Craig-Botetourt Pays Capital Credits

Wednesday, 07 December 2011 19:17

 One of the key differences between investor owned utilities and your electric cooperative is who the owners of each type of organization are. With the investor owned utility the person who owns shares of stock in the utility is the owner. The shareholder may or may not be the same person as who the utility provides their electric service.

With Craig Botetourt Electric Cooperative, the owners are the ones who receive their electric service from the Cooperative.  One benefit to being a member of Craig Botetourt is that you are entitled to capital credits. Capital credits are the revenues we have left after we have paid all of the bills of the Cooperative for each year.

This year, the Board of Directors of the Cooperative approved to pay out over $120,000 of capital credits to its member/owners. The amount to be returned is associated with the years of 1987 and 2010. If you were a member during any of these years you should have received a credit or check in the mail. The credit was listed on the bill you received during the first week of December as Capital Credit Return.    

CBEC Apprentice Particpates in International Rodeo

Friday, 21 October 2011 17:36

Avery Dolinger participated in the 28^th Annual International Linemans Rodeo on Saturday October 15, 2011 in Bonner Springs, Kansas. Avery qualified for the International Rodeo by finishing in the top three of the regional event.

Avery competed as an apprentice against over 200 other apprentices from around the world. The competition included lineman from such places as Canada, Jamaica and Russia. The apprentice events included 5 events; such as hurt man rescue, pole climb (with egg), CPR/AED, written test and one mystery event.

Avery finished 2^nd overall in the CPR/AED event. As a result of his outstanding performance, he got to walk the red carpet to the stage where he was awarded his plaque. General Manager Hildebrand states, “We congratulate Avery on this significant accomplishment and we are extremely proud of him. Avery is part of the future for Craig-Botetourt and he is helping us insure we can provide the service our members expect and deserve”.

Again, we congratulate Avery on his accomplishment and say “Job Well Done”.    

Recent Outages Information

Thursday, 15 September 2011 11:51

Since September 2 Craig-Botetourt has had more frequent outages than normal. On September 2 the counties of Botetourt, Craig and Roanoke were hit with a outbreak of strong and violent storms. These storms were quick in developing and caused a range of damage from torn down electrical lines to blown fuses.

After the storms hit around 2:30 pm our crews responded to help make sure that the lights were restored as quickly and safely as possible. One of the hardest hit areas was the Bradshaw/Elliston area of Roanoke County and continuing into Montgomery county. In that area we had two different pieces of line torn down by the trees off of the right of way. This is extremely frustrating not only for the member of the Cooperative but also for the Cooperative. The Cooperative last year maintained and cut the right of ways in this area and we continue to put as much effort and resources into the right of way management program as we have in the past. It just goes to show that even though we do our jobs there are still going to be times that the natural surroundings of the service territory is going to make it difficult to provide reliable electrical service.

As the weekend continued the Cooperative was watching the remnants of tropical depression Lee move into the area. Anytime we go through a period of such dry weather and have a sudden rash of rain and wind there is the potential that we will have outages. This is exactly what happened when Lee moved into the area during Labor day weekend. We had outages in Botetourt, Craig and Allegheny.

Then to top matters off, on September 9, Appalachian Power Company had a fault on their system that put the entire Craig-Botetourt service territory served by their transmission facilities in the dark. This also affected their service territory in Craig County and some surrounding areas. Once again this affected Craig, Botetourt, Roanoke and Montgomery counties. 

As the General Manager of Craig-Botetourt Electric Cooperative, I can tell you we really do not like for the lights to go out and it bothers me but it is going to happen from time to time. If it happens to you just know that we will get the lights back on as quickly and safely as possible. If you have questions about what happened or questions about anything else, please feel free to contact me at the office at 540.864.5121 extension 122 or on my cell phone at 540.580.9495.

Cooperatively,

Shawn C. Hildebrand