Over 1,000 people attended the 63rd Annual Meeting of Farmers’ Electric Cooperative, held in Chillicothe June 5.
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Over 1,000 people attended the 63rd Annual Meeting of Farmers’ Electric Cooperative, held in Chillicothe June 5.
Members attending the meeting re-elected one member to the cooperative’s seven-person board of directors. A total of 121 prizes were given away in a drawing at the conclusion of the meeting, including a 52-inch big screen television won by Debbie Williams of Braymer.
Board President Ron Cornett of Pattonsburg opened the meeting with a “brownout,” which saw stage lights at the Gary Dickinson Performing Arts Center completely turned off. Cornett then told the audience this is what is happening in California, but that expectations were the brownout problems experienced on the west coast would not be a problem in Missouri.
Cornett also updated the audience on cooperative activities and deregulation issues.
Following his report to the membership, Cornett introduced his fellow board members: LeRoy Kern, District 2; Butch Bisbee, District 3; Warren Hoyt, District 4; Ray Shields, District 6; and W.D. Richards III, District 7. District 5 board member Vernon Thoeni was ill and unable to attend the meeting.
FEC attorney Lloyd Cleaveland conducted the business meeting of the cooperative, which included the election of a director from District 6. Shields was re-elected to a three-year term on the cooperative’s board of directors. His term will run through the annual meeting of 2004.
In his report to the membership, Executive Vice-President and CEO Dan Bryan showed the changes that had taken place in the cooperative over the last 10 years. Bryan also stressed what had not changed, except in a positive note, over the last decade was that of the cooperative’s rate structure.
“Our rate is actually lower now than it was in 1991,” said Bryan. “Remember, we lowered our rates in 1995.”
“Does this mean we will never have a rate increase?” Bryan asked the audience. “No, at some point there will be an increase but because of several programs that we have in place they won’t be as large.”
Bryan cited the cooperative’s industrial parks and its load management program (The Switch Team) as reasons FEC had not had to raise rates in over 10 years.
“Our costs have gone up tremendously in the last decade,” Bryan said. “Just look at the cost of gasoline. A single rubber glove that our linemen wear has gone up in price 78 percent.”
Bryan also noted the cooperative’s continued involvement in Touchstone Energy, a program operated by rural electric cooperatives across the country, which is dedicated to quality service and community involvement.
Members elected to the 2002 Committee on nominations included: Kenneth Lee, Loren Foxworthy, Mary Nofftz, Leroy Dominique, Floyd Flick, Judy Holcer and Dennis Widhalm.