Everybody’s got their favorite weather app. Some even toss colorful words into the forecast that may miraculously match up to your feelings about this year’s meteorological maelstrom.

Join Tipmont REMC on May 29 at North Montgomery High School and May 30 at Wea Ridge Middle School in Lafayette.

In last month’s article, I shared that Tipmont is bringing fiber broadband internet to our members. Feedback from our members has made it clear that their quality of life was threatened due to the lack of a high speed broadband internet service. As a member-owned and member-driven organization, Tipmont is uniquely positioned to meet these challenges.

Sure, Sunday alcohol in Indiana is no longer a plan-ahead situation. But cheers to the craft brewers who helped us kick off the week with a growler well before this year.

Tipmont is bringing broadband internet to our members!

Each year in March, I write a summary of the previous year’s electric reliability report. It’s fascinating to write each year because of the variety in Mother Nature’s behavior, which is a major determinant of outages. 2015 was a very weather-neutral year, which resulted in one of the lowest numbers of total member minutes out in Tipmont’s history. We weren’t so lucky in 2016, as two summer storms caused member minutes out to spike by 33 percent. In 2017, the total number of member minutes out was down about 16 percent from 2016.

In Japanese mythology, the yatagarasu is a three-legged crow whose arrival guided emperors toward periods of positivity and promise after hardship and strife.

As an electric cooperative, Tipmont is guided by a board of directors elected by our membership to represent their best interests when making important decisions. Being a member of this board is an incredibly important position in our community. The board’s decisions impact issues such as service rates, rights of way and work plans. This position holds significant responsibility and requires individuals who understand their community’s needs and serve the cooperative members’ best interest.

At the January 2018 board meeting, Tipmont REMC’s Board of Directors voted to authorize the design, construction and delivery of fiber optic broadband and related services to the Tipmont membership. The vote was unanimous and follows 18 months of due diligence, including extensive feasibility evaluation and market analysis.

According to WLFI-TV meteorologist Cameron Hopman, the cold snap we faced between December 26, 2017 and January 6, 2018 was the longest streak of sub-twenty degree temperatures in our area’s history. The unprecedented streak of cold weather resulted in very high energy use.