Blog

North Alabama Electric Cooperative (NAEC) prides itself on having a team of dedicated office employees and lineworkers who work tirelessly to deliver reliable and affordable services to members.

But it also takes a strong team at the management level to ensure members receive the quality services they deserve, whether electricity, fiber internet, or phone. With a service territory that covers Bridgeport to Claysville and west to Paint Rock across mountain terrain, it takes experience to guide projects that improve and expand services for members.

The management team is focused on ensuring the cooperative is prepared for challenges as well as growth.

Not only are the members of NAEC’s management team experienced and dedicated, but they are part of the community, living and working alongside the cooperative’s members.

Each year in March, cooperatives around Alabama send groups of high school juniors to the state’s capital for the Montgomery Youth Tour. This year, North Alabama Electric Cooperative (NAEC) is sending 2 student representatives, Hudson Broadway, of Kate Duncan Smith DAR School, and Mercy Hambrick, of North Jackson High School.

Sponsored by local cooperatives like NAEC and the Alabama Rural Electric Association, the Montgomery Youth Tour helps students develop leadership skills as well as gain a better understanding of cooperatives and their state government. Students participate in interactive activities, while guest speakers focus on leadership principles in ways that relate to youth. Students also tour the Alabama Capitol, Alabama State House, and the Alabama Department of Archives and History. Visits include museums and historic sites, like the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church.

Last year, 145 high school students and 35 chaperones attended the event.

“The Montgomery Youth Tour is a unique learning experience for young people, and we are thrilled to be sending students this year,” NAEC General Manager Gena Hall says. “The students selected to attend are so eager to learn and participate in their schools and their communities. This experience can only broaden their understanding of the larger world around them and help strengthen their desire to be active citizens as they explore that world.”

The 2026 Montgomery Youth Tour will be held March 11 through March 13.

Mercantile Apothecary Owner Takes Natural Approach to Health

The shelves inside The Mercantile Apothecary in downtown Stevenson hold keys to holistic healing that are anything but new.

Owner Leanne Holcomb’s ability to customize products for unique health goals and needs stems from her passion for the healing power of plants and lessons learned on a wellness journey spanning 25 years. Most of all, it is a true labor of love.

“The reason I even started this was that my husband, Jay, is a cancer survivor,” Holcomb says. “We were just friends back then. In 1995, he had acute lymphoblastic leukemia and non-Hodgkin lymphoma, both at the same time. So when we got married, I just wanted to do something better for our house — to get rid of chemicals, try some natural ways of living, get him on supplements, and do the best I could for him for longevity.”

Teas, herbs, spices, and other natural products, many of them locally sourced, provide the building blocks for custom- created remedies and personal care products rooted in Southern folk traditions and medicine. Many are handcrafted by Holcomb, a certified clinical herbalist and natural health counselor.

Holcomb took dozens of herbal classes, workshops, and conferences and dedicated hundreds of hours to self-guided education. She earned certificates from the Phyllis Light Community and Herbal Practitioner programs at the Appalachian Center for Natural Health, which included clinical experience through live case studies and consultations. She also took classes through the University of Minnesota’s online Integrative Health and Medicine program, the American College of Healthcare Sciences Herbal Studies Program, and Johns Hopkins University.

“Once I started studying about natural health, I just absolutely fell madly in love, and I never stopped,” Holcomb says.

Down to Business

A ribbon-cutting last June marked the opening of The Mercantile Apothecary at 104 W. Main St., but the shop is not Holcomb’s first foray in sharing her herbal remedies.

“The first business I had was in 2007, and it was focused on herbal remedies for women’s health, mainly during and after pregnancy,” Holcomb says. About 6 years later, after she became a mom herself, she opened Red Barn Herb Farms, an actual barn near her home in Flat Rock that she and Jay converted into a store for selling herbal products she created. It also housed an aquaponic greenhouse.

“I did that and some classes and consultations, but then I wanted to go back to school,” she says.

She turned her attention to pursuing her certificate for clinical herbalism through the Appalachian Center for Natural Health, a 3-year program she managed to complete in just 2 years because of the amount of coursework she had already done.

“It involved 1-on-1 client consultations, which we did for free as part of our coursework because we had to have so many hours,” Holcomb says. “I loved it. It was so much fun.”

Holcomb continued to study and work as an herbalist, but when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, much of that came to a halt.

“Jay and I got COVID early on,” she says. “I got really sick, and I developed Long COVID symptoms. I was just trying to heal and rest. I had been doing client consultations, but I had to stop that, too, to focus on myself.”

