STEUBEN RURAL ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE, INC.

MAY 2016

THE ENERGIZER INSIDE THIS ISSUE :

New General Manager 2

May Is Electrical Safety Month

2

Summer Storms 2

SmartHub Is Coming 3

Your Role As A Member 3

Spring-Cleaning 3

What’s On That Pole 4

Director Nominations 5

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

GORDON FOSTER JAMES MCCORMICK ROBERT NICHOLS JOSEPH HAURYSKI LAURENCE ELLIS

JANICE HOAD GARY BROCKWAY

JENNIFER THURBER WILLIAM MOSS III

BATH OFFICE 9 WILSON AVENUE BATH, NY 14810

607-776-4161 1-800-843-3414

CHERRY CREEK OFFICE

5966 SOUTH ROAD CHERRY CREEK, NY 14723

1-716-296-5651 1-800-883-8236

OFFICE HOURS (M-F)

7:30 TO 4:00PM

OFFICE CLOSINGS MAY 30, 2016 JULY 4, 2016

W E ’RE O N T HE W E B

WWW . S TEU BE NR EC . COM

SREC General Manager, Wayne Sherwood Retires Please join me in extending best wishes to Wayne Sher-wood, who is retiring on May 31st after four years of service at Steuben Rural Electric. As General Man-ager, Sherwood has over 20 years of electric cooperative experience as an operations manager and general man-ager of two rural electric cooperative utilities. Be-fore arriving at Steuben Rural Electric, Wayne spent 16 years working at Oneida-Madison Electric Cooperative. Five years as the Line Foreman/Operations Manager and eleven years as the General Manager.

Sherwood is retiring with over 40 years of experience in the electric utility indus-try. Wayne graduated from high school in 1972 and started working in his fa-ther’s construction compa-ny. In 1974, Sherwood enlisted in the United States Navy (Seabee’s) where he trained as a con-struction electrician. Fol-lowing a four-year enlist-ment in the United States Navy, Sherwood was hon-orably discharged in 1978. Upon discharge he was hired by Colgate University as a journeyman electri-cian. From 1979-1987 Wayne worked as a jour-

neyman lineman for elec-trical line contractors through IBEW Local 1249. As a lineman Sherwood began working for the Vil-lage of Sherburne Electric Department in 1987, where he became Superin-tendent of Electric for the municipality. Wayne start-ed his career with the Co-operative’s in 1996 when he accepted a job at Onei-da-Madison Electric Coop-erative in Bouckville, NY as the Line Foreman/Operation Manager. He then was promoted to General Manager of Onei-da-Madison in 2001. After 16 years working at Onei-da-Madison, Sherwood accepted the General Man-ager position at Steuben Rural Electric Cooperative in Bath, NY in 2012.

Currently, Wayne is a board member at United Utilities Supply coopera-tive. Wayne also served on the executive committee for a number of years with the New York Association of Public Power.

Sherwood says, “I have enjoyed my working career and the many good people I have met along the way.”

Although he will miss his coworkers, Wayne is look-ing forward to visiting his

children and grandchil-dren. He also plans on spending most of his sum-mer traveling with a trip already planned to Alaska later this summer.

The Board appreciates Wayne giving the final years of his career in the electric utility industry to Steuben Rural Electric Co-operative. The final meas-urement of success in any endeavor is, did you leave it better than you found it? The changes Wayne has implemented while with Steuben Rural Electric have been welcomed and he is leaving Steuben Rural Electric a much better or-ganization. Although sur-prised with his retirement announcement, the Board would like to thank Wayne for his dedication, not only to the Board, but most importantly, to the Mem-bers and we wish him the best in retirement.

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May Is Electrical Safety Month!

SREC Welcomes Our New General Manager, Molly Bailey Steuben Rural Electric Cooperative is proud to introduce Molly Bailey, our new General Manager. Molly joins the SREC team on May 16th. Molly graduated from Alfred University with a Master’s Degree in Community Services Administration, and from Mansfield Uni-versity with a Bachelor’s in Business Administration.

She is joining the Coopera-tive with more than 25 years of professional experience in management, organiza-tional development, and human resources spanning several industries and fields. Board President, Gordon Foster congratulates Molly Baily and expressed his ex-citement for the Coopera-tive, the Members and the Employees. “The Board of

Directors wishes that Steuben Rural Electric Co-operative continues its rec-ord of success with Molly and the dedicated staff of employees. We appreciate her enthusiasm and vision for our Cooperative and we feel sure that Molly will show great leadership, a concern for our employees, and a focus on customer service for our members.”

Please extend a warm wel-come to Molly.

