Look for June’s Ruralite magazine in your mailbox soon.

Starting in June, we’re adding more local photos and new cover images. The cover images will tie in with the stories in the magazine.

The Ruralite is mailed to approximately 34,000 GVEA members monthly. The cost is about 50 cents per issue, including postage. In lieu of a printed magazine, a digital edition of the Ruralite is available to members. To sign up, visit gvea.com/ruralite.

Speaking of change, our new blog layout went live last week. The new look is more streamlined and, hopefully, easier to navigate. We’ve also moved entirely to the Facebook commenting system. Remember, you can sign up to receive our weekly blog posts in your email.

Is the ground around your house still frozen?

Put your sapling in a five gallon bucket of water. Keep the bucket outside — the goal is to have the tree get used to the environment. In general, Amur maples and Siberian crabapples are not houseplants.

While the bucket is a great place to keep the tree for a couple of weeks, it’s not a good idea to leave it submerged in water all summer. So, if you plan to hold off on finding a more permanent home for your tree, consider planting it in a wide and shallow container that allows the roots to spread. And don’t forget to water it.

Tips for planting your tree in its permanent home can be found in this PDF. They’ve also been outlined here:

• Dig a shallow hole about three feet in diameter and six to 12 inches deep.
• Spread out the tree’s roots.
• Don’t bury the stem of your tree. In fact, it’s better to plant the tree too shallow than too deep.
• Fertilizer is not recommended for newly planted trees, but you could put compost over the planting hole to help maintain soil moisture.

The following video made its debut at GVEA’s Annual Members’ Meeting and is now available to all — check it out!

• We’ve made room for the NEW Rolling Average and Levelized Budget Billing Plans. Read on to find out more.
• The usage bar graph has moved to the back of the bill and a small usage chart is located on the front. This way, you can have the best of both worlds – pictures and numbers.
• The bill definitions are now located on the back of the bill, making the overall look of the bill more aesthetically pleasing.

We figure our members are probably most excited about the new billing plans, so let’s look at them more in-depth.

Rolling Average and Levelized Budget Billing are offered to residential members only at this time. Both plans are designed to help even out your monthly bills (they smooth out the peaks and valleys).

What’s the difference between the two plans? Unless you use electric heat, rolling average and levelized budget billing will have very similar effects on your monthly bills. The main difference being that there is no “settle up” month with Rolling Average Billing (there is with Levelized Budget Billing). And one more thing: you can sign up for Rolling Average Billing at any time. Levelized Budget Billing is limited to April and May (this could change in the future) and you must have 12 months of usage history at your location.

Here are more details about each option:

Rolling Average Billing and how it works

Rolling Average Billing is based on a rolling 12-month average. Your electric bill is calculated by adding the current actual electric bill to the previous 11 months total and dividing by 12, plus 1/12th of the budget plan accumulated balance (the difference between what would have been paid on actual usage and what was actually paid through the Rolling Average Budget Billing Plan). Since the rolling average billing amount is recalculated each month, there is no need to “settle up” at the end of the year.

Levelized Budget Billing and how it works

Under Levelized Budget Billing you pay the same amount for eleven months with the twelfth month being the “settle up” month.

We will research your annual electric usage and divide by twelve to determine your monthly payments. You’ll know ahead of time what your monthly bill will be every month. Then, we’ll track your monthly usage. Any over- or underpayments will be tracked in the accumulated variance section on your bill. During the twelfth month, we’ll “settle up.” If your actual electric usage for the year was more, you’ll pay the difference. However, if it was less, we’ll issue a refund if requested (otherwise the balance rolls over into the next year). The entire process starts over again in April or May.

Contact our member services department to sign up for either option. If you would like to sign up for levelized budget billing, you’ll need to jump on it – the deadline to enroll is the end of May.

*There are certain eligibility requirements. Contact our member services department if you have questions – 452-1151 or info@gvea.com.

• The board approved a natural gas-fired power purchase agreement with Chugach Electric Association that will provide lower cost power through March 2015.
• Eva Creek Wind came online at the end of 2012. It is expected to provide up to 75,000,000 kilowatt-hours of wind power annually– enough to power 9,450 average Interior homes.
• GVEA made headway with Healy Unit 2 (formerly HCCP). The cooperative expects to finalize purchase negotiations this summer and bring the power plant online in the first quarter of 2015.

Board Chairman Bill Nordmark recognized retiring board member Ron Bergh for 33 years of dedicated service to the cooperative. “Ron has mentored many of us on the GVEA board, giving us time, encouragement and wisdom. He truly cares about this utility and about this community,” said Nordmark.

All members were encouraged to have a Home$ense Energy Audit. The audit helps members identify where their homes are using the most energy and offers solutions for how to cut back. Coupons for 50% off the audit were distributed at the meeting.

