Every time I step onto a stage, I enter a thousand worlds at once.

For more than 30 years, I’ve performed in community theatre – a trip across reality that even the star of Doctor Who would envy. Crossing the curtain line might mean entering an English mansion, or a mental hospital, or a long-ago memory brought back to life. I’ve been detectives and suspects, parents and children, booming voices of authority and traumatized souls afraid to step forward.

The faces change. The settings change. But the most important thing remains constant. Namely, the “community” part. When you’re an amateur actor in a community theatre group, you’re not performing for wealth and fame – you’re bringing joy to friends and neighbors, lighting up the community with something only you can provide.

In other words, it’s a lot like public power.

In Longmont, it’s easy to take public power for granted. After all, it’s been the way things work here since 1912. (I know, we look so young, right?) And it’s not just our corner of the world – about 49 million Americans in more than 2,000 communities get their power from a community-owned utility.

What do they get in return?

They get lower electric rates than investor-owned utilities. Nationwide, residential customers pay 13% less for their power. In Longmont, for that matter, residents pay the second-lowest electric rates in the state!

They get higher reliability, with outages resolved in half the time that an investor-owned utility takes. Here, a typical outage is resolved in less than an hour, and a typical customer may go two years between outages.

They get a utility that’s about the community first. Where you are the owner and the priority. Where you know a neighbor is listening, whether you’re calling to report a streetlight outage, or discussing the future of the community’s electric sources. (Thanks to everyone who came to that discussion on Wednesday, by the way!)

So pull back the curtains. Cue the lights. The longest-running show in Longmont is taking the stage again. And you’re not just the audience.

You’re the star.