Newcomers to the Tipmont Wintek team quickly discover we have a distinct rhythm. It’s like the holiday season that's just around the corner. Suddenly here we are again, another year gone by. Time flies here because we’re always focused on the next achievement or accomplishment — from updating utility poles to further improve our reliability to connecting hundreds more customers to in-home fiber internet.

October is a great time to plan for winterizing your home. To even think about such a thing on the beautiful 77-degree day when I’m writing this almost feels like blasphemy. But winter's icy grip always arrives sooner than we think, and it's best to be prepared.

In July 2019, our 80th Annual Meeting celebrated our past, present and future. We had recently acquired Wintek Corporation and were commemorating the first customers' connections to our state-of-the-art fiber internet. No one envisioned it would be two years before we were able to hold another Annual Meeting.

It hardly seems possible that the youngest members of our co-op communities will soon head back to school. That return is rooted in such routines as choosing classes or planning for extracurricular activities. While this school year won't feel entirely the same as in many years past, there will at least be less uncertainty after the unexpected challenges of the past 18 months.

In 2014, Tipmont’s board of directors revised our co-op’s mission statement to best reflect our purpose: “Empowering communities by providing state-of-the-art essential services.” In basic terms, that means electricity and fiber internet. But our definition dares to go deeper.

If there’s been a theme to Tipmont’s past 12 months, it’s that we’re fighting for you. First, it was to accelerate our fiber internet deployment, which we accomplished. Now, it’s to stabilize the rate we pay for your power supply and offer flexibility that meets your current and future energy needs.

What a difference a year makes. My column in May of last year was filled with uncertainty, but also hope. Just like so many other organizations — hospitals, schools, churches, government, businesses — Tipmont was rethinking how to operate in a fundamentally altered environment.

Your home may be near one of our new build areas, but you are wondering why we’re not building to your address at this time. The reason is the grant funding areas must be completed within two years.

In late January and early February, severe winter storms caused several extended outages on our system. While we always want to hear from you when your power is out, it’s often best to wait a few minutes before reporting your outage.

New Year’s Eve of 2020, the year like no other, delivered one last blow to the entire Tipmont family with the passing of our board chairman Jerry Peevler. Jerry served on the board since 2007, most recently as our chairman and Wabash Valley director.