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OVER 80 NEMONT EMPLOYEES were on hand to help make the Nemont Annual Meeting in Culbertson on Saturday a big success. They

offered valet parking, registered members, served food and refreshments and worked informational booths and helped keep the kids entertained. There were employees working from each of the departments and subsidiaries involved with Nemont from around northwestern North Dakota to southwestern Montana.—Leader Photos, burl

 

 

Over 400 Attend Nemont’s 59th
Annual Meeting
    At its 59th annual meeting in Culbertson, Saturday Oct. 3, Nemont reported another very successful year, both financially and in operational accomplishments.
    In spite of many significant and costly upgrades, Nemont was able to retire over $800,000 in capital credits back to its members.
    Financials showed a net income of just over $5.225 million for 2008, down about $1.5 million from 2007, largely due to depreciation and amortization schedules which were nearly $1.49 million higher in 2008. Plus the fact that Nemont has continued to upgrade its service areas with fiber optics, new cell towers and plant change-overs from old copper based plants in preparation of fiber.
    This was the first time Nemont has held its meeting in Culbertson and they had a big turn out with 276 members present and 140 guests. The number continued to grow some, after the meeting got underway.
    Mike Kilgore, who has been general manager since this spring, gave his first annual meeting report. He pointed out that Nemont’s dedication to the communities it serves goes way beyond providing basic dial-tone by being very active in the community by participating in community functions, sponsorships and donations that support our rural way of life while being a technological leader in telecommunications.
    He spoke of an alarming trend in telecommunications. Since 2003 the number of access lines (“plain old telephone service lines”) has declined. Kilgore said that Nemont’s residential access lines have dropped approximately 24% due to wireless substitution, disconnection of second lines due to broadband internet availability and a declining population.
    While access line numbers have declined, Nemont’s wireless subscriber base has nearly increased five fold to nearly 8,500 subscribers.
    He made points that mobility and broadband are key drivers in the telecommunications industry today and that Nemont is dedicated to make these services available in our rural areas. Although there are some gaps, Nemont provides some of the best cellular coverage in rural United States and plan to address these “holes” in coverage over the next year. Nemont has deployed approximately 70 cell sites and has a new “COW”, Cell site On Wheels for emergencies and additional traffic associated with special events and disaster recovery.
    While there is a constant “need for speed,”  a plan to upgrade the wireless network up to 3G (third generation) will be presented later this year to the board.
    Nemont is nearing completion of its first town fiber to the premise upgrade in Scobey and once completed approximately 1,300 members will be served by fiber technology. Internet download speeds, where fiber is completed, are available at 1.5, 6 and 10 megabits per second. Pending final approval, plans are to complete fiber optic exchange upgrades to the Peerless and Scobey rural exchanges next summer and according to a 10 year plan, fiber upgrades for North Nashua and Nashua exchanges are planned for 2011 followed by Flaxville and Outlook in 2012; Bainville, Brockton and Culbertson in 2013.
    High speed internet is also available via cell towers to about 500 customers and Nemont will be able to provide most of the towns they serve with download speeds of up to 10 megabits per second by the end of this year.
    An election was held for  board members in each of the three districts. In District #1, Linda Nelson was re-elected, defeating Jim Salvevold who was nominated from the floor.
    Scott McGowan of Poplar was elected in District #2, defeating incumbent Frank Smith and Gary Klind was re-elected in District 3.
    Many door prizes were given out throughout the day which ended with a roast beef meal served by A–S Catering of Scobey.
    A special “Kid Zone”, kept the kids busy with clowns, indoor games and big, inflated bounce houses.