Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative Manager of Safety and Loss Control Rick Jensen talks with members prior to the start of the 30th annual Meeting of the Membership Saturday, April 14, at the Harney County Fairgrounds.

Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative celebrated its 30th annual Meeting of the Membership April 14 at the Harney County Fairgrounds in Burns.

OTEC Chief Executive Officer and General Manager Les Penning said the cooperative is very proud of its history.

“(Thirty years) is a big deal. That’s a lot of years under the belt for a new cooperative,” Penning said. “A lot of other cooperatives were started in the 1930s or 1940s. So (30 years) is quite an accomplishment and what the undertaking was to become a cooperative.”

In all, nearly 200 members attended the meeting. Penning highlighted accomplishments, including capital improvements, made in 2017.

“For the last few years, we’ve been focused inward. There’s been $4 or $5 million going into just capital improvements,” he said. “As those 3,000 miles of line are aging, weather’s taking its toll, there’s a fair investment to try and keep that system rigid, hardened and to keep reliability up. We have a lot of focus in that area.”

The OTEC board election results were also announced with Austin Bingaman, Wayne Overton and Gary Miller re-elected.

Robert Ledbetter of Baker City was drawn to win the mail-in ballot drawing for the $500 OTEC energy credit. Florence Krueger of Hines was the raffle winner of the washer and dryer “OTEC Attendance Award.”

For more information, visit otecc.com.