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thanking his family for their support of
Royce and of RTC. Hoff announced that
Shane Hart had been chosen as the new
CEO/General Manager.
Looking back on 2014, RTC experienced
growth in our services, access lines and
employees. With the growth of RTC, the
number of employees has increased from
75 employees in 2009 to 110 employees at
the end of 2014. Looking forward, we are in
a unique situation as one of the few areas
in the country that is seeing an increase
in access lines. RTC remains in a multi-year
fiber optic buildout of state-of-the-art
voice, data and video services to all of our
member-owners. This takes a few years to
complete, but we will get it done. With new
customers, our income has gone up but so
have our expenses to reach everyone. Cable
locate costs, road moves and other build-
ing expansion occurring in our service area
are a big increase to our expenses. In 2014,
cable locates escalated to over 42,000 for the
year at a cost to RTC of $1.4 million. Since
2010, RTC has spent over $5 million moving
cables for NDDOT while they complete road
construction. The Board of Directors has
been reviewing capital credit obligations and
RTC will make a general retirement when it
is financially viable to do so as determined
by the Board of Directors.
RTC continues to be an essential part of
building a better future for our communities.
RTC sponsors youth scholarships and community
events, and makes donations to our communi-
ties. RTC continues working to make member
communities appealing places for all who call
them home and to keep you connected to the
world.
Financial Manager David Aamot presented
the audit report. Aamot noted that RTC
auditor Moss Adams gave RTC a clean audit
report opinion for 2014 and directed members
to look at their statement in the Annual
Meeting book.
Manager Aamot reviewed the Statement of
Operations and the Balance Sheet. He noted
the total operating revenue of $29,763,633
for the year 2014, an increase of almost $3.7
million and 14 percent over 2013. Operation
and interest expenses increased by 16.5 percent
from 2013 to 2014. Net margins for 2014 totaled
$3,565,111. There was $266,437 of capital
credits retirement in 2014. Plant increased
by over $16.5 million consisting of mostly
Fiber-to-the-Home projects. After subtracting
depreciation and current and other investments,
RTC has total assets of $108,246,031.
Under the liabilities section, long-term debt
is up $13 million due to the Fiber-to-the-
Home project, as well as various road moves.
Also take note of the growth in services over
the last five years as we transition from copper
to fiber.
A motion was made and seconded to accept the
Audit Report for 2014. M/C
President Hoff introduced CEO/General Man-
ager Shane Hart. New CEO/General Manager
Hart introduced himself to attendees, sharing
that while he is new to his position, he is not
new to RTC. He noted that the meeting theme
is “Looking Back, Moving Forward.” Looking
back we can see how far we’ve come in the last
28 years when retiring CEO/General Manager
Royce Aslakson first started at RTC. In 1987,
RTC had 24 employees and as of today we have
121 employees. RTC’s total plant investment in
1987 was $16 million, today it is $165 million.
RTC had almost $3 million in revenue in 1987
compared to almost $30 million today. RTC
is continuing to move forward at a rapid pace
with several projects going on. We are in the
last year of our five-year American Recovery
and Reinvestment Act, also known as Obama’s
Stimulus Plan, which covers Roseglen, Parshall,
New Town, Mandaree and Squaw Gap. We are
also in year three of a fiber buildout in Watford
City and surrounding areas, which provides
tremendous opportunity and growth in video,
voice and data to many new customers. RTC is
committed to offering faster Internet speeds,
the fastest Internet speeds in the state. We
recently launched our Gigabit service in select
areas and hope to continue to expand the
areas where we can offer this. We are working
to improve our video services by offering TV
Everywhere which will allow video subscribers
to watch channels that they have subscribed to
on smartphones and iPads.
CEO/General Manager Hart congratulated
employees for the awards they received in
2014. He pointed out the Service Awards,
Exceptional Employee Awards and those
that received Safe Driving Certificates. He
also recognized all employees, management
and congratulated Kristin Jaeger for her ef-
forts in RTC receiving the NTCA Telechoice
Award for the Cooperative’s Overview Brochure.
CEO/GM Hart recognized the 2015 RTC
Scholarship recipients attending the annual
meeting.
President Hoff and CEO/General Manager
Hart presented plaques fromNTCA recognizing
David Aamot and Carl Brunsell for their 25
years of service. Plaques were also presented
to retirees Nancy Vorwerk for 34 years, Denese
Westgard for 28 years, Hilman Anderson for
27 years, Dennis Heer for 9 years, and Royce
Aslakson for 28 years of service. Royce’s
grandchildren sang a few songs in his honor.
Royce shared a few thoughts with everyone.
There were drawings for door prizes.
President Hoff called for unfinished business.
There was none.
The election results for District 2A were an-
nounced with Jared Eagle being elected by a
vote of 199 to 102 votes.
President Hoff called for new business. There
was none.
Drawings were held for one year of local service,
a flat screen TV and for the kid’s prize of a
Nabi.
A motion was made and seconded to adjourn
the meeting. M/C
Meeting adjourned.
Respectfully submitted,
Gretchen Edwards
Recording Secretary