A Word from Our CEO

Electric Cooperatives Dedicated to Safety

Electricity, like many tools, is safe and reliable, but if handled improperly, it can cause serious injury or damage.

May is “Electrical Safety Month.” Your local electric cooperative stresses safety throughout the year as part of its ongoing commitment to providing you with safe, reasonably priced electricity. Cooperatives throughout Arkansas and the nation work diligently to continuously conduct educational programs and electric safety demonstrations at schools, county fairs, volunteer fire departments and community events. We consider it a great responsibility to make sure our friends and neighbors respect electricity and know how to be careful around it.

Included in the Electric Cooperative of Arkansas’ efforts are presentations to school children and the public. The efforts include “Making Accidents Disappear,” an electric safety show featuring magic, which has been presented to more than a million children during the past eight years. This program is now provided at cooperatives across the United States to reach future cooperative members.

The power lines that deliver electricity are built and maintained under strict procedures and guidelines. Your cooperative has maintenance plans and line inspection programs to ensure that its infrastructure is safe. As part of the program, we strive to make sure that objects such as trees, billboards, grain bins and other objects are safe distance from power lines. We also make sure that trees, bushes and shrubbery are a safe distance from power lines through our vegetation management programs.

If you ever notice something about a power line or substation that does not look correct, do not attempt to solve the issue. Please contact your local electric cooperative. A highly trained and skilled line worker will be dispatched to investigate the issue and correct it.

Everyone has a role in practicing electrical safety.  If you have a question about electricity safety, please let us know and we will be glad to answer your question or arrange a demonstration for your community group.

Thank you.

Brian Duncan,

CEO