Cherryland Pilot:

About the Pilot Partners

• Brown Lumber Company and Brown Lumber Installed Sales & Service (BLISS)
• Cherryland Electric Cooperative
• Members Credit Union
• Michigan Saves

Brown Lumber Company and Brown Lumber Installed Sales & Service (BLISS)

Brown Lumber Company has been in business since 1904 supplying everything from rough-sawn lumber to finished flooring. With over 1,000 years of industry experience on staff, the Brown Lumber team is constantly searching for ways to gain more knowledge and discernment of our industry. This allows us to maintain our premier service offering, which differentiates us from our competition. It was this notion of premier service that spurred Brown Lumber Installed Sales & Service over 10 years ago. Currently called “BLISS,” we started by offering installed insulation, and doing odd jobs at our mill shop. Now, thousands of customers later, we handle everything from major remodel or replacement projects to servicing window hardware: there’s no job too big or too small.

Cherryland Electric Cooperative

Established in 1938, Cherryland Electric Cooperative is a member-regulated cooperative distributing electricity in Grand Traverse, Leelanau, Benzie, Wexford, Manistee, and Kalkaska counties. The cooperative is governed by a democratically elected board of seven directors. With overhead and underground electric lines equaling almost 2,500 miles over the 1,400 square miles of territory, Cherryland Electric Cooperative employs approximately 55 people that serve the 33,000+ members of the cooperative.

Members Credit Union

Members Credit Union, organized in 1954, is a financial cooperative with over 47,000 members and total assets exceeding $176 million. We are a not-for-profit cooperative community credit union that offers membership to individuals that live, work, worship, or attend school in the counties of Grand Traverse, Leelanau, Antrim, Benzie, Kalkaska, and Manistee. Family members of current members are eligible for membership. Members Credit Union has seven offices throughout northwest Michigan with a regional lending center in Traverse City, Michigan. Members or prospective members may apply for loans online at https://www.memberscu.com/Loan_Application_47.html.

Michigan Saves

Michigan Saves is an innovative program that will make energy efficiency upgrades and installing renewable energy systems more affordable for all types of Michigan energy consumers, including businesses, local governments, schools, and residents. In June 2009, Public Sector Consultants Inc., a Michigan-based policy analysis and program management firm, and its technical partner, the Delta Institute, were awarded a 28-month grant by the Michigan Public Service Commission to design and implement Michigan Saves. Michigan Saves has several pilots, including this Cherryland Electric Cooperative on-bill financing pilot, to test different aspects of the program, and plans to roll out the program statewide in mid 2010. Click here for more information.