News & Press
Members of Tri-County EMC, employees and local and state dignitaries gathered on October 20 for the 77th Annual Meeting of Tri-County EMC at the headquarters in Gray, GA. Billy Jerles, Tri-County EMC general counsel, announced election results for the board of directors. The re-elected board members for Post 3 were Cecil Patterson (District 1), Mike Rainey (District 2), and Marion Nelson (District 3). These members will serve three-year terms. The proposed bylaw change also included on the ballot passed with 1,454 members voting yes and 99 voting no. This bylaw change will ensure that directors are eligible to enter into legal contracts in the state of Georgia. 1,778 members participated in this year’s election process via mail, online voting or casting a ballot in person. (82627002)
The cooperative’s board chairman, Brenda P. Green, reported that Tri-County EMC is in excellent financial condition, according to a recent financial audit. “The cooperative is on sound financial footing and is adding meters for the first time since the recession began in 2008,” said Green.
Tri-County continues to work to expand its energy portfolio. Construction of Units 3 and 4 for Plant Vogtle, the nuclear plant in Waynesboro, GA, is on track and is set to begin production in 2019 and 2020, respectively. The cooperative also introduced ourSolar, a cooperative solar program, in June of this year and has sold half of the available blocks of energy to members.
“One of the tenants driving us is concern for community,” said Green. “Tri-County has created several programs to reach needs in our service area.” In the past year, the cooperative has given $71,000 in Operation Roundup Grants – a program funded through member contributions. Through unclaimed capital credits, Tri-County also funded $30,000 in Bright Ideas Grants to local teachers and $38,000 in economic development grants.
Ray Grinberg, CEO, emphasized the cooperative’s promise to its members — to be a financially stable company, to deliver reliable power and provide high quality member service. He reported that in the most recent Public Service Commission Rate Survey, Tri-County’s rates were lower than the average Georgia EMC and Georgia Power. The co-op is also making efforts to increase right-of-way trimming in order to decrease outages due to trees and vegetation. “Equipment failure only accounts for 5% of outages in our service area,” said Grinberg. “While we can’t control all outages caused by storms, animals and fallen trees, we are making an increased effort to expand our right-of-way trimming.”
Grinberg said technology continues to be a challenge. “The thing affecting our business the most is new technology,” said Grinberg. “It’s everywhere.” The cooperative recently installed an outage management system and plans to add an outage texting feature in the coming months. Green challenged the membership to take advantage of this technology by downloading the myTCEMC app to manage your account, monitor your energy usage and report outages.
The cooperative also plans to execute a member survey in 2017. “We want to know how we are doing and how you want to do business,” said Grinberg. The survey will sample a portion of members on many different aspects of the cooperative. Tri-County EMC will use the results to keep the cooperative headed in the right direction to meet the needs of its membership.
Nominating Committee Elected:
During the 77th Annual Meeting, nine members were elected to serve on the Tri-County EMC Nominating Committee. The purpose of the committee is to nominate candidates for the 2017 board of directors elections. For 2017, the committee will nominate the director candidates to fill Post 1 of Districts 1, 2 and 3.
District 1:
Norma Hancock
Tracy Gattie
Thomas Comer
District 2:
Robert Anderson
Carl Haizlip
Sandra McKinney
District 3:
Jack Brock
Bruce Dempster
Charles McCuen, Jr.
Ballot Drawing Winners:
Tri-County EMC distributed $50 bill credits to 10 lucky members at the 2016 Annual Meeting. Elsie H. Clark of Baldwin County won the $500 grand prize. The prizes were drawn from members who voted in the board of directors election. Congratulations winners! Tri-County thanks all members that participated in the election this year. Be sure to vote in the election next year to have a chance to win.
Nellie Evans, Putnam County
Harry Thomas, Baldwin County
Jessie Harper, Putnam County
Eduardo Vargas, Putnam County
Brenda Vaughn, Jones County
Judy Sullivan, Putnam County
Scott Richter, Putnam County
David Trantham, Jones County
Frank Wade Odum, Jr., Baldwin County
Harvey Meadows, Jones County