Manager’s Message: How we celebrated 90 years in service
This article was originally published in the January 2026 edition of our Watts Up newsletter. To read the full newsletter click here.
In 2025, OPD5 proudly celebrated 90 years of serving our communities. It was an important landmark for us and for our customers – considering how far we have come since those first power lines were stretched across the desert to connect our valleys to the grid.
How does one adequately celebrate an event as foundational to the community as that? This was the question we were asking last year at this time. Do we throw a big party with expensive food and swag gifts for the whole community? That didn’t seem quite right, since the only way the district would fund such an event is to go to its ratepayers. That would be like the birthday girl having to pay for her own presents!
So we opted for a more humble, low-key approach – more in keeping with OPD5 heritage.
Of course, this year we have shouted our unique early history far and wide in the community. We felt it was important to memorialize the grit, determination, hard work and commitment of those early OPD5 founders. If you haven’t yet read this fascinating story, I would suggest reviewing our October 2025 newsletter, or going to this in-depth article about OPD5’s founding.
But in a broader sense, we at OPD5 have also been celebrating this important milestone by rolling up our sleeves and demonstrating the key values on which the district was originally built; values that have consistently guided our progress over the past nine decades.
What are these values? They include a culture of safety, a heritage of community service, a focus on improving reliability, being financially responsible and efficient, and fostering an atmosphere of unity and family within our team of employees.
This edition of Watts Up is full of examples of how we were guided by such values to boldly move the district forward in the anniversary year of 2025. We made great strides on an ambitious capital improvement agenda that will enhance system reliability and accommodate growth well into the future. We placed a renewed emphasis on rigorous safety procedures, training and resources – both for our employees and for the general public. We exercised good fiscal discipline and kept both our capital and operating budgets well within their means. We engaged with community groups and organizations and loyally supported their noble causes. And we continued a tradition of investing in the youth of our valleys in substantial and meaningful ways.
We consider these 2025 accomplishments, taken together, as an appropriate celebration of our 90th anniversary year. I can think of no better way to pay tribute to the civic-minded determination of our founders than through the hard work and vision of the current OPD5 staff.
That brings me to a final point. None of this could have been accomplished without OPD5’s greatest asset: our employees. We are fortunate to have the best people with the best skillsets and the best training possible. Like a family, we encourage each other, support one another and cheer each other on to ever greater heights. And when one of us is struggling with something, we all rally around to lift and help them.
It is the power of good people that makes this unique model of a locally-governed utility district work so well in our small communities. Despite the complexity of the power industry – and believe me, it gets more complex all the time – OPD5’s history has shown that a community, bound together for a purpose, can solve just about any problem out there. When the chief motivating factor is simply a love for your community, you can do just about anything – even including the outrageous notion of delivering reliable power, over many miles, to serve outlying rural residents at a reasonable cost.
As OPD5 now continues its march toward the century mark, we want to thank all of our customers – our friends and neighbors – for your support, your continued goodwill and your devotion to community!