Lorain Medina Rural Electric

The rural communities of Lorain and Medina counties were among the first to go into action. Unpaid volunteers traveled the area to determine customer interest, areas to be served and cost estimates. Following the completion of the groundwork, Lorain-Medina Rural Electric Cooperative was incorporated Jan. 3, 1936. Both counties were included in the original plans to make them more acceptable to the REA to pay less for wholesale power.  The initial plan called for 168 miles of line to service an estimated 600 potential customers. Even as REA was approving this modest proposal and allocating $232,700 to start construction, Lorain-Medina Rural Electric had immediate growing plans. It was obvious almost immediately that the potential customers need for rural electric service in the two county area had been underestimated. A revised project called for 372 miles of line was rushed to REA, which promptly approved a maximum of $478,000 in construction loans.  The contract for constructing the first 372 miles of line was sent July 10, 1936, to the A.S. Schulman Co. of Chicago. Work started at once. By the end of the first year, 150 miles of line were constructed and the cooperative was serving approximately 400 families. Twenty years later the cooperative had grown to 575 miles of line, serving 4,677 customers, each using an average of 6,000 kilowatt hours per year.  In January 1998, Lorain-Medina Rural Electric formed a cooperative shared services and management federation with North Central Electric Cooperative of Attica, OH. Under the federation, the cooperatives share corporate management staff, accounting, billing, engineering, purchasing and marketing departments. Both cooperatives maintain separate offices and separate line crews.