Business : East-Central Iowa REC Meets with Grassley Legislative Correspondent

Left to Right: IAEC, Director of Gov. Relations, Kevin Condon, ECI REC Director’s Don Shonka and Gary McKenna, Operations Manager, Tom Schmitt, Legislative Correspondent, Eli Harberts, ECI REC’s CEO Teresa Floyd, HR Director Katie Stadheim, and Mana

On Friday, August 11, East-Central Iowa Rural Electric Cooperative (ECI REC) had two special guests visit the office, Eli Harberts, a Legislative Correspondent in D.C. for Senator Grassley's office, as well as the Director of Government Relations, Kevin Condon with the Iowa Association of Electric Cooperatives (IAEC), ECI REC's statewide organization.

Eli works with Senator Grassley's Agriculture and Energy Advisor, Joe Gilson, on environmental issues. During the August recess, Eli, a Grundy Center native, was going to be back in Iowa to visit with constituents and groups that have issues within their portfolio of topics. He then reached out to IAEC to see if he could meet with a couple of electric cooperatives.

Upon their arrival, CEO Teresa Floyd gave a brief overview of ECI REC, and they visited CIPCO's Urbana Solar Acres, a utility-scale solar generation site located in the Urbana BECCA Industrial Park, just south of ECI's Administrative Headquarters. The group then headed to the Vinton Operations Center where CEO Floyd spoke about some of the damages sustained by the March 5, 2022, EF-1 tornado, and some of the supply chain issues that took place before and during the rebuilding process of the Vinton facility.

"It is an important initiative of ECI REC to connect with its legislators, in doing so we hope to become a trusted resource they can call upon if a need should arise. We were very appreciative of the opportunity to share ECI REC's story with Eli", CEO Floyd stated. "I encouraged Eli, to reach out any time with questions and he could count on us for credible information."

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About East-Central Iowa Rural Electric Cooperative: East-Central Iowa Rural Electric Cooperative (ECI REC) is a notfor-profit distribution electric cooperative serving over 9,159 member-accounts, across 2,296 miles of line. Owned by the members we serve throughout 11 counties: Benton, Black Hawk, Bremer, Buchanan, Clayton, Delaware, Fayette, Iowa, Linn, and Tama. ECI REC is an equal opportunity provider and employer