The 80th annual meeting was held at the Spencer County Youth and Community Center on April 16.

More than 424 members registered, and we issued 706 meal tickets for members and their families. Over 130 children attended and entered their names for the kids’ prize drawing. For those of you who missed the meeting, I’ll give a brief recap of events. 

Young members enjoyed pony rides, face painting and bucket truck demonstrations. Members talked with Hoosier Energy employees about LEDs, watched a live electric line demo and played bingo. Ice cream, soft drinks, popcorn and other food items were provided throughout the evening. 

During the business meeting, Jeff Vogel and Philip Meyer were re-elected to represent districts 1 and 2, while David Lynch was elected to represent District 7. I would like to thank former District 7 Director Michelle Lynch for her 14 years of service. Earl Ridlen of London Witte Group (LWG) reviewed the 2018 financial report. 

During my report, I recognized our employees for receiving the NRECA national standard of “safety achievement” annually since 2008. I also gave an update on the co-op’s capital credit retirement program. In 2018, we paid back over $400,000 in capital credits to members who received electric service in 1993. I also informed members that the board of directors voted to pay back approximately $170,000 in capital credits for the year 1994. All active members who had service in 1994 will receive their distribution in November. I also mentioned the co-op began paying out estates in 2018 as well.

This year, I mentioned we will be investing over $10 million during the next four years in system improvements. Projects include over 15 miles of three-phase line extensions, 400 pole changes and approximately 40 miles of one-phase line rebuilds. This also includes the automated metering upgrade. Also this year, we will continue our aggressive right-of-way maintenance program on the Newtonville and Chrisney substations in Spencer County.

I wrapped up my comments by updating members on the recent partnership with PSC to provide a high-speed internet study for all cooperative members. We learned that nearly 40% of our entire electric service territory is without high-speed internet. We are currently in the process of developing strategies with PSC to deliver high-speed internet to our unserved members.

Gary Waninger, Operation Round Up board chairman, presented the March 2019 ORU grant recipients at the end of the meeting. A list of recipients is on page 6. The meeting ended with a drawing for door prizes. For a complete prize listing, see page 7.