Ptacek and Redalen re-elected to MiEnergy Cooperative’s board 2020

Posted: April 23, 2020

Ptacek and Redalen re-elected to MiEnergy Cooperative’s board

Cresco, IA | Rushford, MN (7:30 p.m. April 22, 2020)— Last month, MiEnergy Cooperative announced its annual meeting scheduled for April 22 would be a non-member attended event due to COVID-19. Elections for District 1 board directors went ahead as scheduled. Dennis Puckett, of Sullivan & Ward, P.C. and who serves as the cooperative attorney, announced the election results during a conference call held today (April 22) at 7 p.m. by the MiEnergy board and staff.

A total of 974 votes were cast (862 by mail and 112 electronically). This is 21.48% of 4,534 eligible MiEnergy voters in District 1.

Both incumbents are returning to the board for three-year terms. Dennis Ptacek, of Elma, Iowa, ran unopposed and received 900 votes. Ptacek has served on the board for MiEnergy and its predecessor Hawkeye REC since 1997. Incumbent Jeffrey Redalen, of Fountain, Minn., was re-elected with 562 votes, while his challenger Dave Ruen, of Wykoff, Minn. received 392 votes. Redalen has served on the board for MiEnergy and its predecessor Tri-County Electric Cooperative since 2002.

The results were certified by independent election vendor Survey and Ballot Systems.

In lieu of a member attended meeting, the cooperative posted a five-minute video online on April 17 that details the decision to have no member attended annual meeting and to provide highlights of 2019 that would normally be presented at the annual meeting. The video is posted on the co-op’s Facebook, Twitter and YouTube pages.

MiEnergy Cooperative is a member-owned electric distribution cooperative and is the result of a merger between Hawkeye REC, of Cresco, Iowa and Tri-County Electric Cooperative, of Rushford, Minn. in 2017. It maintains 5,500 miles of power lines covering most of Fillmore, Houston and Winona counties in Minnesota and Chickasaw, Howard and Winneshiek counties in Iowa. The cooperative also serves small pockets bordering those counties. It provides electricity to more than 18,800 members in northeastern Iowa and southeastern Minnesota. MiEnergy is a Touchstone Energy Cooperative.