It’s May and we’re celebrat-ing National Electrical Safety Month. Can you imagine working a job that requires you to lift heavy equipment and perform detailed tasks near deadly high voltage? Now imagine doing this 40 feet in the air, and sometimes, in ex-treme weather. This is the life of a lineman. These brave men answer when called to ensure you are provided with safe, reliable electric service. But how do they stay safe when working in these condi-tions? Our linemen are

required to wear personal protective equipment at all times when on the job to keep them safe. Linemen must wear fire resistant clothing. While our line-men do everything possible to prevent them, unex-pected fires can happen. FR clothing will self-extinguish, limiting injury due to burn. Linemen must also wear insulated rubber gloves when working on electric lines. These gloves provide protection against electrical shock and burn. Protective gloves are worn over the insulated gloves to protect

the rubber from punctures or cuts. No matter how tough or “hardheaded” our linemen are, they still need protection and must wear a hard hat. Insulated hard hats are worn at all times to protect them from blows and falling objects. Steel toe boots must also be worn by our linemen. These heavy-duty boots are typically 16 inches tall and designed with extra support in mind. The steel toe pro-vides sturdier support and protects objects that could potentially pierce the foot.

While working on electri-cal lines, they also may be required to wear equip-ment belts, tool pouches, safety straps and other types of equipment. A lineman’s gear usually weighs about 50 pounds, that’s a lot of extra weight when working in hazard-ous conditions. So, the next time you see a line-man, be sure to thank them for keeping the lights on. But more im-portantly, thank them for the hard and dangerous work they do, day in and day out.

Keeping You Safe During and After Summer Storms No one knows electrical safety better then the ex-perts who practice it every day. Steuben Rural Elec-tric Cooperative encour-ages you to practice safety with these reminders - for during and after a summer storm. Avoid wires and water - When lightning

strikes a home during a storm, the electrical charge can surge through pipes and utility wires. That means you can get zapped if you’re touching water or any de-vice that’s plugged in, whether it’s a landline phone or toaster. Flooded areas - Stay away from

downed power lines and avoid walking through flooded areas. Power lines could be submerged and still live with electrici-ty. Electrical equipment - Never use electrical equip-ment that is wet. Water can damage equipment and parts, posing a shock

or fire hazard. Portable generators - Take special care with portable genera-tors, which can provide a good source of power, but if improperly in-stalled or operated, can become deadly. SREC always puts safety as our number one concern.

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SMARTHUB IS COMING SOON!

SPRING-CLEANING CHECKLIST As if your spring-cleaning checklist were not already long enough, here are a few things to add. While you are cleaning the windows, check for loose or cracked glass panes and for peeling, old caulk around the frames. Either one is a path for your air-conditioned air to es-cape to the outdoors and hot summer air to drift into the house and compete with the air conditioner. Replace broken windows and caulking that is past its prime. Check the utili-ty closet or basement and move boxes and other items so they are five feet away from your furnace and water heater. Ap-pliances need air to circulate around them. Don’t block the air flow. While you are there, remove old cans of paint, tur-pentine, gasoline, and any oth-er chemicals and debris from the vicinity of your furnace. Any of those items can heat up and catch fire or explode if they get to close. Pull your refrigera-

tor away from the wall and vacuum behind it. Dust build-up under and behind the unit can decrease its efficiency. Even if your air conditioning system ran perfectly last summer, it’s a good idea to give it a once-over before it gets hot out-side. Like any machine with moving parts, your air conditioning system needs regular maintenance. Be-fore the weather heats up, find out if yours will survive another summer. Don’t let you’re a/c surprise you by conking out on the hottest day of the summer.

Your Role As a Member If you have an outage, call SREC at 607-776-

4161 or 1-800-843-3414 (Bath District); 1-716-296-5651 or 1-800-883-8236 (Cherry Creek District) to report it.

Call SREC to report any problems along the lines that need attention; damaged poles, downed trees, etc.

If you plan to dig, call 811 to have all under-ground utility lines located.

Report any metering or Security Light prob-lems promptly. You are responsible for all power you use even if the meter or Security light stops.

Pay your electric bill by the 10th of the month. This avoids a late payment charge for you and allows SREC to run smoothly and meet its financial obligations.

If you move, call SREC before the date of your move and let us know the final date for which you are responsible. Also provide us with a forwarding address so your final bill will reach you.

Each fall an Annual Meeting of the member-ship is held. Please attend the meeting to learn more about your cooperative and to elect your director every three years.

Great News! A better online payment system is on the horizon. We are pleased to announce that we will soon be offering SmartHub, a convenient account access and two-way communication app which will be available to members online, as well as through mobile devices, including iPhone, iPad and Android smart phones and tab-lets. SmartHub will replace our current eBill program and provide a more intuitive and easy-to-navigate way to manage your Steuben Rural Electric account online, with the option to also access your account via these mobile devices. If you already have an eBill account, you’re all set to use SmartHub. If you don’t already use eBill it will be easy to create a new account.

