The Municipal Energy Agency of Nebraska (MEAN) awarded the City of Sidney’s Electric Superintendent Rod Fries with the Rudy Hultgren Dedicated Service Award March 28 at the 37th Annual NMPP Energy Meeting and Conference in Hastings, Neb.
The award is presented annually to an individual of a MEAN member community who has displayed commendable efforts in promoting the use of public power and its ideals. MEAN, the wholesale power supply organization of NMPP Energy, serves wholesale power supply to 66 communities in Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska and Wyoming and one joint action agency in Colorado. The award is a memorial tribute to Rudy Hultgren, a utility consultant and well-known and respected citizen of Lyons, Colo., who played an active role in community service and leadership.
Fries currently serves as chair of the MEAN board of directors and has been active on various MEAN committees the past several years. He also serves on the Nebraska Municipal Power Pool board of directors and, as chair of the MEAN board, has a seat on the NMPP Energy Joint Operating Committee.
Among his achievements within public power, Fries helped with the establishment of the successful powerline school program at Western Nebraska Community College. He worked with area public power utilities in Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming to help create partnerships to start and support the program.
He has held various positions with the City of Sidney Utilities since beginning employment in 1985. He was named the utility’s electric superintendent in 2002. He was elected to the Sidney Airport Authority in 2008 and is a member of the Patriot Guard riders.
Sidney is a charter member of MEAN, which formed in 1981. The city also is a charter member of two other organizations of NMPP Energy: the Nebraska Municipal Power Pool, which formed in 1975 and the Public Alliance for Community Energy, which formed in 1998.
As the recipient of the award, Fries received $350 to go toward a community project or organization in Fries’ name.
Article courtesy of www.nmppenergy.org