News

6/10/2010

Read a re-cap of Kenergy's June 8 Annual Meeting

OWENSBORO, Ky. -- The parking lot of the Owensboro Sportscenter was crowded an hour before the start of the Kenergy business meeting. Outside the entrance, linemen offered bucket-truck rides and let people try on safety gloves and look at other equipment. Members of Bicycle Owensboro gave safety demonstrations.

A drizzle came later but didn’t affect the many activities indoors. The entrance hallway was lined with twin registration tables, where members received tickets for buckets of bulbs, a pork sandwich or hot dog meal, and were encouraged to register for scholarship drawings.  Twenty $500 scholarships were drawn after the business session.  Qualifying students and parents had to be present to win. Members could also pick up a simple, one-page flyer headed with the meeting theme, “Together We Save,” that clearly listed and described details of the meeting including prize drawings, food availability and vendor and sponsor lists.

An energy expo of about 15 booths covered the back half of the arena, and there was plenty of seating near the stage and in the bleachers. An excellent sound system, combined with emcee Dennis Cannon’s distinct voice, allowed announcements to be heard clearly around the building. It also allowed Dennis to use a wireless mike to present pre-business meeting prizes of cash and merchandise. Exhibitors included contractors emphasizing energy efficiency, as well as Kenergy’s new outage mapping system. From the stage, the crowd was entertained by the bluegrass guitar and fiddle duo Jeff Wildman Hardesty and Randy Lanham.

At the business meeting it was reported that Christopher Mitchell had been re-elected to a 3-year term. In President & CEO Sandy Novick’s comments, he recognized Kenergy employees, all wearing white shirts, and said the co-op had emerged stronger from last year’s “trial by ice.”  He praised the massive job of restoring power and received applause when he recognized the help from out-of-state lineworkers. He also reported that as a result of storm lessons, Kenergy had improved its outage communication system, adding Internet and telephone capacity. He emphasized safety as a priority, and again received applause when he noted that the co-op finished 2009 with a positive margin, allowing allocations of capital credits.

He introduced KAEC President and CEO Bill Corum who described the significance of the statewide network that Kenergy was part of, and urged support for RUS funding and working to use technology to help make the use of coal as affordable as possible.

The crowd not only stayed for the door prizes and scholarship drawings after the business session, but remained attentive and appreciative throughout, for a pleasant and information-packed event.

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