{"id":36169,"date":"2015-06-23T16:51:39","date_gmt":"2015-06-23T20:51:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=36169"},"modified":"2015-06-23T16:51:39","modified_gmt":"2015-06-23T20:51:39","slug":"providing-electric-service-in-southwest-florida-for-75-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2015\/06\/providing-electric-service-in-southwest-florida-for-75-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Providing Electric Service In Southwest Florida For 75 Years"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"This year marks the 75th Anniversary of LCEC. Throughout history, employees and leaders of the electric cooperative have risen to the occasion and worked hard to meet the needs of members. Their commitment, and the support of customers, is a testament to the vision of the LCEC founders in 1940. That vision remains clear today \u2013 to deliver the power that energizes the community.<\/p>\n

It is the not-for-profit\u2019s mission to provide efficient, reliable, cost-competitive electric and emerging energy solutions and quality service to customers. This mission was inspired by George Judd, 75 years ago. Judd, a local orange-grove owner, recognized the increasing need for electricity in North Fort Myers. He owned a small generator and distribution system, Mariana Grove Light & Power, which provided electricity to his home, his citrus packing house and the homes of his employees.<\/p>\n

The population on the north side of the river was growing, and Judd\u2019s neighbors were pressing him to provide power to them too. At a 1985 National Pioneer Awards ceremony, George Judd stated, \u201cI didn\u2019t want to be in the power business, but I had to have electricity. FPL wouldn\u2019t sell it to me, so I hired a plant manager and made my own electricity.\u201d Judd checked with the Rural Electrification Administration (REA) and learned that a cooperative could be formed if there were enough people in the area that needed power, and Lee County Electric Cooperative, Inc. was soon formed. Judd\u2019s plant manager Homer T. Welch, Jr. was urged to organize an electric cooperative so that others in the area could receive electricity.\"\"<\/p>\n

Welch went door to door to recruit members for the cooperative that would eventually provide electricity to member-owners in portions of Lee, Charlotte, Collier, Hendry, Dade and Broward counties. Initially, service was limited to parts of North Fort Myers, Pine Island, St.\u00a0James City, Bokeelia, Sanibel Island and Captiva Island. After Welch negotiated with government officials in Washington and facilitated a loan for $150,000 from the REA, the articles of incorporation for Lee County Electric Cooperative, Inc., were signed. The Cooperative opened its doors with 15 miles of distribution line and 158 members, about one percent of Lee County\u2019s 1940 population of 17,500. Judd\u2019s company continued to supply power to the Cooperative, but it wasn\u2019t very profitable. He eventually sold Mariana Grove Light & Power for $45,000 to the Cooperative.<\/p>\n

In 1951, Lee Ratner, a wealthy industrialist, oilman and inventor, sold his large Chicago pest control business and decided to purchase a large tract of land as an investment. Ratner bought an 18,000-acre cattle spread in east Lee County, naming it Lucky Lee Ranch. Business buddies convinced him to expand and develop his Lucky Lee Ranch into a land development outfit. In 1954, they formed the Lee County Land and Title Co. and dubbed it Lehigh Acres because it was the highest point in Lee County at 27 feet above sea level.<\/p>\n

\"\"By 1955, Lee County Land and Title Co. began to develop parcels for $10 down and $10 a month. By 1960, about 500 homes were purchased, and residents started purchasing power from the Cooperative. That year, the publisher of The Book of Knowledge, a children\u2019s encyclopedia, ran a contest to find the All-American Family. The winners of the contest, chosen from nominations that came in from all over the country, received a free home in Lehigh Acres. The prized house was touted as a Westinghouse Total Electric Gold Medallion home.<\/p>\n

In 1961, the area had grown large enough to have representation on the Lee County Electric Cooperative Board of Trustees. In July of 1962, new Lehigh Acres substation and transmission lines were put into service. The substation was designed to deliver 3,000 kilowatts, more than three times the capacity needed at that time but in anticipation of continued growth in the community. The surge in property prices led to a burst of new-housing construction which declined drastically in 2008. The economic downturn hit the area hard. Strong community roots are behind the efforts to reshape Lehigh Acres and lead the community down the road to recovery. LCEC has plans to build an additional substation in the near future to ensure electric capacity is available to support growth.<\/p>\n

Many things have changed since the Cooperative was incorporated, but the driving force behind the business remains the same: providing a valuable service while looking beyond limitations to explore new approaches to delivering competitively priced, reliable electric service to customer-members.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This year marks the 75th Anniversary of LCEC. Throughout history, employees and leaders of the electric cooperative have risen to the occasion and worked hard to meet the needs of… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36169"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36169\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}