Your board in action: 2023 accomplishments and a look ahead

Con­ver­sa­tions around our board­room table remained focused on you, our valu­able mem­bers, through­out the past year. As always, main­tain­ing ser­vice excel­lence is pri­or­i­tized so your bill stays low, your lights stay on and your voice is heard. While we high­light sev­er­al of your co-op’s accom­plish­ments for 2023 on the fol­low­ing page, my focus is on how we are prepar­ing for your future.

Ris­ing pow­er costs and the need for more elec­tric gen­er­a­tion remain at the fore­front of con­cern in our board meet­ings. We have worked with our peers through­out the state to address this issue and pro­vide rea­son­able solu­tions to keep the impact on mem­bers as min­i­mal as pos­si­ble. This means nego­ti­at­ing for new ways to pro­vide pow­er gen­er­a­tion sources to our state and edu­cat­ing mem­bers on using elec­tric­i­ty wise­ly.

We are excit­ed to begin the process of serv­ing two new large indus­tries. One project will be com­plet­ed this year; the oth­er will be com­plet­ed in 2026. Not only will these oppor­tu­ni­ties pro­vide good jobs for our area, but their local invest­ments will pos­i­tive­ly impact our schools and local com­mu­ni­ties. Addi­tion­al­ly, these indus­tries will help keep your rates sta­ble because of their large pow­er require­ments, mak­ing these eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment projects a win for our area and for your co-op.

Speak­ing of your board in action, you will now see a new box in each issue that will review the most impor­tant top­ics dis­cussed at our pri­or month’s board meet­ing. Not only is it impor­tant to remain good stew­ards of each dol­lar that comes into the co-op, but it is also impor­tant to con­duct trans­par­ent busi­ness prac­tices with the utmost integri­ty.

Last­ly, we are begin­ning our search for a new Pres­i­dent and CEO. Paul Basha has led our co-op as a ser­vant, humbly and gen­er­ous­ly, for over 20 years. As he nears retire­ment after 35 years at YEC, we will look to find an indi­vid­ual that will con­tin­ue sup­port­ing and guid­ing our employ­ees and the tremen­dous job they do serv­ing you.

Thank you for allow­ing me the priv­i­lege to serve as your board chair­man. I am hon­ored to lead our board as we look out for you, sup­port our fan­tas­tic group of employ­ees and remain focused on mak­ing a pos­i­tive impact for years to come.

Tom Set­tle­myre
Board Chair­man, Dis­trict 1

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2023 by the num­bers

• Approx­i­mate­ly 1,300 new mem­bers.
• 600,000 miles dri­ven, 95,000 calls answered, 1,000 online chats, 2,100 emails to serve our mem­bers.
• Over 820,000 billing state­ments mailed.
• 100 per­cent of out­ages respond­ed to with­in one hour, out­side of severe storm sit­u­a­tions.
• 95 per­cent year­ly ser­vice sat­is­fac­tion aver­age.
• Approx­i­mate­ly 32,000 poles inspect­ed.
• 46 infra­struc­ture projects com­plet­ed.