WYSOX — Claverack Rural Electric Cooperative members voted in one new director and re-elected two incumbents at the utility’s 2005 annual meeting, held Saturday, July 23, at the Wysox Fire Company’s recreational complex.

In a two-way race for directorship for Zone 1, Kevin B. Barrett of Towanda defeated incumbent J. William Bride, also of Towanda, who was seeking his fourth term as director. Barrett operates a dairy farm in Asylum Township.

Claverack members also unanimously re-elected Albert J. Wyda of Harveys Lake to a seventh term as Zone 2 director. Incumbent James W. Zick of Kingsley was unanimously re-elected to a fifth term on the board representing Zone 3. Wyda and Zick ran unopposed in the election.

Three of Claverack’s nine board seats were up for election this year. Directors are elected to three-year terms.
Guest speaker at the co-op’s annual meeting was Frank M. Betley, president and chief executive officer of Pennsylvania Rural Electric Association, the statewide association of electric cooperatives, and Continental Cooperative Services, an alliance of power supply cooperatives serving electric cooperative distribution systems in Illinois, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Betley told cooperative members on hand for the meeting that despite the increasing cost of fossil fuels, Pennsylvania’s cooperative consumers can expect relatively stable energy generation rates.

“The co-ops over the years have made some pretty unpopular decisions,” Betley said. “They invested in a nuclear plant. The built a hydro station. They also do load management. But because of those unpopular choices, only 28 percent of your power supply today comes from oil.”

That limited exposure to the oil market, Betley added, means rising petroleum prices are likely to have little impact on the electric bills of cooperative members.

Claverack’s annual meeting was attended by approximately 2,700 members and is recognized as the largest of its kind among Pennsylvania rural electric cooperatives.

Unlike investor-owned utilities, Claverack is a non-profit organization, owned by its consumer-members. A democratic organization by nature, the cooperative conducts its annual meeting each July to update consumer-members on the progress made during the year and to conduct director elections.

Annual meetings also provide consumer-members with the opportunity to offer input and voice concerns before the board of directors and management staff.

During a reorganizational meeting that immediately followed the annual meeting, Donald P. Kannenberg of Little Meadow was re-elected board chairman. Steven T. Sliwinski of Troy was re-elected board vice-chairman; Robert A. Hess of Montrose was re-elected secretary-treasurer; and Zick was elected to the vice secretary/treasurer post.

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