This is from the Des MOines register and the link will expire in a few hours so I am not putting it up.

FRYTOWN Co-op builds plant to supply electricity

Residents of the Johnson County town of Frytown were tired of rising energy costs and complaints about power outages. So they built their own power plant.

Farmers Electric Cooperative of Frytown, population 100, has a plant that can supply power to more than just its own members.

"We certainly have the capacity to supply Kalona, as well as our own area," General Manager Warren McKenna said.

McKenna said the plant - operated by two 2,600-horsepower, 16-cylinder Caterpillar diesel engines - should help keep rates within reason for members of the 600-member cooperative.

"Our real aim was to provide reliable service," McKenna said. "We paid for things as we went."

Building the plant was a huge project for the small company, but the help of local laborers kept costs down.

A local engineer designed the plant, and a hometown construction company put up the building for the generators. The exhaust towers were made by a nearby welding company.

The cooperative has already paid off about $1 million of the $1.3 million cost.

-- Anonymous, June 08, 2001

Answers

Don't you just love it when you see a group of people take ownership of a problem and work together to solve it instead of wringing hands and crying about. Hooray for them.

-- Anonymous, June 09, 2001