She looked for natural ways to battle the effects of the virus, which caused her to develop 4 autoimmune diseases. The search led to a major shift in Holcomb’s approach to herbal remedies.

“Historically, I mostly worked with tinctures, which is a stronger medicine because the extracts are stronger,” she says. “But while I was sick, I couldn’t tolerate very strong medicine, so I started experimenting with different teas and things for myself and Jay.”

She found that a simple loose-leaf tea blending ginger and orange peel helped her more than anything else.

“Basically, how I healed myself was with herbal tea,” Holcomb says. “And that made me realize I’d not given tea the credit or attention it deserves.”

Calming Influence

Holcomb had another opportunity to put her experience into practice when she went into business with a friend, who is a nurse. Together, they opened the original Mercantile Apothecary in Fort Payne. When her friend wanted to go back to nursing, Holcomb made a quick decision about the business.

“Honestly — and I tell people this all the time — I would rather fail than not try,” Holcomb says. “So here I am. Fort Payne was very good to me, but I am happy to be close to home.”

Holcomb was very intentional when it came to the Stevenson location, wanting an atmosphere that could provide peace and calm to those who step through the door.

“The atmosphere is of utmost importance to me,” she says. “I play soft music, it’s dark inside, and I’ve got these little LED lights on the ceiling and a big,

comfy, gold velvet couch. My goal for the store was for it to be a space where people would be able to just take a deep breath when they come in and feel relaxed and happy.”

North Alabama Electric Cooperative (NAEC) is proud to announce a business partnership with Cooperative Response Center Inc.

CRC is a nationwide, cooperative- owned and -operated, 24/7 contact center, handling after-hours calls for over 500 electric cooperatives nationwide. CRC will handle outage reports via call-in or text, as well as call-ins for reconnects. CRC will also handle line crew dispatching for NAEC.

Founded in 1992, CRC has steadily increased the size and scope of its operation with offices in Minnesota, Missouri, Tennessee, and Texas. The call center provides services like round-the-clock dispatch, customer care, and monitoring security alarms for electric utilities in 47 states, representing more than 12,000,000 consumers.

Text reporting of outages will only be available after hours. To report an outage, simply text “outage” to 55050. The text must be from the number you have on file with NAEC.

To report an outage by phone, call (256) 437-1100 or (800) 572-2900.

Visit naecoop.com or call the office and update your contact information to be able to use this feature.

NAEC hopes our members benefit from the services offered by CRC, which took over outage management and dispatching on December 17.

If you have any questions, please contact NAEC at (256) 437-2281 or email NAEC.

Create Peace of Mind With an Actionable Plan

Be prepared. These 2 words of advice can make all the difference when facing severe weather and natural disasters.

While some severe weather events are seasonal, unpredictable conditions can cause natural disasters to strike at any time of year. There is no better time than today to start planning for the next emergency in your community.

With Alabama and other states marking severe weather awareness this month, take steps to prepare for what Mother Nature has in store by creating an emergency plan.

Emergency plans should account for multiple emergency scenarios. The plan should be developed, discussed, and shared with all members of your household.

Take these steps to prepare your emergency plan:

Communicate

Because your family or roommates may not be together when a disaster strikes, make sure everyone knows how to contact 1 another and where to reconnect.

Discuss the types of disasters that are possible in your area and the different precautions for each. For example, hurricanes can cause flooding and spawn tornadoes well inland after they make landfall on the coast. Severe weather watches are typically issued in advance of any storm system, even cold fronts that could cause severe weather. Hurricanes are defined by severity categories. Make sure everyone knows recommendations for sheltering in place and evacuation based on the severity of the natural disaster or storm.

Talk about how your family would respond to different types of emergencies. Document the plan and share it with each person in the household. Ready.gov offers an easy family emergency communication plan that can be filled out and exported into a shareable PDF.

Expand your emergency plan to include neighbors. Talk about emergency resources or tasks you may be able to share, how to help neighbors who have disabilities or are elderly, and how you will communicate with them during a disaster

Build an Emergency Kit

A crucial part of creating an emergency plan is building an emergency kit. Emergency kits consist of basic items your household may need in the event of a shelter-in-place or evacuation emergency.

While building your kit, consider the unique needs of each member of your household, such as medication, dietary restrictions, pet supplies, and necessities for specific ages. Depending on the size of the household, an emergency kit may be 1 waterproof container or multiple bins.

