Operation
Accountability • Integrity • Innovation • Commitment to Community - 8600 W. Tangerine Rd. •
Company Facts
Year established: 1945 (seven members)
Number of meters: more than 40,000
Miles of energized line: more than 3,100
Service area: Parts of northwest Tucson, Marana, Vail, Corona de Tucson, Sahuarita, Green Valley, Mt. Lemmon, Avra Valley, Three Points and Arivaca - Click here for a full map of our service area
Brand Affiliation: Trico is one of over 620 Touchstone Energy Cooperatives across the nation.
Cooperative Principles:
- Membership is open to everyone within the cooperative's certified geographic area.
- Each member (individual and corporate) has one vote.
- The cooperative is not-for-profit
- Cooperative members contribute patronage capital to build ownership in their system to ensure sound fiscal operation.
Mission statement:
"To economically provide value and needed services in ways that make Members and Employees proud."
Trico's Board of Directors
CEO/General Manager: Mark Schwirtz mschwirtz@trico.coop
Official publication: The Trico Livewire (published monthly), you can access it on-line from the menu above!
Board of Directors: Trico members elect fellow members to represent them on the cooperative's board of directors. One representative is elected from each of seven director districts.
District 1 - Jon Post (Director) 404-2006
District 2 - Brad DeSpain (Vice President) 579-4359
District 3 - L. Nick Buckelew (Treasurer) 822-2277
District 4 - Marsha Thompson (Director) 648-0419
District 5 - Barbara Stockwell (Secretary) 398-9400
District 6 - John R. Reesy (Director) 625-8381
District 7 - George P. Davies (President) 327-8807
Company History
In 1882, the first central station electric generating system in the United States went into service. Some 50 years later, the miracle of electricity had not made its way to rural America. With the average cost of bringing electricity to rural homes at $3,000 per mile of line, private power companies could not make a profit serving rural areas. As late as1935, 90 percent of the nation's farms and ranchers still didn't have electricity.
Working with rural communities and government leaders, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Rural Electrification Administration (REA) in 1935. When Congress passed the Rural Electrification Act in 1936, the REA, recently renamed Rural Utilities Service (RUS), came into being as a lending agency. As a branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, it provided low-interest loans to assist the formation and operation of rural electric cooperatives.
In 1945, seven ranchers and farmers in the Avra / Altar Valley areas secured one of these loans to form Trico Electric Cooperative. The co-op was organized on a not-for-profit basis to provide electric service to the rural areas of Pima, Pinal and Santa Cruz counties. It was named in honor of the three counties it served. Today Trico is one of the fastest-growing cooperatives in the nation and is pleased to use the latest technologies to provide its members the most reliable and affordable electric service possible.
In 1998, Trico became a Touchstone Energy Cooperative. The Touchstone Energy brand unites electric cooperatives across America into the largest network of electric utility providers in the nation. The Touchstone Energy slogan, The Power of Human Connections, reflects the business philosophy of electric cooperatives. It is also our promise to keep people and their needs first as we move forward into the future