Fall River Electric hosting annual member owners meeting and elections

ASHTON — Fall River Rural Electric Cooperative is hosting its annual meeting for member-owners Saturday and will be finalizing the election of its new board members.

The event will be held at North Fremont High School and is open to all 14,000 Fall River customers.

The elections at the event will decide the outcome of three open board slots, one unopposed. Trustee Ron Dye reached his term limit and cannot run for reelection in District 7, which covers members in the south Island Park area. Debbie Smith decided to not run again for District 4, which covers the northeast Driggs area.

“Voting interest has been high as the online and mail-in voting totals are the highest ever,” said Ted Austin, spokesman for Fall River Electric. “Members are still able to vote in-person on Saturday. Election results will be announced at the end of the business meeting.”

Austin said the elections are important to each of its member-owners because it is the board who sets the strategic plan for the electric cooperative.

“These are the men and women on the board who will guide the future direction of the cooperative,” Austin said. “Certainly in the electrical industry is different than it was 10 years ago and it’s going to be even more significantly different in the coming decade…it’s important for the success of the co-op, the viability of the co-op and that’s what this board does.”

This weekend is not all about the elections. It is also a time for the cooperative to gather socially and learn about the past year and future of the co-op.

“Really it is the membership getting together,” Austin said. “In our case it’s celebrating another successful year and finding out the condition or the status of the co-op because they own it.”

The event begins at 8 a.m. with a free breakfast of pancakes, eggs, bacon, sausage, hash browns. Following the breakfast a business meeting to go over the co-op’s past and future accompanies bucket truck rides, bounce houses, face painting and rides in the Fall River Propane train.

A business meeting starts at 10 a.m. with owner-members of the co-op finalizing the election of three board of director members from a field of ten candidates as well as proposed by-law changes.

Running for election in District four is:

• Kelly Circle
• Kyle Cooke
• Mark Hansen
• Delwyn Jensen
• Anna Lindstedt

Running for election in District Seven is:

• Bruce Ard
• Mark Gerber
• Jodi Stiehl
• Allan Webb

“Each candidate will make brief comments at the business meeting,” according to a news release.