OCTOBER 2025
THE MESSENGER A Publication for North Arkansas Electric Cooperative Members
Power with Purpose
Contractor to inspect poles North Arkansas Electric Cooperative has contracted with Osmose to inspect poles in select areas of Baxter, Izard, Lawrence, Marion and Sharp counties. Osmose employees will drive trucks and wear apparel with the Osmose logo. Inspections allow NAEC to identify any damaged poles and either repair or replace them before they cause outages for members. Work is expected to begin in October and continue for several months. Affected members will receive notice through a postcard as well as an email if an address is on file. For more information, please email info@naeci.com or call (870) 8953221 from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays.
Osmose employees will inspect electric poles in parts of the NAEC service area. Affected members will receive a postcard.
SET IT & FORGET IT — Enroll in automatic bank draft, and you’ll never have to worry about forgetting to pay the electric bill. You also won’t have to worry about updating your credit or debit card information on file when it expires or a card is compromised. Call (870) 895-3221 to enroll or for more information.
FEMA Act would bring disaster aid much faster Across the U.S., electric cooperatives are supporting a new bipartisan bill that would streamline the Federal Emergency Management Agency and speed up delivery of crucial disaster relief funds to electric co-ops hit hard by hurricanes, wildfires, tornadoes and other natural disasters. The Fixing Emergency Management for Americans (FEMA) Act of 2025 would keep in place FEMA’s essential Public Assistance program, which provides money to co-ops to restore power and rebuild their systems after natural disasters. Without those funds, rebuilding would take much longer and raise costs sharply for rural communities. The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, the national trade association representing more than 900 co-ops, and its member coops have been strong advocates for improving FEMA while keeping the agency intact. The FEMA Act would greatly reduce the amount of time it takes for co-ops to receive reimbursements from the agency. Specifically, it would direct the FEMA administrator to reimburse co-ops for emergency work no later than 120 days after it submits a request. The president would first need to determine that at least 90% of estimated costs are eligible for reimbursement, said Will Mitchell, a NRECA legislative affairs director who lobbies Congress on FEMA issues. For longer-term projects to rebuild or replace infrastructure, the bill would require FEMA to review within 90 days a co-op’s cost estimate of the work that needs to be done, Mitchell said. After that, the agency would have 30 days to disburse the — See FEMA on Back