A charge leveled by Corporation Commissioner Jan Cartwright this week that Canadian Valley Electric Cooperative is causing customers to “pay twice for the same electricity” was branded as untrue today by a company official.

Mrs. Pearl Coppedge, acting manager of the Canadian Valley Coop, said Cartwright based his allegation on “misinformation,” and said the Corporation Commission has the figures at hand which would prove the charge untrue.

“We don’t agree with him,” Mrs. Coppedge told the Producer. “It’s misinformation. He’s leaving the impression we’re passing all the power costs back to the consumer, and that’s not true.” Cartwright, who has been quizzing co-op managers for several weeks about a practice he contends is double-charging of customers, said this week Canadian Valley’s records show it paid $22 million to the Southwestern Power Administration in 1974 through February of this year, then paid Western Farmers Electric Cooperative of Anadarko another $930,854.14, allegedly “for the same electric power and energy.”

Mrs. Coppedge said Cartwright has not been to the Canadian Valley offices north of Seminole, and “hasn’t seen the figures on what we charge to customers.” “They (the Corporation Commission) have the full story on our agreement with Western Farmers,” Mrs. Coppedge said.

“The Corporation Commission approved our increased rates and they were given all our information on our power contract. They had all the facts there before they approved our rates, “ she said.

Cartwright charged this week that the double payments have caused Canadian Valley customers to pay twice for the same electricity.

“How can you justify to me that it is fair to charge your customers for electricity they did not receive?” Cartwright said in a letter to Mrs. Coppedge.

Cartwright asked for a response by “return mail.”

Mrs, Coppedge said late Thursday afternoon and others on the Canadian Valley staff were in the process of preparing a formal reply, which she said might be ready for mailing to Cartwright today. She agreed to furnish the Producer with a copy.

Mrs. Coppedge contended that the Corporation Commission has the figures which she said will show Cartwright’s allegations to be untrue. “We feel like the information they have would show this is not true if they investigated,” she said.

Czar Langston, executive director of the Oklahoma Association of Rural Electric Cooperatives, has said the co-ops including Canadian Valley are making payments to Western Farmers because the Southwestern Power Administration has announced it cannot continue to guarantee their power supply. Langston said the affected co-ops are paying Western Farmers because the Anadarko co-op is taking over maintenance of power lines and are guaranteeing to supply co-ops with electricity when Southwestern stops supplying them.

The three member corporation Commission approved agreements with Western Electric such as the one Canadian Valley has last year, before Cartwright took office as a commission member.

But Cartwright told a wire service this week he does not think the commission members were aware when they approved the agreements that co-ops would be charging their customers “twice for the same power.”

Cartwright stated in his letter to Mrs. Coppedge that he is drawing criticism from electric co-ops around the state, but said he feels the co-ops’ responses to his demands for more information have been insufficient.

Mrs. Coppedge said Cartwright is welcome to visit the Canadian Valley offices any time. -oOo Cluttered Corner We Can Take Pride In Being Number One By Milt Phillips EVERY CITIZEN OF SEMINOLE can take pride in the community’s winning the state’s No. 1 spot for cities in our population category. We recognize the fact that every one of us did not take on a specific job in the actual contest workings, but each of us who live here, with few exceptions, helped win the contest by our support of the community and in many instances in the way we cared for our own property and the support we gave civic and all other groups of the community. In saying all of us contributed, we do not mean to take anything away from a substantial group of civic workers who put the project together, presented the community’s assets in a splendid manner and worked all through the past year to accomplish their goal of being NUMBER ONE THROUGH ‘76. To each of those hard workers and to all of them collectively we offer the Columnar Rose today and offer them a sincere salute of appreciation.

ONE OF THE THINGS most of us do not recognize is that the effort to become Oklahoma’s No. 1 City in our population category a few years ago and again for this Bicentennial Year of 1976, did not start just one year ahead each time. The efforts that made us No. 1 have been going on for many years. Some of the effort that makes us the ’76 No. 1 City started way back during the Boom Days when some of our citizens decided this wasn’t going to be “just another boom town” to flourish, then die. They began building permanently in many ways, business-wise and community- wise. As the years passed, the conceptions changed from time to time, but always there has been an element within the community that was looking into the future. Sometimes the visions of the future extended many years ahead. In other instances the visions were of shorter time periods. Eventually the community decided to follow some proven and established methods of planning for the future. That effort cost some substantial sums of money and a terrific amount of time by a very large segment of the civic workers of the community. Some of the planning has not turned out as well as the large group of civic workers hoped. Other plans have turned out better than expected. The important thing is that PLANNING WAS STARTED. It has continued, sometimes at low ebb, and at other times moving briskly ahead.

ONE OF THE MAJOR benefits for the community that resulted from planning for the future was the establishment of a substantial amount of in-city area. Annexed were the areas north, east and west. Professional planners said those areas would be the path of community growth. Planning, utilities, zoning, protection of property values, and a continuing planning program that will extend far into the future, was instituted for those areas annexed. Progress has been slow, but if no plans had been made, and no effort put forth, the area would still be as haphazard as was the old Boom Town areas. Progress may be slow, but we are moving ahead, not backwards. Operation Pride is making creditable contributions. Maybe our good neighbors south of the city will catch the spirit and join hands with the rest of us to help make an even larger area grow - with all helping, not just asking others to do everything for us. We have hopes. We want to see the property values all around the community protected. We think such a voluntary move by our south-of-thecity neighbors, if carried out during this year, would help very much to win No. 1 City status again next year. We suggest our south neighbors think about it. They might find it was both a pleasant and a profitable project.

WE SALUTE ALL OF YOU who worked to make Our Town Oklahoma’s No. 1 City of 1976.