Assisting schools, rural water districts and rural fire departments, Lake Region Electric Cooperative works with the members and communities it serves. The cooperative offers products and services such as DirectTV, heat pumps, Internet, security lights, credit cards and water heaters. In 1935, President Roosevelt signed the Rural Electrification Act. This act enabled rural residents to form cooperatives and to bring much needed electric service to rural America. Investor-owned utilities were not interested in bringing electricity to farms and rural residents because it was not profitable to serve them. Lake Region Electric Cooperative was incorporated in 1949, when the members of East Central Electric Cooperative, located in Okmulgee, Okla., decided to divide its territory into two separate cooperatives in order to provide better service to its members.