For immediate release: 9/16/11

Cushing’s Spears is new GRDA Chairman

GRDA Chairman Steve Spears (Cushing)	GRDA Chair-elect Greg Grodahus (Grove)

Vinita – Stephen Spears, an 11-year member of the Grand River Dam Authority Board of Directors, will serve as GRDA Chairman during the next 12 months. He moved into that role during the Board's September 14 meeting in Vinita.

Spears, who had served as chair-elect since September 2010, replaces GRDA Director David Chernicky (Tulsa) as chairman. Greg Grodhaus (Grove) will serve as the chair-elect for the coming year.

A member of the GRDA Board since May 2000, Spears serves as an ex officio director/designee for the Municipal Electric Systems of Oklahoma (MESO). He is the city manager/engineer for Cushing and previously served as GRDA Chairman in 2006-07.

Grodhaus has been a member of the GRDA Board since May 2011, following his appointment to that post by Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin. Now retired from Tacit Networks, an internet technology company, he spent nearly four decades in the information technology industry.

Headquartered in Vinita, GRDA is a non-appropriated state agency, funded by revenues from the sale of electricity and water. GRDA generates, transmits and sells electricity to Oklahoma municipalities, electric cooperatives and industrial customers, as well as off-system customers across a four-state region.

# # #

Grand River Dam Authority News Release - Contact: Justin Alberty

Corporate Communications Director, Grand River Dam Authority, (918) 256 5545

jalberty@grda.com - www.grda.com