SmartHub will allow members to: Manage account information directly from mobile devices or the web, make se-cure payments, notify customer service of account and service issues, view bills, see payment history, make payments, set up recurring payments, report outages and check monthly, daily and hourly usage.

With SmartHub, the power of data is in your hands through convenient account management and detailed us-age information. Keep looking for more information on SmartHub on our website. We hope to unveil this new service, free of charge, beginning in May of 2016.

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You probably don’t pay much attention to the utility poles found throughout the Cooperative’s service territo-ry, but these structures are the backbone of our distribu-tion system.

Strong sturdy poles help en-sure a reliable electric sys-tem, which is why we rou-tinely inspect the 23, 000 poles on our line. Although we contract with a company that tests our poles, our own linemen keep an eye out for decayed or damaged poles. Typically, a standard wooden distribution pole is expected to last between 50-60 years in a perfect situation.

Occasionally, poles need to be replaced for reasons other than decay and old age. Weather disasters, motor vehicle accidents and power line relocations are potential causes for immediate replace-ment.

When a pole needs to be replaced, crews start the pro-cess by digging a hole, typi-cally next to the pole being replaced. The depth of the hole is 6 feet. Next, the new pole must be fitted with bolts, cross arms, insulators, ground wires and arm braces - all the parts necessary for delivering safe and reliable electricity. Then, the crews safely detach the conductor (wire) from the old pole. The new pole is raised and guided carefully into posi-tion, and the lines are at-tached, leaving the new pole to do its job.

Why We Replace Poles?

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PAGE 5 THE ENERGIZER

District 1

JAMES MCCORMICK

Mr. Curt R. Williamson 992 Cty Rte 62

Greenwood, NY 14839 607-225-9907 (Home) 607-590-8072 (Cell)

District 2

JANICE HOAD

Mrs. Donna Bossick 5416 Stone House Rd. Cameron, NY 14819

607-794-0281

District 3

JOSEPH HAURYSKI

Camelia Oswald 2570 Yawger Hill Rd. Bradford, NY 14815

607-583-7331

District 4

GARY BROCKWAY

Mr. Walter Longwell 7582 Telegraph Road

Bath, NY 14810 607-776-4938

District 5

JENNIFER THURBER

Mr. Loren Hayes 3780 County Road 21 Cameron, NY 14819

607-695-2340

District 6

GORDON FOSTER

Ms. Deborah Pearl 4731 Shauger Road

Cameron Mills, NY 14820 607-776-7924

District 7

ROBERT NICHOLS

Mary Ellen Baker 8185 County Route 5

Lindley, NY 14858 607-523-8040 (Home) 607-369-3041 (Cell)

District 8

LAURENCE ELLIS

S. Ann Maloney 12128 Ruckh Hill Rd.

South Dayton, NY 14138 716-665-1537

District 9

WILLIAM MOSS, III

John D. Robinson, Sr. 9200 Round Top Road Forestville, NY 14062

716-965-4211

NOMINATING COMMITTEE - 2016

DIRECTOR NOMINATION & ELECTION PROCEDURES As a member-owner of Steuben Ru-ral Electric Cooperative, Inc., you can vote for or run for a term on the Board of Directors. Three of the nine seats will be up for election at the Annual Meeting in October:

District 1 - James McCormick; Dis-trict 2 - Janice L. Hoad; District 9 - William Moss III.

Are You Eligible? SREC encourages eligible, interest-ed members to consider running for the Board of Directors. The qualifi-cations are specified in the Bylaws as follows:

No person shall be eligible to be-come or remain a director or hold any position of trust in the Cooper-ative who: 1. Is not a member and domicili-

ary of the district within the Cooperative for which the di-

rector was elected to serve; 2. Is in any way employed by or fi-

nancially interested in a compet-ing enterprise or a business selling electric energy, equipment or sup-plies to the Cooperative; or

3. Is an employee of the Cooperative or has been an employee of the Cooperative within five (5) years from the date of the annual meet-ing at which the nomination will come to a vote.

4. Is unable to read, write and speak in the English language.

5. Is not able to legally enter con-tracts.

6. Is a convicted felon. 7. Who has had bills owed to the

Cooperative delinquent for more than ninety (90) days within the past two (2) years.

