News Release

For Immediate Release                                                                      

Contact:  Jim Cooper, Manager of Communications & Energy Services

    Traverse City Light & Power

                Phone: (231) 932-4560 or E-mail: jcooper@tclp.org

Contact:  Phil Callighan, Sr. Account Executive, Knorr Marketing

    Phone: (231) 947-9707, ext. 207; Mobile: (231) 342-7590

                or E-mail: philc@knorrmarketing.com

L&P Awards Over $37,000 to Local Organizations

(Traverse City, Michigan) - As part of its Community Investment Fund program, the Traverse City Light & Power (L&P) Board of Directors approved contributing monetary awards to the following local not-for-profit organizations at its April 27, 2010 meeting:

• $15,000 to the Great Lakes Children's Museum to fund an exhibit cart with hands-on demonstrations on magnetism, electricity, power generation, renewable energy and safety;
• $10,000 to the Inland Seas Education Association to enable area school classes to participate in the Great Lakes Scholarship Program;
• $7,000 to Northwestern Michigan College to design and install real time, web-interactive data monitoring and analysis technology for existing solar power and wind systems;
• $5,500 to the Grandview Parkway Beautification Fund for the remaining cost of irrigation along the Grandview Parkway from Division street west to M-72, including the median.

            In addition, L&P directed five other organizations to apply to L&P's Energy

Optimization Program for their energy-related requests.

            According to L&P, the Board budgeted $75,000 for its Community Investment Fund this year.

"In our last customer survey, nearly 70 percent of customers told us that providing grants to local non-profit organizations to improve community and natural resources or to conduct energy-related educational programs, was important to them,"  said Linda Johnson, chairperson of the Traverse City Light & Power Board of Directors. "Therefore, the board reviews Community Investment Fund requests twice a year, in October and in February."

            According to L&P, Community Investment Fund charitable contributions are

focused on three key areas:

1)      Community Development -- Public infrastructure programs and other projects that provide a direct benefit to L&P customers and the people of the Traverse City area, with an emphasis on programs and projects within the utility¡¯s service area.

2)      Energy-Related Educational Programs -- Programs and projects that educate people of all ages about current and future energy sources, and the financial benefit of energy conservation.

3)      Natural Resources -- Programs and projects aimed at maintaining and improving the quality of natural resources, and supporting a sustainable environment in the

Traverse City area. 

Past recipients of L&P's Community Investment Fund have included the Heritage Center, City Opera House, the Traverse City Police Department, the Tart Trails, the Grand Traverse Conservation District and others.

Traverse City Light & Power (www.tclp.org) is a community-owned, community-focused municipal utility that offers reliable energy at low rates in the region to over 10,000 customers in Traverse City, and parts of Blair, East Bay, Elmwood, Garfield, Peninsula and Paradise townships.

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