By Brad Dolinski, CEO
Good morning NIECI,
Andrew in our office was kind enough to remind me yesterday that the WATTS articles are due today, 8/15/25. I cannot say enough good things about the professionals I work with at North Itasca Electric! These folks are working hard to improve our cooperative every day. I’d even go so far as to say they are having some fun doing it along the way.
Our coworker Haley just became a proud mama of a baby boy, congratulations to Haley and Leo!
Haley swung through the office this week, we got to share a little lunch, and I got to hang out with Jr. Pretty special, I was trying to tell Jr all the opportunities he would have working for a cooperative in the future, he seemed very interested but wants to pursue a golf career first.
Our Board of Directors, Dan, and I attended the Energy Issues Summit put on by MREA recently. Four of our directors led the conference off by attending a board leadership course taught by the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. The Energy Issues Summit is a combination of fact and thought-provoking theory. We hear from professionals in our industry about methods to consider using back home. This is my favorite conference of the year. Many ideas to consider and conversation to have back home.
Our office has been training on new software and processes from Professional Computer Services. PCS will be back in Bigfork for additional training in September. PCS has a user conference yearly, I’m proud to report we will be attending this conference once again. This is an opportunity to learn new methods and software to deploy back home. It comes down to the age-old question, do you know what you don’t know? Our office professionals will invest time away from home to look for process and software improvements to make our lives more efficient and better back home. Thank you.
I noticed on my trips south on 38 we have several maple trees starting to turn red! It’s only the middle of August, I’m not ready to start thinking about months of winter ahead. Ready or not doesn’t matter, winter is coming. Are you ready for this winter? This is the time of the year to ensure your homes and buildings you heat are also ready for the season ahead. Do you have windows that could use a little seal? Have you had your furnace checked out? Have you replaced your furnace filter? This is a great time of the year to hook a garden hose to your hot water heater and dump several gallons off the bottom valve. This cleans the gunk that settles in the tank out of the water heater. Doing this at least once a year can save your bottom element. You can always contact Drew in our office to have a home evaluation scheduled.
I’m writing this article from my table in Baudette. I came up north after meetings in Grand Rapids yesterday, we are heading to Canada today. It was fun to watch out the patio door this morning at five or six deer running around. While that was happening a nice size bear wandered through the yard! I was looking for Marty from Wild America, fun to watch the fruits of the hard work planting and maintaining food plots.
By your side! Miigwech
Brad
