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Creation of REA
During the 1920s and 1930s, different private utilities were building lines into small towns and villages. However, they gave little thought to making service available to rural farmers. It was the policy of the utilities to "skim the cream" and build only in rural areas where there was enough population density to ensure "profit" from the enterprise.
The advent of the Rural Electrification Administration through the New Deal changed the picture. While it operates on sound business, service on a cooperative basis is the co-op underlying philosophy; not profits. In 1936, Congress passed what is now known as "The Rural Electrification Act of 1936" and set up the Rural Electrification Administration which is now nationally known by the familiar emblem "REA."
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Creation of CMEC
Local interest was first evidenced shortly after the REA law was passed. In spite of difficulties, county residents pushed forward.
Leaders in the first effort to secure Rural Electrification formed a committee producing a 1936 survey documenting 839 families interested in electric service in Saline and Pettis Counties. Due to the drought of 1936, efforts were discontinued.
The second effort to secure an REA project was made in February 1938, but this effort was also unsuccessful until assistance was received from representatives of the REA in August of that year. It was then that the final and successful effort to secure electricity was inaugurated.
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Early Growth
On August 8, 1938, several residents from Saline and Pettis Counties met at the Oasis at Marshall Junction to discuss rural electrification. Central Missouri Electric Cooperative was incorporated just eight days later on August 20, 1938.
A resolution proposed at the Cooperative's annual meeting on February 14, 1939, authorized the board to borrow REA funds. The board of directors approved a $400,000 loan to build 385 miles of line complete with substations, transformers, meters and all the equipment needed to serve power to the rural areas of Saline and Pettis Counties.
Seven hundred and forty-one Pettis County members were connected to the Central Missouri Electric Cooperative grid through 385 miles of newly constructed line by February 11, 1941. Not long after, northern Benton County members were added. By 1959, membership had grown to 4,750 and served through 1,925 miles of line.