Discovery Center highlights area ecology 

It’s open!

With construction starting last fall to remodel and expand the old Marcell Ranger Station into a tourist friendly interpretive center, the Discovery Center located just north of Marcell opened June 30. A Grand Opening is planned later in August; watch for an announcement.

Arts & Crafts Fair Friday, Aug. 7 

It’s been a destination for 35 years on the first Friday in August. The annual Arts and Crafts Fair in Bigfork offers a large variety of items from photography to woodworking and needlecraft to pottery. All the products are handcrafted by the artist exhibiting.

This year the Fair will be held in the Bigfork High School commons on Friday, August 7 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is $1, preschoolers free.

Home energy audits available  

Pastor John Hanson of Talmoon won a free energy audit given away by Randy Williams of Willcon Inc. at the last annual meeting. North Itasca Electric shared its conservation tent with Randy for those interested in a home energy audit.

Due to restrictions Minnesota has placed on these audits, North Itasca Electric can no longer do them. Randy has had extensive training and is certified by the State of Minnesota. He is also working with Lake Country Power performing audits for income eligible members.

Great savings for George Inott  

George Inott is very excited! He is saving hundreds of dollars on his heating cost by installing a 15 SEER, 3 ton Air Source Heat Pump (ASHP).

When visiting with George, his enthusiasm excited me as he shared with me the cost savings for heating his home last winter. Air source heat pumps can deliver 300 percent more usable heat than electric resistance heating using the same amount of energy down to 20 degrees above zero.

Koochiching County Fair Time!  

It should be a great weekend in Northome.

ATV mud runs, 5 k race, veggie creatures, music, games, horse competition, meals, parade, dance – and thanks to community support, the “awesome fireworks display”...they all can be enjoyed at the Koochiching County Fair, Friday-Sunday, Aug. 7-9. Some long time favorites are scheduled (see box), like the Scenic Sinkhole Scramble, a 2 mile and 5 k run on Saturday morning. Register in advance or on race day from 8-8:45 a.m.

NOTICE: N.I.C.E. Long Distance  

North Itasca strives to provide value added services for our members and we hope we have done a good job of doing that. However there comes a time when it is not cost effective to continue providing some services.

In July your Board of Directors decided it was time to end our NICE Long Distance Service. Those years that we have provided long distance proved to be the best deal on the block. Because of the turmoil in the Minnesota long distance rates and the added costs needed to do programming changes to our billing software we would be forced to charge each customer at least a $3.00 monthly service fee on top of any monthly fees that our provider charges each customer. This fixed rate would put us out of the competitive field.

Lighting retrofit rebate for Max Mini Store  

On July 16 Bruce Leino, board member of North Itasca Electric Cooperative, presented Max Mini Store in Squaw Lake with a rebate check in the amount of $1,443 for upgrading its lighting. T12 light fixtures were upgraded to T8, which are more energy efficient and will remove 4.68 kW demand from North Itasca Electric’s system. Max Mini Store will also be removing 27,331 kWhs of energy off its power bills each year, saving it $2,380.21 annually.

Lighting rebates are available for all commercial and industrial accounts interested in upgrading their lighting to save on demand and energy bills. Now is the time to contact North Itasca Electric for future upgrades. GRE (Great River Energy) and North Itasca Electric are budgeting for 2010 through 2012 projects.

For more information on how you can benefit from upgrading your system, contact Jerry Loney at: North Itasca Electric Cooperative Inc., (218) 743-3131 or 1(800) 762-4048.

August 2009 Calendar of Events