It’s time for Page Two: News that might not make the front page for Monday, Dec. 29, 2025.
Applications are open for the Matanuska Electric Association Board of Directors election. Two seats are up – the Eagle River District seat and one at-large seat. Applications are due by 5 p.m. Friday, February 6.
Members can apply for the open board seats at mea.coop. You can complete the online form or print application.
MEA conducts board elections through electronic voting. Members can vote in person at the annual meeting or request a paper ballot before the April election if they prefer.
The MEA board gives members a voice in the cooperative’s future. It works to keep power reliable and affordable.
That role carries weight when we remember why MEA exists at all.
Many rural communities remained literally in the dark in the early 20th century. Investor-owned utilities avoided rural America because of the cost.
Congress passed the Rural Electrification Act in 1935. This New Deal legislation provided federal loans to locally owned electric cooperatives.
Electric co-ops formed under REA are consumer-owned and governed by member-elected boards. The REA loans tripled electricity to rural homes within five years.
At the same time, 203 colonist families arrived in Palmer from the upper mid-west. Planners supplied electricity to buildings like hospitals and schools, but left the farms without power. For dairy farmers, it became a matter of having electricity or going bust.
Colony physician Dr. C. Earle Albrecht pursued an REA-backed electric cooperative for the colonists in 1937.
The Colonists had to prove they could fund the required survey and application process.
They raised the funds by holding an Electric Ball. They danced their way to electric lights.
The ball raised $150. They completed the survey and the lengthy application with the funds. The Matanuska Electric Association was established in 1940.
Electricity reached 127 members within two years. MEA crews built 194 additional miles of line over the next 18 months. All 242 cooperative members had electric service by the end of 1943.
The cooperative legacy continues today. MEA serves more than 55,000 members across 48 hundred miles of electric distribution lines.
MEA’s history reminds us that the board is about more than power lines. It’s about a self- governing cooperative that meets a community need.
The continued windstorms and power outages remind us to be grateful to Dr. Albrecht and the Colonists for bringing cooperative electricity to the Mat-Su.
Colony Christmas 2025 Parade of Lights float winners are in. Congratulations to first place winner Alaska State Fair. Second place goes to MTA, third place goes to Sand Lake Automotive. Honorable Mentions went to Alaska Frontier Fabrication and Alaska High School Rodeo.
Page 2 airs weekdays at 7 a.m., 9 a.m., 11:55 a.m., and about 6 p.m.
Please support Page 2 News. Donate today.
This Page Two article was written by Emily Forstner and read by Lee Henrikson.
If you have an idea for a Page 2 topic, please email us at page2@radiofreepalmer.org.
That’s it for today and the news on Page Two on Monday, Dec. 29, 2025.