Lighthouse Electric Cooperative members listen during the 2022 Annual Meeting held at the Floyd County Friends Unity Center. (Ryan Crowe/FCR)
MUNCY – After two previous years that saw one of the worst ice storms to ever hit the South Plains followed by the chaos across Texas of ‘Winter Storm Uri’, Lighthouse Electric Cooperative was glad to breathe a sigh of relief at their annual meeting Thursday night.
Held at the Floyd County Friends Unity Center, this year was the first time a full in-person annual meeting had been held since 2019 thanks to Covid. And while the drive-through option was still available for voting and informational purposes, Lighthouse members were glad to see each other face to face.
Members voted to approve the election of three members of the cooperative’s 9-member board of directors, with Sandy Thornberry, Ron Graves and Mark Hegi all being re-elected to their positions.
The meeting also featured an update from Lighthouse General Manager Albert Daniel, who reported that the October 2020 ice storm caused enough damage to Lighthouse’s service area to require 30,000 manhours of repairs to power poles over a 1,300 square mile area. Daniel also updated on the impact of the February 2021 storm known as Uri, and that while the region avoided many of the problems the state experienced “We were not immune to the unusually high cost of generating power.”
“To say the past few years have been challenging would be an understatement,” Daniel said in a letter to members. He added that Lighthouse’s fiscally conservative approach to operating has allowed the cooperative to remain “financially strong and well positioned to meet future energy needs” of members.
Because of that approach, Lighthouse was able to post a net gain for operating costs for the year of more than $1.6 Million, and paid out over $1.1 Million in credit checks to its members, another first for recent years.
To learn more about Lighthouse Electric Cooperative, visit their website at Lighthouse.COOP.
