Simply, thank you
Ah, November. It’s the month when the weather usually starts turning cooler, and it’s often the first month we start reaching for the yard rakes.
Before long, we’ll dive into turkey, ham, sweet potato casseroles, and pumpkin pies. Thanksgiving is upon us, and despite the challenges 2020 has presented, we at Wiregrass Electric Cooperative feel grateful for so many things this fall. First, we are thankful that Hurricane Sally only delivered us a glancing blow. We are thankful we were able to assist the cooperatives more directly impacted, and we appreciate the willingness of our linemen and warehouse workers to go when asked.
We are grateful for all of our employees’ dedication to our mission of Just Enough Isn’t Enough. Everyone’s efficient work recently allowed us to return margins to our members in the form of capital credits. And our member services representatives continue to valiantly guide our members through any troubles they encounter — pandemic or otherwise.
We’re thankful for committed employees like Danny Adams, who retired in September after 41 years of service.
We’re grateful for the cooperative spirit. Eighty-one years ago our founders gathered their resources together to help electrify this region when no big company would. Today, we still embrace that mindset, and we enlist other cooperatives to do so.
We’re ecstatic to partner with SEDC to provide a paperless billing system, which has always been a convenient payment option. It’s been a critical service during the pandemic. SEDC also helps with our outage management system, allowing us to provide even better service to our members.
Another cooperative resource, Gresco, provides us with some of the materials needed to construct and repair our grid. With a Gresco office in Dothan, we’re able to get supplies quickly during emergencies, and the affordability of these materials serves our members well.
We’re thankful for our power distributor, PowerSouth Energy Cooperative, for providing a reliable electricity resource. PowerSouth also helps spur economic development in communities — evidenced when we recently partnered with them to bring a new manufacturing facility to Hartford.
We’re thankful to be in a position to give back generously to the communities we serve in many ways.
Thanks to our participating members, the Operation Round Up Charitable Foundation has donated to hundreds of worthy causes in the education, medical, law enforcement, and human services fields. Additionally, we thank media partners like 95.5 WTVY-FM and WTVY-TV for helping us sponsor the Teacher of the Month and Silent Heroes of the Wiregrass awards, which help us display our appreciation to those who quietly strengthen our communities.
We’re grateful to Troy Cable for partnering with us to help expand broadband access to areas that sorely need it. Through the first stages of this effort, thousands of homes and businesses have the ability to receive high-quality internet — many for the first time. This is a critical need in today’s culture, and we have no plans on stopping our broadband expansion efforts.
Speaking of stopping, we’ll close this column with our biggest thank you — one that goes to our members. You are the ones that allow us to do so much for the community. You are the ones who truly embrace the cooperative spirit. Thank you.
Les Moreland
CEO Wiregrass Electric Cooperative