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Keeping Our Lives On

Monday | May 5, 2025
All News

In March, Coos-Curry Electric Cooperative sponsored one of our linemen to help electrify a village in Guatemala. It was the second time the Oregon Rural Electric Cooperative Association brought electricity to a Guatemalan village through its project called Oregon Empowers. The objective was to wire the 28 village homes, each with two outlets, two switches and four light fixtures.

Imagine that your home had no electricity and just had four lights and two outlets installed. How would that change your life?

What appliance would you buy first? Maybe an electric cooktop so you don’t have to gather wood and make a fire every time you want to cook or heat water. Maybe a small refrigerator so meat and dairy products last longer. Or is the priority an electric clothes washer to end the drudgery of hand scrubbing clothes on a washboard? The list goes on.

You probably wouldn’t buy a TV. There’s no time for that. You probably wouldn’t buy a treadmill.

You already walk more than 5 miles a day to meet essential needs.

Computers and 3D printers don’t make the wish list either. What about a vacuum cleaner for your dirt floor home?

Most of us today have never known life without electricity and the transformative value it brings to our quality of life. It is hard for us to comprehend how electricity enables very simple pleasures, such as ice cream or complex lifesaving modern medicine and health care. We think of power outages as inconveniences that last for hours or a couple of days, at the very worst. Have you thought about what your life would be like without electricity for a week, a month or more? Life would quickly devolve from our highly specialized and interconnected society to rudimentary subsistence living.

I am grateful for the brilliant and dedicated people who imagined, invented, built, ran and maintained our modern electric grid over the past century. Even in the wake of rising costs for the necessities of food, shelter and utilities, the value I receive from paying my electric bill is almost beyond comprehension.

We often think of the electric company as keeping the lights on. I think of it as keeping our lives on.

Brent Bischoff

General Manager and CEO

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Mailing Address

Coos- Curry Electric Cooperative, Inc.

PO BOX 4279

Brookings, OR 97415

Office Hours

Monday through Thursday

8:00 am to 5:00 pm

Phone Numbers

24/7 Outage & Information:

(866) 352-9044

Member Services:

(541) 332-3931

 

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©2025 Coos-Curry Electric Cooperative. A Touchstone Energy Cooperative

  • Member Resources
    • Member Services
      • Online Account & Mobile App
      • Payment Methods
      • Pre-Pay Power
      • Rate Schedule
      • Member Benefits
      • Energy Assistance
      • Round-Up Program
      • New Electric Service
  • About Us
    • About Us
      • About Your Co-Op
      • Management Team
      • Service Area
      • Office Locations
      • Our Power Source
      • Capital Credits
      • Charitable Giving
      • Careers
      • Contact Us
    • Governance
      • Board of Directors
      • Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws
      • Policies
      • Annual Meeting
      • CCEC Annual Report
  • Outages & Safety
    • Outages
      • Outage Center
      • Outage Map
      • Public Safety Power Shutoff
    • Safety
      • Electrical Safety
      • Wildfire Mitigation
      • Tree Trimming Requests
      • Call Before You Dig
  • Rebates & Programs
    • Rebate Programs
    • Energy Conservation
    • Home Efficiency Tool
    • Net Metering
    • Electric Vehicles
      • EV Charging Program
  • Community
    • Cooperative News
      • Recent News
      • Ruralite Magazine
      • Scam Awareness
    • Community
      • Coos-Curry Electric Charitable Foundation
        • Financial Peace University
        • Luck of the Draw Scholarship Application
        • CCECF Bright Ideas Grant
      • CCEC Kid's Corner
        • Safety Demonstrations
      • Youth Tour
      • CCEC Scholarships
      • Heroes Among Us