The Results Are In // November 2025 CEO Column
2025 Member Satisfaction Survey Takeaways
Distributed every October, our annual Member Satisfaction survey continues to serve not only as a gauge on our performance over the past year, but also as a way to make sure we’re sharing information on areas of service most important to our members.
We’re happy to report that regarding overall satisfaction, members rated the co-op a 9 out of a possible 10, helping us meet our survey goal for the fourth consecutive year. Your feedback plays an important part in the steps we take to maintain that score. We thank you for your participation and partnership in our efforts to improve.
We grouped this year’s survey responses into four common themes: facility charge details, vegetation management, capital credits, and off-peak controls. This month and in December’s newsletter, we’ll provide content focused on those topics, beginning with the two below:
Facility Charge: What is it?
Many respondents – including seasonal members – had questions on how the facility charge is determined and why, if they are not actively using electricity year-round, they would pay the same as members who do.
It helps to understand that a facility charge covers ongoing fixed costs – the poles, wires, trucks, and equipment needed just to have electric service available. It also supports essential work such as vegetation management near power lines, routine system maintenance, outage response, and administrative operations that keep the cooperative functioning every day. These costs are apart from individual household usage and, because LREC continues to invest in improving service reliability, are divided equally among our members on a monthly basis. Also, note that cooperative service areas are comprised of rural or smaller communities with fewer customers to help share the total cost, which results in a facility charge that may be higher when compared against investor-owned utilities that serve more populated cities.
Interested in learning more? Visit Understanding the Facility Charge.
Vegetation Management (VM) Tree Trimming FAQs
Another identified area of interest was tree maintenance — specifically, when we talk about trimming, what do we mean by a “corridor”? Why is it needed and how can we help our members with their plans?
In VM, a maintenance corridor can best be described as the recommended distance between a power line and potential tree growth – dependent on tree-specific height and diameter – that should be maintained in order to both prevent vegetation-related interference and allow linemen access to the source of an outage so they can restore power as quickly and safely as possible.
Areas planned for trimming are determined by AiDash, our predictive technology system, and scheduled by LREC crews on a rotational basis. Members residing in affected areas will be notified with a postcard or phone call by our Arborist before trimming begins. The Arborist can also assist with reviewing tree and powerline conflicts; however, in most cases, it is best to wait until your circuit is scheduled for routine maintenance.
Need more help? Detailed information on maintenance corridors, trimming maps, and planting recommendations can be found by visiting our Vegetation Management page.
Thanks again to everyone who took time to participate in this year’s survey. I look forward to working with our members in the months ahead.
Cooperatively yours,
Joel Janorschke, CEO