Awards Member Benefits Community Involvement During 1998, SE helped sponsor or participated in the following
community events: And a special note and thank you to the 27 SE employees who
donated over 200 hours of "construction time" to the Gilbert House, and to the
14 employees who worked so hard on the United Way "Days of Caring". These
efforts are greatly appreciated by everyone in our community, and we thank you
for volunteering your personal time to help others. New Benefits to Employees The employees of Salem Electric are the reason we continue to be
a good neighbor and strong contributor to the community we serve. We hired new
people, promoted others, and celebrated with two employees their 30 years of
service to the cooperative. Once again, I think we can all be very proud of the efforts and
contributions of Salem Electric and its employees so we can enjoy the benefits
of having a safe and reliable system. Thank you all for making 1998 a very good
year! Vice-President For the Sake of the Salmon (4SOS) is a coalition of 63
governmental, tribal, industrial, environmental, agricultural and fishing
organizations in Oregon. It has the endorsement of the governors of Oregon,
Washington and California. The organizations are united by the high value they
place on having a healthy salmon population in the Pacific Northwest. Their
vision is that salmon must be a part of the region's future. All have agreed to
work together to share the responsibility for conserving salmon and clean water
for future generations. They work together in a search for watershed projects
that can restore and protect salmon habitat. They are not involved in taking
positions on breaching dams, barging young salmon, hatchery debates or harvest
allocation. They have developed a spirit of respect and cooperation among often
warring factions in the effort for salmon survival. They have sought and found
positive and practical solutions that all coalition members can agree to
develop. They have achieved a $1 million federal grant to fund watershed
coordinators for 33 local watershed organizations and 650 people have been
trained in habitat restoration. First and foremost, an electricity customer's participation is
voluntary. A residential customer may voluntarily participate by requesting
that a $5 surcharge be added to their electric bill each month. Business rates
are based on usage, again voluntarily. The contributions would then go to
support restoration and protection of salmon habitat in local waterways. These
habitat projects may include: revegetating landslide scars; boulders and logs
placed in streams to re-create deep pool habitat; sensitive stream banks
protected and any of many recognized and approved habitat enhancement
activities. The program, Salmon Friendly Power, will give electricity
customers an opportunity to directly support restoration and protection of
salmon habitat through the Pacific Salmon Watershed Fund. It will help
emphasize production of electric power from salmon friendly sources. When a
customer chooses to participate in the program they will be encouraging
creation of more salmon friendly sources of power such as Salem Electric's
participation in wind power. High efficiency gas and low-impact hydropower are
also considered salmon friendly. Coal or nuclear sources are not. The wind power Salem Electric is purchasing is salmon
friendly, as is the case with some of the other power coming from BPA. While
all Salem Electric customers are sharing in the added cost of the wind power
project, this program allows interested members to make additional voluntary
contributions, based on that salmon friendly power, for salmon habitat
restoration. Customers who choose to participate would be rewarded with
coupons from various participating merchants in their area. They would also
receive a newsletter detailing the projects that their contributions are
supporting. The newsletter would also outline other ways to get involved in the
effort. The Pacific Salmon Watershed Fund is designed to provide long
term funding for restoring and protecting salmon habitat. 4SOS is confident
that by restoring natural salmon habitat that native salmon will recover
naturally over time. This strategy differs from past efforts. It has three
major strengths. One, it is designed to help nature heal itself by
rehabilitating the ecosystems that sustain salmon. Two, it is community-based.
Strategies will be developed and carried out through comprehensive, voluntary
and cooperative measures that are planned and implemented by local watershed
organizations. And three, it reflects a consensus among the major sectors
within the region. The watershed-wide strategy has the support of sport and
commercial fishermen, the forest products industry, local and state
governments, tribes and environmentalists. This unity provides a unique
opportunity to go beyond past conflicts and move toward major accomplishments
in saving the salmon. This short summary is intended to give you, the member, an
idea of the program that For the Sake of the Salmon supports. Salem Electric's
cost of participation would be some staff and accounting time. What the board
needs from you is your opinion.
The questions we have for you are: Should Salem Electric enter
into an agreement to participate in such a program? Is this a program that
would be of interest to you? Would you like to see Salem Electric offer this
opportunity to voluntarily participate in a salmon conservation program? Please include your comments with your electric bill or
contact us by e-mail at se@salemelectric.com. Board President The
Salem Electric board of directors was called to order at 7:01 p.m. on December
15, 1998. Board members present were Jim Dyer, Bill Wolf, Nancy Towslee, Jeff
Anderson, Alicia Bonesteele, Curt Culver and Murray McCreary. Member Services Report Member Services Manager Terry Kelly gave a brief overview of his
department's activities. Of note was that the SE "Drill Team" participated in
the Festival of Lights Holiday Parade. They won the "Best Use of Humor" award.
