The situation improved after the implementation of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal. The fundamental goal of this program was to get purchasing power into the pockets of those who were cut off from participation in the economy of the country. In the late spring of 1935, in an effort to get America's economy into gear, Congress approved the passage and appropriation of a fund of $100 million to be spent as quickly as possible in those places where it would have the quickest and greatest impact. Among the programs to be funded was the delivery of electric service to rural areas. On May 11, 1935, an executive order was signed and the Rural Electrification Administration was born. (In 1995, REA was reorganized and became the Rural Utility Service.)

On November 14, 1935, just six months after the birth of the REA, the first REA pole in Ohio was set in Piqua. The new lines to be constructed were to serve the three county cooperatives, which would merge six months later to become Pioneer Rural Electric Cooperative, Inc., a utility company owned by the very people it serves. Under the cooperative business model, any margins (profits) earned by the cooperative go back to our members, rather than to stockholders as with investor-owned utilities.

In 1937, Pioneer had nearly 3,000 members using an average of only 38 kWh each month. To contrast, Pioneer members used 483 million kWh of electricity in 2000, with residential consumers usage averaging 1,250 kWh per month per member. Today, Pioneer serves nearly 16,000 member-consumers, and has over 2,500 miles of distribution line.

As we look to our future as a Touchstone Energy cooperative, we are committed to ensuring all the decisions we make are centered on the best interests of our members. It's where we got our slogan, "Everything We Do Revolves Around You," it's how we run our business, and we plan to keep it that way.