If buying extra supplies for an emergency is not in the budget, start with what you already have at home. Collect items in 1 area to create a new storage spot. Use this nonperishable storage as an extension of your food pantry. Take and replace items after grocery shopping to avoid food waste, and keep the emergency kit stocked at all times. Consider adding additional nonfood items to your kit on a weekly or monthly basis, as finances allow. For emergency kit tasks listed in manageable weekly or monthly steps, search online for a disaster supplies and preparedness calendar.

Ensure the emergency kit is stored in a dry place that is easily accessible for shelter- in-place and evacuation emergencies, such as a garage or closet near the front door. If you leave home for work, make an emergency kit to keep in your vehicle or at your office. Keep in mind, sheltering in place may mean staying at work or a public place if you cannot safely return home.

Sign Up for Alerts

Finding up-to-date information during an emergency can be stressful. Set up access to emergency alerts beforehand to receive the latest updates.

Check in with the city or county offices of emergency management to sign up for emergency alerts. Signing up for these notifications allows emergency response agencies to text, call, or email when a local emergency may require you to shelter in place or evacuate. Local emergency management may also have recommendations for additional alerts and online resources for the most common natural disasters in your area.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency mobile app offers alerts and resources before, during, and after a disaster. Get severe weather alerts for your area, find local evacuation shelters and disaster recovery centers, save custom emergency information, and receive safety and preparedness reminders. The app is available in English and Spanish. Download for free in the Google and Apple App stores on your smartphone.

Prepare for Evacuation

While it may seem unthinkable to have to leave home during severe weather, many kinds of disasters can lead to evacuation. Sometimes there is a day or 2 to prepare. Other times, a life-threatening situation means an immediate departure is necessary.

Prepare evacuation plans by identifying several places to go in an emergency, such as a friend’s house, a nearby town, or a motel. Ask local emergency management officials about available shelter spaces, and include those options in your plans.

Choose a variety of locations in different directions. Some of your top choices may be affected by a storm or disaster.

For pets and livestock, identify places where they can be temporarily housed. For small pets, check hotel and shelter policies, or ask friends about options at their homes. For large animals, check with local fairgrounds for shelter policies during emergencies, and research additional livestock evacuation locations.

In case of immediate evacuation or shelter-in-place orders when away from home, make sure pets and livestock are microchipped or tagged to expedite reunification efforts post-disaster.

During storm season, keep your vehicle’s gas tank as full as possible. Along with aiding in evacuation to a safer area, vehicles can be used as temporary shelters.

No one wants to deal with the stress and fear of a natural disaster. Yet having a plan for you and your family is the difference between a life-threatening situation and safely weathering the storm.

All of the employees at North Alabama Electric Cooperative come to work every day with customer service at the front of their minds — even if it’s not their specific job title.

Since the cooperative’s first office opened on March 11, 1940, our top goal has been to serve our members. We could not provide our members with safe, affordable, and reliable electric service without dedicated employees both on the lines and inside our offices.

Members are always at the forefront of what we do. Whether it’s a new service request or you need to pay a bill, our office employees work to provide top-notch customer service to our members.

This cooperative has grown over the past 86 years, from 1,026 members at the end of our first year of operation to more than 19,000 members today. Our focus, however, hasn’t changed. NAEC and its employees still put members first.

Cooking habits, along with energy-efficient appliances, impact energy use in the kitchen. Replacing old, inefficient appliances and changing how you cook can result in energy and cost savings in the kitchen. New appliances aside, several strategies can help you save energy in the kitchen:

• Use the oven only when cooking large dishes or batches. Conventional ovens are inherently inefficient because, in order to heat up food, they must first heat up about 35 pounds of steel and a large amount of air.
• If you have a convection setting on your oven, use it. Cooking with a convection setting uses up to 20% less energy than the bake setting.
• If you are in the market for a new cooktop, induction cooktops are 12% more efficient at heating food than a smooth-top electric cooktop or range, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
• Identify and unplug energy vampires, appliances that draw power even when turned off. Examples can include blenders, portable coffee makers, and toasters.
• Opt for a smaller appliance, such as a toaster oven, microwave or slow or pressure cooker, whenever possible.
• Turn the oven or stove burners off a few minutes before your food is ready. They will remain hot enough to finish cooking the food.
• When using your dishwasher, run it with a full load of dishes to conserve water and energy. Consider turning it off when it reaches the dry cycle and let the dishes air dry.
• Keep your refrigerator well-stocked. You’ll have plenty of food on hand, and the more items in your fridge, the less energy is needed to keep them cold.
• Refrigerators top the list of home appliances that use the most energy. If yours is older, check out the Energy Star Flip Your Fridge savings calculator to see how much energy your prehistoric fridge is costing you.
• Don’t preheat the oven unless you are baking or a recipe requires it.
• Bake with ceramic or glass pots and pans. This will allow you to lower the oven temperature by about 25 degrees.
• On electric or induction cooktops, consider copper pans. Copper is highly conductive, so it takes less time to heat up.
• If you have a self-cleaning oven, plan to clean it right after you’ve finished baking or cooking so it doesn’t have to heat up a second time. Try not to use this feature when it’s hot outside.
• Don’t peek. Opening the oven door can lower the internal temperature as much as 25%.
• Don’t cover oven racks with foil. This reduces heat flow and increases cooking time.
• Make sure your pan covers the coil or cooking area of your range. If you can see red past the sides of your pan, you need a smaller burner.
• Put a lid on it. Cover pans while cooking to prevent heat loss.
• In warmer months, grill outdoors when you can. The less energy used to heat food, the less work your air conditioner will have to do to keep your home cool.