Manager's Report Manager Bob Speckman reported that Jeff Anderson was re-elected
to the ORECA board of directors. Congratulations, Jeff! Speckman also reported that Kelly and Dyer are scheduled to
attend the City of Salem's Revenue Task Force meeting on December 17. This is
an opportunity for SE to comment on the proposed 1.5% increase in the franchise
fee. For the Sake of the Salmon (4SOS)
Staff prepared a report on the status of the talks with 4SOS.
This group came to a prior board meeting to ask SE to participate in a program
that encourages salmon-friendly power through voluntary contributions from the
customers of power companies. At that time, the board asked staff to report
back at the December meeting. Bill Bradbury, Executive Director of 4SOS, was
present to answer questions from the board. Bonesteele mentioned that she was concerned about the costs to
the customers. Kelly replied that the program would be totally voluntary, like
the Dollar Check-off Program. He added that there would be some employee time
spent administering the program, but not a significant amount. There are also
some start-up costs related to computer programming to allow for the
contribution to automatically occur. This would be similar to a deduction
withheld on your paycheck. The programming needed will be useful to SE in the
future, so there is some value to SE. Motion was made by Anderson to support the concept of the program
as provided by staff, with the start-up costs to be recovered by withholding 5%
of the contributions. There was no second. Towslee questioned the percentage of contributions that was lost
to overhead. Bradbury responded that about 2-3% is used for overhead. Wolf
pointed out the benefits to SE in pursuing this program. The program costs very
little to SE, other than an initial start-up that would include programming
beneficial to SE in the future. This is good for the salmon recovery effort and
continues to present SE favorably as one of the forerunners in conservation.
McCreary was concerned that if the cooperative pays the estimated $6,500
start-up costs, it will look like a contribution and he felt that the
contribution issue needed more discussion. Motion was made by Anderson and seconded by Wolf to support the
staff action item that a 5% administrative fee be attached until the $6,500
start-up costs are recovered. More discussion followed about how to administer
the fees. McCreary thought this could be looked at as a service we can provide
for our customers. He suggested that if SE paid the start-up costs, then it
should be considered as a contribution. Dyer supported the program and did not
see a downside. He felt it would not be controversial if it were totally
voluntary. Anderson asked the staff to return a true dollar amount that
included staff time, but to remove the value for programming that benefits SE.
Towslee proposed that we wait on deciding this until after the numbers were
firm and a report was printed in the newsletter. Anderson agreed that there was
time before the implementation date, but said that he felt comfortable with the
motion as it stood at this time. Culver called for the question. Motion failed with Wolf, Dyer and
Anderson in favor; all others opposed. Motion was made by Towslee and seconded
by Culver to bring the discussion back at the February meeting. Motion carried
unanimously. Dyer will write an article for "The Board Report." Forfeiture of Capital Credits
A resolution was presented by the Administrative Services Manager
Jack Belleque authorizing the forfeiture of all unclaimed capital credits for
1973. Motion was made by Anderson, seconded by Bonesteele and carried
unanimously to adopt Resolution 98-12-15. Meeting adjourned at 8:12 p.m. Secretary/Treasurer
| Board Reports |
February 1999
This
year the board was again provided with an impressive list of the many
accomplishments of Salem Electric. Again, I felt this is the type of
information our members would enjoy knowing about. While the list is long, we
need to remember these accomplishments were in addition to keeping the system
running smoothly, and all the other day-to day responsibilities of operating
the cooperative.
Nancy Towslee
A Special Report
Salem
Electric is always interested in conservation. Sometimes this is just seen as
finding ways of saving electrical energy. That effort certainly has a very high
place in our planning. The board of directors is aware that our members hold a
sharp interest in those areas. However, we have also found equal support for
efforts to go forward in other environmental conservation areas. Recognizing
that interest, the board invited Bill Bradbury, Executive Director of "For the
Sake of the Salmon" to present a conservation program aimed at restoring salmon
in the Pacific region. Prior to inviting him to address the board we were
assured that this was not another attack on hydroelectric power, dams or
Bonneville in general. A second assurance was that it would be offered as a
program that would be on a voluntary contribution basis for our residential and
business members. Mr. Bradbury then presented a unique program for addressing
the decline of salmon in Oregon's waters. The following is a synopsis of his
presentation.
What is "For the Sake of the Salmon"?
What is the Project and How Does it Work?
What Does the Board Need From You?
Jim Dyer
For the Sake of the Salmon contact them directly by-
telephone: (503) 650-5447
e-mail: info@4sos.org
website: www.4sos.org
use the back of your bill or email us at-
se@salemelectric.com
Minutes of the Meeting Held on:
December 15, 1998
Bill Wolf
