Rebuilt Boone Electric Cooperative headquarters seen as a homecoming by leadership

Boone Electric Cooperative leaders expect to get another 70 to 100 years out of its newly rebuilt headquarters.

This estimate is most likely accurate as its previous headquarters, some of which was incorporated into the new structure at 1413 Rangeline St., was built in in the early 1950s. The new headquarters essentially is a new section next to the remodeled section and another new section, with reminders of its past in portions of the building.

The new headquarters helps reestablish the cooperative's identity as it now can bring employees back to one location, said Tod Culley, CEO and general manager.

"It is like coming home. It is going to provide us the ability to more responsibly serve and more efficiently serve our membership," he said, adding some of what is new is a large vehicle storage building to keep equipment out of the elements until it is called upon. "The last three years we have worked in different locations and different offices and this is the first time we've been back together just in the last few weeks."

The new headquarters positions the cooperative "for the next several decades to meet the ever-changing needs of our membership, This facility offers us the flexibility to meet our members where they are," Culley said.

Part of a new section includes a readily available community space that can seat 300 people, or be broken up into three sections and also includes a kitchen area.

"This is the member's asset. This is for use by the public. We are here every day, but it is for you all to use. Reach out to us so you know how you can use it," Culley said.

In the main structure is a lockable "war room" for when there are significant outage events. Other employee amenities are both small and large break rooms, a fitness center and sleeping lodges for when employees may need to stay onsite due to weather and outage events, which also can be utilized by nursing mothers.

The new headquarters sits on a 28.8-acre campus and the building footprint is 151,364 square feet. Coil Construction served as the general contractor overseeing the project and it was designed by SOA Architecture. Construction services, supplies and labor were sourced 90% to the mid-Missouri region, said Joel Bullard, board president.

"We used as much of the old facility as we could. It's functional and not over the top," he said. "We are part of the community and want to be part of the community. You see that with the community room and that is why we didn't move from 1413 Rangeline St."

Charles Dunlap covers local government, community stories and other general subjects for the Tribune. You can reach him at cdunlap@columbiatribune.com or @CD_CDT on Twitter. Subscribe to support vital local journalism.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Boone Electric Cooperative celebrates rebuilt headquarters