A total of 17 members participated in member comments.

The meeting drew a crowd of 1,059 members.

Here are the cash prize drawing winners from this year’s meeting:

Left to right: Ellen Axmear ($500),  Larry McGrady ($250), Phyllis Sheets ($500), Judith Leslie-Patton ($1,000), Marie Harrington ($250), Richard Patton (w/Judith), Brianna Conley ($250), Bettie Upright ($250 Safeway card) and Richard Wagner ($250)

Safeway gift card drawing winners (not pictured):

• $250 Safeway gift card from IBEW and Operating Engineers Unions – Shannon Christensen, Cynthia Fields, Cheryl Stafford

The Siberian crabapple is pictured here in a Fairbanks yard. It has white blooms.

This is GVEA’s 23rd annual FREE tree giveaway in celebration of Arbor Day. Each family is eligible to choose one tree, so please choose wisely. Here are this year’s choices:

• Siberian crabapple – Zone 2, full sun, 15 to 25 ft. (Quantity: 500)
• Amur maple – Zone 2, full sun to partial shade, 15 to 20 ft., makes a great border shrub (Quantity: 2,500)

First come, first served. Sometimes we run out of trees before noon, so don’t plan on sleeping in.

There is another telephone scam going around involving GVEA members. A member received a phone call last week from someone claiming to be a GVEA employee. The caller told the members that their power would be turned off at 4 p.m. While we don’t have the details, we expect that payment information was requested. Fortunately, this member was skeptical and contacted GVEA.

If GVEA has any questions about a member’s payment information, we always contact the member by snail mail, asking the member to call us to discuss the issue.

Here are some tips from the FBI for avoiding identity theft:

• Never throw away ATM receipts, credit statements, credit cards or bank statements in a usable form.
• Never give your credit card number over the phone unless you make the call.
• Remove your name from mailing lists for pre-approved credit lines and tele-marketers.
• If you know of anyone who receives mail from credit card companies or banks in the name of others, report it to local or federal law enforcement authorities.

Please use caution to protect yourself from fraud and remind family and friends as well. Email GVEA if you have further questions or concerns: info@gvea.com.

Maintaining reliability is important.

Just like your car requires periodic maintenance to ensure that it continues running reliably, our power plants do too. Think of this Healy power plant maintenance like the 60,000 mile check-up for your car:

• You wouldn’t want to have the maintenance done too long before your car hits 60,000 miles, but you also wouldn’t want to wait until it’s bumping up against 100,000 miles.
• Before taking it into the shop, you would make sure a mechanic is available to do the work.
• You would line up an alternate mode of transportation while your car is in the shop.

The way we prepare for maintenance at our Healy power plant* isn’t a lot different. The life cycles of the equipment in the plant dictate when we need to take it offline for maintenance. We also have to make sure a specialist is available to perform the necessary work. And, last but not least, we coordinate our maintenance schedules with other Alaska electric utilities to ensure less expensive back up power is available.

What can you do to help your co-op while the plant is offline? Conserve energy. The less energy you use, the less expensive oil GVEA will have to burn to meet demand. Find out how you have the Power to Use Less.

*This particular power plant maintenance is scheduled every 18 months. Rather than have it fall in the summer one year and winter the next, we schedule it for spring and fall.

Charles, one of our auditors, can show you how to save energy and money with a Smart Strip.

Turn one hour of your time into long-term energy (and money) savings. This month, we’re offering GVEA’s Home$ense energy audit for 50% off – just $19.95. It’s easy to sign up – just call 452-1151 or email homesense@gvea.com. Make sure to let us know you have the coupon – and you’ll need to present it to the auditor at the time of the audit. Besides energy-saving tips and tricks, you’ll receive up to $150 in energy-saving products. These products include:

• Vehicle plug-in timer
• Smart Strip surge protector – when you turn off the computer, it will shut off power to all of the accessories like the printer, fax machine, etc.
• LEDs and CFLs to replace inefficient incandescent lights
• Refrigerator thermometer & cleaning coil brush

If you had an audit ten years ago, you might want to think about having another. Lighting technology has changed a lot since then.

Download the coupon here.

Thanks to the nominating committees who worked hard to select this year’s candidates. In addition to the four candidates nominated by committee, Hank Bartos completed the petition process for District 5.

District 5

nominated by committee

• Chris Bunch
• Richard Holm

nominated by petition

• Hank Bartos

District 6

nominated by committee

• Steve Lemons
• John Sloan, incumbent

Visit GVEA’s website for candidate photos, bios and Q&As. Ballots will be mailed on May 3.

GVEA is a cooperative. It is owned by its members (GVEA account holders) and its activities are overseen by a seven member board of directors. Voting for your board representative is a great way to get involved in the cooperative.