April 2004

Member Profile:  
Helen Glodt

Wagon trains and hop farming, TV commercials and a chain of Oregon restaurants — Helen Glodt’s story is swimmingly complex, dating back more than 150 years in Oregon alone.
     It starts with her great grandfather, Rev. John E. Murphy, who led a wagon train west to Independence, Oregon in 1852. There’s a monument and a memorial tree planted in Murphy’s honor on the Western Oregon University campus. As a circuit riding preacher in the territory, Murphy raised money to start the school, and donated land where it stands today. When Helen graduated from there in 1937, it was called Oregon Normal School.
     Born the daughter and granddaughter of hop farmers, Helen spent the years before college on a number of rural Willamette Valley farms: Wells, Hubbard, Forest Grove and Kenton. Schooled for years in one and two-room schools, Helen’s first job after college was as teacher, principal and sporting events referee in the two-room school at Rock Creek, not far from Hillsboro.
     Meanwhile, her husband John Glodt had moved from a Yellowstone River farm in western Montana to Forest Grove with his family. Helen noticed him stocking shelves on a ladder in a small grocery store. During their courtship she continued teaching and he acquired skills in baking and as a restaurant cook.
     By the time they married, in 1940, John had earned the trust of Vern Hale, the restaurant owner where John worked. Hale helped John start his first restaurant, in Gresham, and Helen lent her husband $14 so he could make change from the cash register. “I started off as the waitress,” Helen explained, “and John said he’d teach me the business as we went along.”
     Since then, John and Helen started, operated, owned and sold restaurants in Gresham, Prineville, Hillsboro, Seaside, three in Salem, and another in Monmouth. They raised three children (Barbara, Jim and John Jr.) and had to add on to their West Salem home to accommodate the growing family, which included John’s aging father. Meanwhile, they were running the Cupboard Café in downtown Salem while building a new drive-in (J’s Coffee Shop) in West Salem.
     Helen’s baking was profitable for the Cupboard Café and won her ribbons at County fairs. In 1970, General Mills asked her to enter a contest. She was one of three local women chosen to appear on a national TV commercial, in which the women’s skills were lauded as part of the company’s Bisquick promotion. The royalties from the national airing of that commercial netted the women about $4,000 each, according to a cover story in the Capital Journal.
     “It surprised us,” said Helen, “when Jim (the couple’s oldest son) came home from the Coast Guard and announced that he’d like to open a restaurant. While our other children had both worked in our restaurants, Jim had never expressed interest,” she said. Today, after 30 years, Jim still runs J’s 99 Grille in Monmouth. John, who owned a restaurant for a short while, now owns a bakery in Spokane, called “White Box Pies” making homemade goods for retail and wholesale clients. Barbara works as the membership sales director for Kent (WA) Chamber of Commerce.
     Once they retired from restaurant life, Helen and John traveled more. The image of her great grandfather’s trek across the U.S. by wagon came back as she described leading multiple RV caravans up the Alcan and Cassiar highways into the wilds of Canada, Alaska and others into Mexico.
     At 87, Helen has just enrolled in a writing class, where she continues to document the details of her family’s rich life.

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ANNUAL MEETING

The Salem Electric annual membership meeting is being held at 7 pm on May 11, 2004 at our office, 633 Seventh Street NW. This is a great opportunity to get an update on Salem Electric and meet your board of directors. Three Salem Electric staff members will also be giving updates on their duties at SE. 
Hope to see you there.

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Salmon Recovery:
Saving Money & Saving Salmon

The following article was provided by the Oregon Rural Electric Cooperative Association.

