Ryan Piersol center, Member Services Representative of Oklahoma Municipal Power Authority, was the guest speaker of the Kingfisher Rotary club last week. Shown here with Kingfisher City Manager Dave Slezickey, left, who introduced him to the membership and guests, and Kingfisher Rotarian Greg Garrett, who arranged for the presentation, right. Piersol narrated a power point slide show that emphasized the benefits derived by the 62 communities that are members of OMPA, of which Kingfisher is one. He said Kingfisher citizens are fortunate to reside in a community that has its own power plant capability, which ensures that at least part of the community would have electrical power during extended outage periods. He said OMPA was created in 1981, and Kingfisher is one of the original 26 members. Currently Kingfisher City Manager Dave Slezickey is on the board, which he said is an added benefit to Kingfisher residents because Slezickey is up to date on all details of OMPA activities. He concluded by saying the main benefit of OMPA membership is increased local control and management of electrical power in the city. He said interested persons could go to the website ourlocalpower.org to find out more about OMPA. [TIMES & FREE PRESS Staff Photo]