2008 Annual Meeting
Three members of the Board of Trustees of Holmes-Wayne Electric
Cooperative were re-elected during the Cooperative’s annual meeting
held June 26 at West Holmes High School. More than 900 members and
guests attended the meeting. Re-elected to the board were Ken Conrad,
Ronnie Schlegel and Kenneth Bower.
Ken Conrad was re-elected to represent the Cooperative’s District 4.
A lifelong resident of Mechanic Township, Conrad has served on the
Board since 1990. He has completed the Credentialed Cooperative
Director courses and currently is pursuing Board Leadership courses.
He is a self-employed farmer and livestock hauler and has also served
for 18 years on the Mechanic Township Trustee Board and Holmes County
Fair Board.Serving as Chairman of the Board for Holmes-Wayne EC, Ronnie Schlegel
was re-elected to serve the Cooperative’s District 5. He has served
eight terms on the Board and has received the Credentialed
Cooperative Director certification. Ronnie is an agriculture sales
representative in Holmes and Wayne counties for Shearer Equipment. A
lifelong resident of Holmes County, he resides on a farm near
Holmesville.Kenneth Bower of Wooster was re-elected to serve HWEC’s District 6,
which he has represented since 1983. A native of Plain Township, he
owns and operates Ken Bower Trucking. He also has been a Plain
Township Trustee for nine years, where he served as president and
vice president, and has been on the Wayne County Fair Board for 17
years, also serving as president and vice president.In his remarks, HWEC President and CEO Glenn Miller reported that the
Cooperative is completing the last mile of line rebuild from the 2004
and 2005 ice storms. With approximately $4.75 million dollars of
funding from FEMA, the Cooperative has rebuilt 115 miles of line
throughout the system in the last three years, bringing total cost of
the ice storm to approximately $6.3 million. Miller said that in a
normal year, HWEC would rebuild 15 to 20 miles of line, but in 2006,
it rebuilt 70 miles, in 2007 85 miles were rebuilt, and a similar
number is expected for this year. In addition, $3.9 million dollars
of electrical infrastructure improvements were made in 2007, with
$2.3 million invested so far this year.Also in 2007 the Cooperative concluded the final year of a four-year
tree trimming cycle and will start a new round this year trimming
approximately 374 miles in the Ripley, West Millersburg and Reedsburg
substation areas. Miller pointed out new options added for members to
pay their bills by paying online at the Cooperative’s website, where
members also can view their payment history or review monthly
electric use and cost charts.Miller said that HWEC is in the first year of a four-year, $16.4
million dollar work plan that focuses on building tie lines between
substations that will transfer affected members to other substations
during transmission related outages. The work plan also includes 86 miles of line
rebuilding and upgrades to 10 of 17 substations.Board Chairman Ronnie Schlegel announced that he, President/CEO Glenn
Miller and Board Secretary/Treasurer Larry Martin attended the 2008
Legislative Conference in Washington, DC in May meeting with Ohio
legislators to discuss the proposed Lieberman-Warner act on climate
change, which Schlegel said would have had drastic financial
consequences on rural electric cooperatives and increase rates for
members between 25 and 40 percent. The grassroots effort paid off
when discussion of the bill was ended on June 6.Schlegel also announced that the board has approved a full-time staff
member to serve as an Energy Advisor to train and develop new
programs that will educate consumers how to reduce their electric
consumption. At the close of the evening, all members attending the
annual meeting were given a pack of three energy-efficient lightbulbs
that should save members $130 over the course of the bulbs and last
10 times longer than incandescent bulbs.Schlegel also said that the board recently retired more than $800,000
of capital credits back to the members for members living on HWEC’s
lines in 1987. “You, the member, are returned the additional revenue
that is not utilized on operating cost; therefore providing the most
economical price for your electricity,” Schlegel said.Representing Ohio Rural Electric Cooperatives, the statewide system
of cooperatives of which HWEC is a part, President and CEO Tony Ahern
discussed the need to address climate change and conservation
measures. He said that rapid changes in infrastructure will be
necessary in the coming decades to address both of these issues, with
more of both nuclear energy and natural gas drilling necessary to
offset shortages in oil supply. He stressed how members of electric
Cooperatives can help by purchasing energy-efficient appliances and
by becoming part of the grassroots efforts to communicate with
legislators, just as Cooperative leaders do each year at the
Legislative Conference in Washington. In particular, Ahern urged
Cooperative members to fill out a card that had been inserted into
the June issue of Country Living, a monthly publication provided to all Cooperative members. “We’ll make sure your viewpoints
are delivered to Congress,” Ahern said. “How many companies do you
know that are asking you to use less of their product? We do. We’re
about meeting needs, not making money.”Harold Neuenschwander, Vice President of Holmes-Wayne Electric
Operation Round Up Foundation, reported on 2007 activities of the
organization, which distributes funds to needy individuals and
organizations. Neuenschwander thanked the more than 11,000 HWEC
members who donated more than $62,000 in 2007 by rounding their
electric bills to the next highest dollar. Of that amount,
approximately $37,000 was distributed in the community with the
remainder placed in interest-bearing account to be used for future
requests or for a rainy day fund for catastrophic events. A summary
of the donations was passed to all members attending the meeting.Members enjoyed a ham dinner buffet and a health and information fair before the meeting.