     Is it worth $77 million dollars to save 24 salmon by spilling water over the dams in July and August instead of generating electricity? Is there a more efficient use of our salmon recovery dollars? The Coalition for Smart Salmon Recovery believes there is!
     The Oregon Rural Electric Cooperative Association (ORECA) on behalf of its 16 electric co-op members, has joined the Coalition for Smart Salmon Recovery, along with agriculture employers, utility customers, and businesses in the Northwest. The Coalition was formed to support improvements to salmon restoration efforts in the Pacific Northwest. We believe that limited resources require salmon recovery efforts to be cost effective, and that responsible salmon recovery policies will result in increased salmon runs and increased economic opportunity for the region. According to State Representative Mike Schaufler (D), Happy Valley, “When we are scratching and crawling for every penny we can get around here, I just don’t think it is worth $80 million of lost power generation each summer to save very small numbers of fish.”
     So what is “summer spill?” Spill began in the mid-1990s with the intent to help juvenile salmon migrate to the ocean by sending them through an opening in the dam rather than through the dam’s turbines. It occurs during July and August at several of the dams on the Columbia and Snake river systems. Because 90% of the juvenile Chinook are barged around the dams, very few are left in the river to benefit. Even for those few that do remain, survival rates for fish that are spilled are similar to those of fish that traverse the dams through the turbines. While the name summer spill sounds benign, the experience is not. Operators open an underwater “gate” in the dam, pulling fish 30 to 50 feet down through the opening, and propelling them into the turbulent water further below. This experience can cause fish to suffer from gas bubble disease, similar to “the bends,” and often leaves them disoriented and injured, making them vulnerable to predators.
    What does summer spill cost you the ratepayer? Because it redirects water that would otherwise be used to produce electricity, it is the single most expensive mitigation method used by federal river managers. Recent studies by federal agencies confirm that summer spill is expected to cost ratepayers of the Northwest about $77 million in average water years, while saving only 24 adult endangered fall Chinook salmon. While it is true that spill also benefits about l9,000 non-listed fish (less than 5% of last year’s 384,000 returning adults), those non-listed fish are subject to a commercial harvest of 50% and are returning in record numbers. When you do the math, the $77 million cost breaks down to $3 million for each endangered fish and $4,000 for each non-listed fish - that’s mighty expensive fish!
     Very directly - Oregon’s share of the $77 million is between $l5 and $20 million. All but about $3 million of that is paid by Bonneville Power Administration customers served by consumer-owned utilities - including electric co-ops. The remaining $3 million is paid by residential and small farm customers of Portland General Electric.
     Even more directly, one Eastern Oregon farmer with a large irrigation load is being asked to pay $l,240 out of his pocket for the summer spill each year. This is just an example of the direct cost of this program on electricity ratepayers.
     You might be asking why there is even a need for the Coalition for Smart Salmon Recovery. Because advocates within the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Department are trying to convince the river managers to continue this practice while they spend years studying it. The Federal agencies that manage the river system HAVE studied the spill program and the alternatives. We believe that now is the time to stop summer spill and implement alternative programs that can save more fish AND save ratepayer dollars. It’s time for Oregon’s agencies and the Governor to get on board!
     Please visit the Coalition for Smart Salmon Recovery website at www.smartsalmonrecovery.org for up-to-date information on this critical ratepayer issue.

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Join The Fight For Affordable Power

Most electric cooperatives (co-ops) in Oregon are in the process of negotiating their power sales contracts with the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) for wholesale electricity after 2006. As these negotiations move forward, we need co-op members to join the Power of Community program to help us fight for affordable electricity.
     BPA is a federal agency, subject to the whims of Congress and other policy makers at the federal level. Power of Community members are co-op consumers who are willing to contact Congress or state legislators when policies are being discussed that could impact electric rates.
     In the past year, Power of Community has fought to minimize the impact of BPA-proposed rate increases and improve the effectiveness of ratepayer money spent on fish and wildlife programs. In addition to regional issues involving BPA, Power of Community members learn about state legislation and rules that might impact rates through Salem Scoop. Another publication mailed quarterly, called Power line, introduces members to other co-op communities around the state.
     More than 3,500 households that purchase power from electric co-ops participate in Power of Community. This grassroots network is the key to keeping electric rates affordable and you can help by signing up today. To join Power of Community, fill out the coupon below and mail it with your SE payment.
     You may also sign up online at www.oreca.org. Your information is confidential and is never shared with any outside source. Join the fight for affordable power rates today.

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Are you planning to dig in your yard? Be careful, underground wires or pipes might be buried there. State law requires any excavator to notify owners of all underground utilities a minimum of 48 hours (2 working days) before digging begins. Contact with electric wires or natural gas pipes can be extremely dangerous. In addition, damage to TV cables, phone lines or water pipes can be very expensive to repair. Remember, one call notifies all Salem and Keizer utilities.
     Before you dig, call 1-800-332-2344 to request a free underground locate.

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Capital Credits

Each year Salem Electric publishes a list of former customers we are unable to locate to refund their capital credits.
     The section shown here will be included in the Statesman Journal, April 20, May 18 and June 10. You can also visit our website at salemelectric.com and click on Unclaimed Capital Retains to access the information.

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