My father-in-law, Jack Donahue, was a great athlete. The classic Irishman, he loved competition, people, music and gatherings. He was the master of sailing, golf, and downhill skiing. Imagine the spectacle of a 5’-5” Irishman on 7’ skis bombing the hills of Aspen and northern Michigan in the 1950’s! His later years saw him lose [...]
“Let’s ride our bicycles to the cottage!” Nearly 40 years ago, this was Dad’s big idea. The cottage was in Harrison about 50 miles away, we had heavy steel bikes, and I was only nine years old. Looking back I realize this was the start of two consistent themes – embrace challenge and trust that [...]
I keep thinking that the perfect audio backdrop to this post would be the iconic Pink Floyd song, with its cash register “kachinging” in the background. This week, Wolverine’s finance team completed a significant transaction to raise about $100 million for Wolverine’s construction needs for the next few years. Chad Geiger led the effort this [...]
I sit onboard United Airlines, returning from Portland, Oregon, and if I’m lucky, I will get home by 2:00 am. I spoke this morning to the Board of Pacific Northwest Generating Cooperative (PNGC), a Generation & Transmission (G&T) cooperative similar to Wolverine, which serves members in seven northwest states. John Prescott, PNGC’s general manager, asked [...]
Shocking news… Michigan has two peninsulas! Michigan residents take pride in our unique geography and the hokey way we point on our right hand to our hometown’s location. We take pride in our Mackinac Bridge and the beauty in its architecture and function over that five mile deep blue Straits. Have you ever thought about [...]
Last week, Wolverine retired $3 million in patronage capital to its members. Sounds great, right? But what in the world is patronage capital? So…here goes my attempt to simplify one of the mysteries of the cooperative world! As I’ve discussed in previous blogs, Wolverine is a non-profit corporation. We exist to serve our members, not [...]
Suzetta Pfeiffer’s first sight of America was the Statue of Liberty. She sailed from Rotterdam to Ellis Island before stepping onto New York’s chaotic streets, unable to speak English. Age 16, she had to find Central Station to buy a ticket to Muskegon, Michigan. Suze was strong, generous, supportive, and the wisest, most perceptive person [...]
Contractors swung into high gear this week on the Cadillac headquarters project, and Mother Nature blessed us with great weather. We are right on schedule with a number of important initial project milestones. This week’s focus included final soil compaction, foundation work, driveway construction, and installation of temporary construction electric service. Tim Martin is Wolverine’s [...]
Imagine waking up in the dark on a minus-35 degree morning like we had last winter. You turn on a kerosene lamp, pump some water, get wood burning in your kitchen stove, and finally after 30 minutes, get a little water boiling for coffee. That was life in rural America — until electric cooperatives, that [...]
I talked about the importance of Peaking Generation in my last post. Wolverine operates peaking generation in Tower, Gaylord, Hersey, Vestaburg and Sumpter Twp. Our plants are very well maintained, and in most cases, in very good condition… and we need more! Why do we need more Peaking Generation? The primary reason is that older [...]