Powder River Energy 79th Annual Meeting will be held
at Upton Middle School, Saturday, August 24
Powder River Energy held its 79th Annual Meeting at Upton Elementary-Middle School, Saturday, August 24. Cooperative members cast ballots for three director seats.
See candidate profiles and the mail-in ballot on the back cover of the July WREN magazine.
Official notice and WREN Magazine
See video of 2024 Annual Meeting
Powder River Energy Corporation (PRECorp) conducted its 79th Annual Meeting at Upton Elementary-Middle School, Saturday, August 24.
The meeting included a free wellness fair, cooperative updates from officers, and free lunch and door prizes. Attendees took home a variety of gifts including a 2025 PRECorp 80th Anniversary calendar and other useful items.
Cooperative members cast ballots for three director seats, re-electing Paul Baker (Crook County), Jim Baumgartner (Sheridan County), and Mike Lohse (Johnson County). The minimum quorum requirement of 100 members attending in-person was exceeded, and more than 200 votes were cast in-person or by mail.
Special guests who spoke during the meeting included U.S. Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) and Wyoming Rural Electric Association (WREA) Executive Director Shawn Taylor. Basin Electric CEO Todd Brickhouse and Basin VP of Member Services Chris Baumgartner were also guests of PRECorp. Roger Connett of Rare Element Resources also presented a booth with information.
Board President Jim Purdy praised the efforts of the PRECorp employee team in working safely and maintaining a vast delivery system in northeast Wyoming. “From my perspective PRECorp and its Board are blessed to have a solid group of employees who demonstrate their service to the membership every day,” Purdy said. “We saw it on display this week, during those unfortunate times when the power goes out from a storm or wildfire. The situation is already bad, but our crews go out in the field to meet it. Their support teams back at the offices focus everything on making sure the crews are safe, fully supplied, and using operable machinery to get the job done.”
PRECorp CEO Brian Mills outlined happenings with the cooperative over the past year, and the future of power rates for the cooperative.
Mills outlined PRECorp’s constant review of the costs to maintain the system so power is reliable and rates are stable. Mills said the bottom line is “Working to Improve Lives Through Energy.”
“Our values will define our identity. We’re going to value working safely, doing the right thing, innovative decisions, accountable decisions, and serving others,” Mills said. “We expect our values to be lived, not visited. Not just when it’s convenient or when it’s obvious. These values become part of our fiber.”
The primary themes for this goal are providing an A+ Member Experience, Great Rates, and a Trusted Energy Partner. Mills said these are services that go above and beyond the basic reliable and affordable goals of most utility companies.
PRECorp Board Secretary-Treasurer Gerry Geis outlined the highlights of the annual financials of the cooperative. “Our coop is strong financially and we’re at the top of the class in a lot of things because we have a lot of great employees to make things work,” Geis said. “Everything keeps going up in price but our usage has gone down which has kept the power cost about the same. We’ve also deferred some revenue to keep our rates as stable as possible.”
To close the meeting, the drawing was held for the Apprentice Lineman Scholarship Fundraiser. The drawing grossed more than $30,000 for the program that supports local youth who would like to pursue a career in electrical line work. Winners are: Mick Wolf, 2024 Polaris Ranger Side-by-side; Bernard Weinhardt, Monty Norris and Roxie Taft were the other major prize winners.
The 80th Anniversary Annual Meeting will be held Saturday, August 23, 2025, at the Gillette Cam-Plex Energy Hall.
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