Writer supports candidates for Dakota Energy board
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To the Editor:
I’ve had many questions over the last two years about the actions of the Board of Directors of our Dakota Energy Cooperative.
Why does Chase Binger call East River and Basin Electric monopolies? These two cooperatives were the ones responsible for taking this part of rural America out of the dark ages. No one else was willing to take on that task.
The board of DE claims it was blackmailed into signing the contract for power from East River; three times, including the extensions.
Really? Extending that contract to year 2075.
Seventeen owner/members, of their own free will, passed a legal petition to stop the board of their cooperative from suing East River, our power provider, for a buy-out of that 2075 contract.
The petition was presented to the DE Board, with more than 300 very concerned owners’ signatures. In response, the DE Board decided to sue the 17 owner/members who passed that petition. Why are they not suing the entire 300-plus owners who signed the petition? The board could really show how they are representing us, the owners. They still have not honored that legal petition. The DE Board has refused the deliberations of a state judge and a federal judge, now appealing it to the 8th Judicial Court of appeals in St. Louis.
I believe I have found the problem. Five of the senior members of the DE Board have a combined total of 145 years on the board; that’s an average of 29 years each. It appears to be their electric company, not ours. We gave it to them.
Three excellent candidates are running for the Dakota Energy Board: Tom Baruth, Darrell Raschke and Nick Nemec. Let’s start taking back our cooperative and vote at the Dakota Energy annual meeting on June 14.
Dennis W. Meyer
Huron