon, and since then, a sub-office has been established in Condon, Oregon. By working together, members, employees, and management have made rural electric service a reality in this area. This organization is providing thousands of man hours of work for people from all walks of life in the employment of private industry, plus speeding work and bringing the pleasures and convenience of electricity to farms and homes.
Columbia Basin Electric has grown from its original membership of roughly 400 to over 3,500 members and is part of a nationwide group of RUS Financed cooperatives employing 50,000 people to provide electric service to 8 million Americans. Columbia Basin Electric has 18 local employees. The Cooperative serves residential, commercial, industrial and irrigation customers throughout a service area of approximately 3,000 square miles in five counties.
Much credit is due the Directors of a rural cooperative, such as Columbia Basin Electric Cooperative. Much time has been served by them, in establishing policies of the Cooperative.
Columbia Basin Electric is special, in that it is a Cooperative! Co-ops are member-owned, non-profit, and return excess revenue to the members in the form of "capital credits". Our members have a voice in the way the Cooperative is managed. The main object of the Cooperative is to provide adequate electric service to its members at the lowest cost, consistent with good business practice.
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