The 88th Annual Meeting for Central Wisconsin Electric Cooperative (CWEC) was held April 9 at Rosholt High School in Rosholt. There were 309 members and guests in attendance, with 224 of them registered members of the co-op. This was the highest attendance for a CWEC Annual Meeting since it was moved to a weeknight event in 2019.
Prior to the start of the meeting, Board Chairman Al Zander addressed attendees about the co-op’s storm restoration response to the two ice storms that hit the CWEC service territory the prior week. In addition to sharing information about what the restoration process entailed, Zander also addressed some of the comments that members posted on Facebook. One of those comments asked why the co-op doesn’t bury all its power lines. Zander said it would cost $41.2 million to bury its single-phase power lines, or approximately $4,900 per meter.
For the safety message, Kevin Kurtzweil, vice president of Operations for CWEC, explained that it is important for members to hook up generators properly during an outage. If a generator is not hooked up properly, it can be a hazard to linemen working on restoring power.
Kurtzweil also provided an update on two future projects that would have an impact on the communities where they will be located, as well as help grow the load for the co-op. One project is a 60-apartment complex in Wittenberg being constructed by Swiderski. The second project is the construction of the Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Council 36-bed treatment center for members of the Stockbridge-Munsee Tribe.
Kurtzweil also said that through 2025, the co-op had 96,733 incident-free hours of work time and 821,364 miles of incident-free vehicle travel.
Bert Lehman, manager of Member Relations for CWEC, shared information about how the co-op’s Operation Round Up program helps its members and the communities the co-op serves. In 2025, the co-op awarded $24,650 in organization and hardship donations, along with $22,900 in educational scholarships. The use of Federated Youth Foundation funds provided $2,900 in STEAM grants to area schools during the 2024-25 academic year.
Key statistics for 2024, the statement of operations, and the balance sheet for the co-op were presented by Stacy Claussen, manager of Accounting & Finance for CWEC. She said co-op electricity sales rebounded in 2025. CWEC reported nearly $19.8 million in revenue and net margins of $2.45 million in 2025. Also in 2025, CWEC retired $489,328 in capital credits.
During the Chairman’s Report, Zander talked about a new substation that the co-op will be installing at its headquarters. The new substation is necessary to handle the higher voltage line ATC is bringing to the area and will be able to back feed two other co-op substations in the event of outages.
Zander also recognized CWEC lineman Chris Tuszke, the 2025 recipient of the Wisconsin Electric Cooperative Association’s Cooperative Hero Award. Tuszke was responding to an outage and was the first person on the scene and performed life saving measures for an individual who was involved in an accident and was unresponsive.
CWEC CEO & President Lila Shower commented on the $5 million investment in Alliant Energy’s West Riverside project in 2019. The co-op recaptured its investment in less than five years and has received $6.4 million through 2025. The co-op returns 75% of its investment earnings to members through their monthly electric bill as a Power Cost Adjustment (PCA) offset. No member has had an increase on their bill as a result of the PCA and often have received credits over the last 16 months. The remaining 25% is used for offsetting operations costs.
District 1 Director Tom Smith, District 3 Director Sue Rombalski, and At-Large Director Michael Schultz each won reelection unopposed.
A total of 26 door prizes were given to members during the Annual Meeting.
Members also donated 318 non-perishable food items to be donated to area food pantries.