Paul Bunyan Communications Annual Meeting & Cooperative Celebration Held Wednesday

The weather cleared just in time for this year’s Cooperative Celebration and attracted a crowd of over 5,300……making the event another great success!

The 57th Annual Business Meeting of Paul Bunyan Rural Telephone Cooperative was held prior to the Open House at 3:30 p.m. The meeting included reports for the 2012 fiscal year and re-election of board director Gary Eklund, District 1 with 1,709 votes to challenger Jerry Schmischney’s 539 votes and the election of Glenda Martin, District 6 with 1,566 votes. The capital credit distribution announced at the meeting will include paying out 75% of the unretired capital credits earned in 2000 and 20% of capital credits earned in 2012. The total return this year will be over $2.6 million and checks are expected to be mailed out in early September.

The Cooperative Celebration was open to the public and featured a free walleye dinner prepared by the Bemidji Fire Department Fish Fry Crew and Lueken’s Village Foods, door prizes, kids’ activities like face painting, balloons, temporary tattoos, storytelling, animals and entertainment from the Headwaters Science Center, United States Tennis Association’s Quickstart Tennis, Concordia Language Villages, and special guests from PBS Super Why and Wonder Red. The band The Agates provided the musical entertainment.

Special thanks to the over 130 employees of Paul Bunyan Communications who made the event possible and run as smooth as possible! We would also like to thank the Bemidji Fire Department, Lueken’s Village Foods, The Party Store, Lakeland Public Television, Minnesota State Patrol, Bemidji Police Department, Beltrami County Sheriff’s Department, Paul Bunyan Transit, Minnesota Department of Transportation, Headwater’s Science Center, Port Able John, Bemidji Citizen’s Patrol, Bemidji Area Tennis Association, Boy Scouts, Concordia Language Villages, and Raphael’s Bakery for all their help.

We look forward to the 2014 Cooperative Celebration!