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 Reliable service is our focus
Apr 1, 2010
This month and next month, the cooperative’s local pages in South Carolina Living are to be devoted to those two big May events—the annual meeting of members and our Blue Ridge Fest charity fund-raiser. In reading through the Blue Ridge pages, you’ll find information galore about these happenings. Our employee team is busy with preparations for these dates on the calendar, and we hope you’ve made note of them as well.
In this report, I want to bring you up to date on a couple of other important matters. First of all, I’m pleased to note that the cooperative is making steady progress on our 2008-12 Engineering Work Plan.
System improvements & maintenance
Capital improvements to the Blue Ridge power-distribution system are under way throughout our service territory. New construction, upgrades, and relocations of power lines are all part of this work plan.
A related facet of these projects is the cooperative’s vegetation-management program. Bolstered by a significant budgetary outlay, our crews are performing right-of-way maintenance at multiple geographical locations. These improvements and this attention to right-of-way maintenance are designed to produce an even better level of service reliability for our members, and I’m excited to see this work going forward.
Secondly, in addition to providing quality service, Blue Ridge prides itself in doing so on an at-cost basis. As a member-owned, not-for-profit utility, the cooperative ultimately returns any earned margins to those members.
$600,000 capital-credit refund
This month, $600,000 in capital-credit payments is being mailed to those who were Blue Ridge members in 1984 and/or ’85. Each of those members will receive his or her pro-rata share of these margins.
With this refund, the cooperative will have returned capital credits in each of the last 28 years. Since Blue Ridge began paying patronage-capital dividends, more than $18.2 million has been refunded.
Dependable service and at-cost service are key elements of the cooperative business model. Blue Ridge is intent upon operating in accordance with those values and principles.
Sincerely,
Charles E. Dalton
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