Of the tens of thousands of cooperatives in the United States, few have seen the recent growth of Cimarron Electric Cooperative of Kingfisher.

That much was on display Sept. 12 at the cooperative’s 83rd annual meeting.

Some 900 members attended the meeting at the Kingfisher County Fairgrounds, a record for the event.

It was at the meeting that members were told much of what they’ve seen first-hand.

CEO Mark Snowden reported the record-setting net margin of $4.9 million during the 2017 fiscal year was surpassed by the $7 million margin in 2018.

“Those margins are without a doubt the result of the tremendous explosion in electricity sales due to the oil and gas activity in our nine-county service territory,” Snowden told members in attendance.

The operating revenue for 2017 was $40.9 million and jumped to $49.2 in 2018.

Snowden highlighted some of the improvements the extra revenue is financing, including $2 million to cut and spray trees and other vegetation growing into the powerlines, replacing aging copper lines throughout the power grid (he noted all but 200 miles of the 5,000 miles of lines has already been replaced), and implementing smart technology to allow more issues to be controlled or corrected from the central office.

Cimarron recently highlighted some of the recent improvements made in its nine-county service area.

They included:

• The Park Community substation being energized within the last year by a 138 kV transmission line;

• Ten miles of 138 kV transmission line being built from the Park Community substation to the Omega substation;

• The Fay substation being energized Sept. 25, which will increase the reliability of service; and,

• More than 10 miles of transmission lines being built from the Watonga substation to provide power for the Fay substation.

At the meeting, Snowden also announced that the board of trustees voted to retire $1.5 million in capital credits for the years 1989-92.

“If you were a member during that time, you can expect to see your check in your mailbox the week of Thanksgiving,” he said.

“This moves us ever closer to our strategic goal of retiring capital credits at or below a 25-year rotation.”

Cimarron board members include: Ron Sproul (District 1); Chalentz Hedges (Dist. 2), Rudy Patzkowsky (Dist. 3), Amie Reed (Dist. 4), Gene Peters, (Dist. 5), Tom Kloeppel (Dist. 6), Robert Yeoman (Dist. 7), Raymond Flatt (Dist. 8) and Jim Simmons (Dist. 9).