Eastern Illini Electric Cooperative (EIEC) is pleased to announce the appointment of Bradley W. Smith as the cooperative’s next President and Chief Executive Officer, effective April 7, 2025.

Jeremiah 33:6, a not-for-profit with the mission to provide preventative maintenance health education to community members in rural east central Illinois, is the most recent recipient of the Sharing Success grant program from Eastern Illini Electric Cooperative, the local electric cooperative, and CoBank, a cooperative bank serving vital industries throughout rural America. 

Jeremiah 33:6 received $5,000 to help fund a produce pantry which offers nutritional food and education to people who can’t afford healthy food. 

We want to thank Eastern Illini members who attended the Annual Meeting events in Tuscola, at the Ford County Fairgrounds and at the Iroquois County Fairgrounds.

It was great to be able to enjoy a sit-down fried chicken meal and talk with members, friends and neighbors. We hope everyone enjoyed the meal and music. Hats off to our employees who went above and beyond to ensure everything ran smoothly. The final Annual Meeting event at the Iroquois County Fairgrounds culminated with the Eastern Illini Electric Cooperative business meeting with began at 6:00 p.m. in the 4-H Building.

In 2022, EIEC began an extensive cost of service and rate study. That study showed us that while the cooperative was doing okay financially, we weren't quite collecting enough to properly maintain our distribution system. It further showed that a 2.5 percent rate increase was necessary to maintain system reliability and help cover the rising costs we've all seen in recent years. As we continued analysis, we determined that many of our fixed costs were being collected through kWh sales.

Eastern Illini Electric Cooperative will be changing the rate structure for members of the cooperative in March of 2024. We want to invite members to an informational meeting that provides background details, explains the new rates, and answers questions. Please join us for any one of these six meetings being held throughout our service territory. 

Eastern Illini has begun replacing meters throughout our service territory. The installation of new meters began in Iroquois County and will continue until all meters have been replaced. The goal is to have all the new meters in place by the end of 2023.

Mark Slagel, Strawn, has been elected to the Eastern Illini Electric Cooperative Board of Directors. Slagel was elected by co-op members at the Annual Meeting events in June. He will be the Directorate District 2, a seat previously held by Tom Schlatter, Chatsworth, since 2006. Slagel is President of Slagel Manufacturing and farms with his brothers. Slagel has served on the Strawn Fire Department, Prairie Central School Board and is a member of the Fairbury First Baptist Church and Prairie Central Athletic Boosters. Slagel and his wife, Suzanne, have four children.

Lauri Quick, Tolono, was re-elected to the Eastern Illini Electric Cooperative Board of Directors at the EIEC Annual Meeting events in June. She has served on the board of directors since 2018. 

Quick is the representative for Directorate District 9. She earned her Board Leadership Certification from the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association in 2022.