Northeast Louisiana Power Cooperative has a rich history of
public service dating back to its incorporation date of July 15, 1938. At that
time, 90% of homes in rural America did not have access to electricity.
Investor-owned utilities wouldn’t build to these areas because of the high cost
and low return. Thanks to the Rural Electrification Act (REA) in 1935,
cooperatives like NELPCO were able to take advantage of funding, training, and
education to bring affordable power to the under-served. Those early pioneers
of the Cooperative worked tirelessly to recruit members to the cooperative and
ensure its success.
The cooperative, a unique new enterprise, soon found itself
in the forefront of community affairs. The directors that the cooperative
members had elected were their neighbors and friends, farmers and ranchers like
themselves. Those first directors were H.B. Landis (President), J.E.
Richardson, Mrs. T.A. Woolridge, Mrs. G.A. Newcomer, R.M. Ward
(Secretary/Treasurer), E.C. Calloway, Ben Cheek, W.P. Martin (Vice President),
and Mrs. J.M. Shamblin. These directors met monthly to set policy and give
guidance to the cooperative manager.
Over the years, the Co-op has been under the management of
R.E. Holladay, Jr., D.J. Anders, Jr., John C. Tucker, Gerald Baum, and Sheila
Williamson. The current general manager is Jeff Churchwell.
Today, Northeast Louisiana Power Cooperative has more than 60
employees, almost 18,000 electric meters and more than 2,600 miles of electric
line. Our service territory runs from south of Turkey Creek Lake in Franklin
Parish north to the Arkansas line and extends into Morehouse Parish.
All of it is still
owned and democratically controlled by the members – about 11,000 of them.
Those members still help set policies and elect a Board of Directors to oversee
the Co-op. It’s the way we chose to do business when we were founded in 1938,
and it’s the way we choose to do business today. Northeast Louisiana Power
Cooperative is a much bigger company now, and technology has made the way we do
business much more sophisticated, but we were, we are, and we always will be
your friends and neighbors.