Efforts Keep Internet Flowing

Since its 2013 launch, the NAFiber division of North Alabama Electric Cooperative has brought high-speed, fiber-to-the-home internet to more than 7,000 of the area’s previously unserved or underserved residents.

NAFiber’s 15 full-time employees, from inside administrators and technicians to outside fiber lineworkers, keep operations running and the internet flowing at speeds up to 1 Gbps.

Managing the group is William Selby, whose dedication earned him the Alabama Rural Electric Association’s 2024 Jack Jenkins Cooperative Employee Citizenship Award. The award honors cooperative employees who have made outstanding contributions to their cooperative, community or state.

More than 1,100 miles of fiber lines are under the staff’s constant watch, not only for local users but for the vast Alabama Fiber Network, created in 2021 to deliver high-speed internet to rural communities across the state. NAFiber is an AFN partner, providing “middle mile” infrastructure that gives fiber networks connectivity with the outside world.

There’s no good time for a power outage, but a little planning can help you be prepared when it does happen.

Power outages at any time of the year may be short-term or last for an extended period, depending on the circumstances surrounding the outages and how quickly crews can repair any damage. It’s important to stay calm and understand how you may be vulnerable during an outage.

A simple inventory of items you need that rely on electricity is a good place to start, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s emergency preparedness website, ready.gov. Keep batteries and other alternative power sources on hand to meet your needs during an outage. Flashlights, battery-operated lights, portable chargers, and power banks are good to have ready for use.

Turn off or disconnect appliances, equipment, and electronics to prevent damage from surges or spikes when the power returns.

Speak with your medical providers for guidance on electrical devices or refrigerated medications. With medications that are critical to your well-being, you need to know how to store them during an extended power outage.

Install carbon monoxide detectors with battery backup in central locations on every level of your home. Generators, camp stoves, or grills should always be used outdoors at least 20 feet away from windows and doors. Do not use a gas stovetop or oven to heat your home.

Always keep enough nonperishable food and water on hand, and keep freezers and refrigerators closed during any outage, short or extended. An unopened refrigerator can keep food cold for about 4 hours during an outage, and a full freezer can maintain a cold temperature for about 48 hours. Coolers with ice can be used if necessary. An appliance thermometer will help you monitor the temperature in a refrigerator or freezer. Throw out food if the temperature inside the fridge or freezer reaches 40 degrees or higher for 2 hours or more.

During winter power outages with extremely low outdoor temperatures, dress warmly and in layers for better insulation. Move to a single room, preferably 1 with few windows. A south-facing room is best for heat gain during the day. Shut the room off from the rest of the house.

If you use an alternate heat source, be sure to follow operating instructions and maintain the proper ventilation for sources like kerosene heaters. Store fuels outside of the home. Keeping wood stoves and fireplaces maintained during the year will prevent problems when they’re needed during an emergency.

Most communities will open shelters for extreme winter conditions or severe weather. If staying in your home without power is unsafe, check to find out if a shelter is available near you.

If someone you care for uses medical equipment that requires electricity, (even if not life-sustaining, it can be critical), you can complete and submit a form to North Alabama Electric Cooperative to place your residence on the cooperative’s medical priority list.

Find the medical priority form on the Medical Priority page and have it signed by your doctor.

Keep Tabs on Power Outages

North Alabama Electric Cooperative works hard to fix outages as quickly as possible, and our members can monitor outages through the cooperative’s website. Simply click on the “View Outage Map” button at the top of our homepage to see where outages are occurring in the service area.

Outage information updates every 5 minutes and shows a grouping of outages on a map, providing the total number as well as the percentage of members without power. The map also shows radar images as weather systems move through the area.