‘Your cooperative’ growth continues
By STU MERRY
Seventy is a good number if you are served by McLean Electric Cooperative. It was another successful year. Growth continues positively.
"2014 for this co-op was a very good year," announced MEC General Manager Martin Dahl.
Tuesday night, patrons from around the county gathered at the Garrison City Auditorium to celebrate the co-op’s 70th annual meeting.
Dahl said MEC grew by 5.4 percent in kW hour sales in 2014.
"And this is really good considering none of this is oil," Dahl pointed out. "This is all agriculture, residential and cabins, so I like that kind of growth because it is stable and stays with us. It’s good to see people are still interested in building in our area and the farmers are still doing pretty well because of the growth."
Dahl said the co-op’s Times Interest Earned Ratio of 2.99, coupled with its Debt Service Coverage of 2.01 and an equity of 33.48 percent, have MEC situated right where it should be for a cooperative of its size in comparison to other electric cooperatives in the nation.
"We are sitting fairly comfortable," he said.
