No rate increase in 2008

Tony Anderson, General Manager

Notes from the top of my desk:

No Rate Increase: We filed our year end 2007 financials with the MPSC and I am happy to report that there will be no general rate increase in 2008. We are hopeful even that the power supply adjustment (PSCR) will stay level if not lower the rest of the year. That said, it does look like a rate increase is almost a certainty in 2009. We managed as best we could in 2007 and thus far in 2008 but the way costs continue to climb, it will be very hard to avoid a change in rates for another year.

After Hours Call Center: Effective July 1st, we will be switching our after hours calls to a center in Indiana. We have had many years of great service from our cooperative neighbor in Boyne City, Great Lakes Energy. We have been restricted in that we have had only three available phone lines and that has led to busy signals and member complaints. The Indiana center will give us access to 10 phone lines when we have a storm after the office is closed. Indiana also gives us some geographic diversity to lessen the likelihood that we are hit with the same storm as the after hours call center. All the numbers you call will remain the same.