Three Ways To Run! The first way to be placed on the bal-

lot is to be nominated by the nomi-nating committee. For further in-formation please call your nominat-ing committee appointee listed above. The second method is by petition. Any fifteen (15) or more members acting together may make other nominations by petition not less than fifteen (15) days prior to the meeting and the Cooperative shall post such nominations under the direction of the Secretary of the Board of Directors, at the same place where the list of nominations made by the committee is posted. The last method is to be nominated from the floor at the annual meet-ing. For more information on meeting dates, forms, etc. call the Bath office at 1-800-843-3414 ext. 114.

wood Racks, New Battery, Mint Condition - $4250 Firm. Call 3015-589-2782. For Sale: Yearling Angus Bulls, Can Be Registered. Must See to Appreciate—$2000, Located in Greenwood. Call 607-661-2417. Trapping Supplies, Grandview Fur Center, Bill Bowdoin, Bradford, NY. Call 607 -583-4600. Hide Tanning Product For Tanning All Fur Skins, 8oz. Bottle-$12. Also Hunting & Trapping Supplies Catalog-$1. Bill Russ Trading Post Store, 25 William St, Addison NY 14801. For Sale - Firewood, Locust Posts, Also 4Ft Clod Buster. Call 607-776-6570.

Miscellaneous The Cala Lily Yarn Shop is Open! Beautiful Yarns, Notions, and Gift Items, 10% Off All Regularly Priced Yarn to Members With Co -op Connections Card. Open Sept -Jun T/Th 4:30-8, Sat 10-3 and July-Aug T/Th 4:30-8, Weds/Sat 10-3. Call 716-397-9478. Welder Hats, Soft Brim, Sleeves, Doo Rags, Fleece Neck Warmers and Hoods, Bulk Pricing and Free Shipping Available. Call 912-655-8336.

For Sale Clarke Variable Direct Speed Polisher with Pads - $325. Call 607-776-2911. Two Walk Behind Plows, Great for Paint and Lawn Décor - $30 each, Loveseat and Recliner Chair - $60, Wooden Shelves with Drawers - $60. Call 607-346-2311. Grass Seed For Sale, Medium Red Clover, $1.50 Per Pound or One Bushel for $90. Cleaned and Ready to Go. Call 607 -324-5285. Two Anderson Thermo Double Hung Windows, 36x48, $25 a piece. Also Nice Large Cage, Use for Birds or Anything You Wish, 2’x5’, Make Offer. Call 716 -287-3636. Horse Drawn Old Fashioned Dump Rake - $300, Old Hay Moving Machine - $300, Three Wheel Gas Golf Cart, Needs Car-bonator Adjustment - $300, Green Col-ored Camouflage With Backing Twin Size Home Made Quilt - $75, 1992 Cadillac Seville, Needs Blower System Repaired, Great Running Condition, A Classic, Beautiful Car - $800. Call 607-698-2568. 2008 Tilman Dump Trailer, 5 ton w/2 Back Gates, 1 for Stone & Gravel and 1 to Load Heavy Equipment, Also Has Fire-

ANN’s Housekeeping & Cleaning Service, “Old Fashion Cleaning, We Get In All The Corners”. References and Reliable! Homes, Offices, Cottages, Parties, Seasonal Cleaning. Call: 607-329-4906. Gift Certif-icates Available. Custom Welding - Aluminum, Stainless and Brazing. Light Fabrication & Repair. Call for Appointment at 607-776-8018.

Wanted

Raw Fur and Deer Hides. Grandview Fur Center, Bill Bowdoin, Bradford, NY. Call 607-583-4600. Wanted 3PT 6’ to 8’ Disc, Also House Trailer Tires With Wheels. Call 607 -776-6570.

To advertise in the next issue of the Energizer, please mail or email your ad

by July 8, 2016 to:

Steuben REC, Inc. 9 Wilson Avenue Bath, NY 14810

Attn: Kristen Cleveland kcleveland@steubenrec.com

Marathon: Marathon water heaters are durable, lightweight and have a life time warranty. Replace your current water heater with a Mar-athon water heater and receive a rebate of $1 per rated gallon capacity (load control switch must be installed). Call our office today at 607-776-4161 or 1-800-843-3414 for more information. Available in full-size 30, 50, 85 and 105 gallon models.

Happy Hunting! In the body of this newsletter are five (5) account numbers. If you find your account num-ber in this newsletter call the office within fifteen (15) days and your account will be credited $10.00.

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THE TRADING POST

Tip of the hard hat … To the member who took care of our broken flag pole and folded our flag and placed it in our vestibule.

Your Phone Number Is Vital To Reliable Electric Service

As people eliminate their landline phones and utilize cell phones and email more, we find we no longer have valid phone numbers on record. As a result, we cannot contact members to give them important information about their electric service or bill. We urge you to contact us with updated contact information so we can serve you better. Call us at 1-607-776-4161 or 1-800-843-3414.

Our goal is to provide you with safe and reliable service.

WHEN THE LIGHTS

SO DO THEY Thank a Lineman

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