Political Quotes

“I would like to call the Senate's attention to the work of the Washington Electric Cooperative, which provides power and electricity to thousands of Vermonters, including to Marcelle and me at our home in Middlesex. This year the co-op, as it is better known to Vermonters, celebrates its 75th anniversary. The co-op formed in the midst of the rural electrification movement of the 1930s. On December 2, 1939, my predecessor in the Senate, then-Vermont Governor George Aiken, flipped the switch that brought electricity to 150 farms. I doubt that anyone could have imagined back then that the co-op would grow to serve the 11,000 members it serves today, covering about 2800 square miles in parts of 41 towns in north-central Vermont. The Washington Electric Co-Op has indeed grown, from the setting of the first poles on the McKnight Farm in East Montpelier, to operating 1200 miles of distribution lines with eight substations today. I am proud of the Washington Electric Co-Op, both as a customer and as a Vermonter. In honor of this important occasion, I ask that the article ``How the Washington Electric Co-op Began'' from the 1964 Washington Electric Co- op annual meeting be printed in the Record.…”