News & Press
Click here to see an Annual Meeting Video Recap
Tri-County EMC’s 79th Annual Meeting was held Thursday, October 18 at the cooperative’s headquarters in Gray. Cooperative members, employees and a number of local and state officials gathered for the co-op’s annual business meeting. Through voting by mail, online and in person, 1,966 cooperative members participated in their cooperative’s annual election process. Tri-County’s general counsel, Billy Jerles, announced the re-election of incumbent directors Chester Mercer (District 1; Jones, Bibb and Twiggs County), George “Buck” Comer (District 2; Putnam, Jasper and Morgan County), and Tommy Noles (District 3: Baldwin and Wilkinson County).
In her remarks, board of directors chair Brenda P. Green spoke of the sound financial stability of the cooperative. $8.2 million dollars in capital credits that have been returned to the cooperative’s members since 1980. Green also highlighted the cooperative’s community involvement, including scholarships, leadership programs and community and economic development efforts. “Tri-County was built by the people from the communities that it serves,” said Green. “Therefore, we will remain present and involved in our communities because it’s the right thing to do.”
Tri-County EMC chief executive officer Ray Grinberg provided a review of the impact of Hurricane Michael on cooperative’s service territory. “We had about 3,700 members without power and eleven broken poles,” said Grinberg. “We were very lucky with the path and speed of the hurricane and were able to restore power to the affected members in less than forty-eight hours.” Grinberg also praised efforts of the cooperative employees that focus on system reliability to shorten outage times. “Through right-of-way improvements and system upgrades, outage times have decreased to an average of 113 minutes per consumer.”
Grinberg also discussed the recent decision to move forward with the construction of Plant Vogtle. “This is an important project to Georgia – a long-term resource that will provide energy for up to 80 years,” said Grinberg. “The agreement we reached to move forward provides our members with some financial certainty.”
The results of the cooperative’s recent satisfaction surveys were also presented. Each quarter, Tri-County EMC surveys 250 members. The most recent satisfaction score was 8.6 on a scale of one to ten. The cooperative will use the information gathered from these surveys to continually improve the member experience.
Incumbent directors Cecil Patterson (District 1), Mike Rainey (District 2), and Marion Nelson (District 3) were nominated from the floor for Post 3 on the cooperative’s board. Elections for Post 3 will be held in the fall of 2019. Any member interested in running for the board of directors may be nominated by the nominating committee, listed on page 2, or by petition.
Nominating Committee Elected:
During the 79th Annual Meeting, eight members were elected to serve on the Tri-County EMC Nominating Committee. The purpose of the committee is to nominate candidates for the 2019 board of directors elections. For 2019, the committee will nominate the director candidates to fill Post 3 of Districts 1, 2 and 3.
District 1:
Evelyn Simmons
Norma Hancock
Tracy Gattie
District 2:
Ken Farr
Hank Raehn
Tim McKinney
District 3:
James Findley
Hunter Bacon
Ballot Drawing Winners:
Tri-County EMC distributed $50 bill credits to 10 lucky members at the 2018 Annual Meeting. Thelma Mathis of Jones 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.
Robert H. Childres, III, Jones County
Devonshay Smith, Jones County
Laverne Webb, Putnam County
Charles Ford, Baldwin County
Jo Ann H. Powell, Jones County
Keith Jesse Merritt Putnam County
Larry C. Thompson, Putnam County
James Lee Simmons, Baldwin County
Elaine Kirpsak, Putnam County
Albert Welch, Putnam County