BLYTHEWOOD – The Fairfield Electric Coop’s 85th annual drive-thru meeting, held May 13-17, registered 3,764 members. The Coop members voted to elect three board members: Ronald Friday (Dist. 7); William Good (Dist 8); and Bruce Honeycut (Dist. 9).
During the business meeting on Friday May 17, Fairfield Electric CEO Bruce Bacon praised the employees for their commitment and discussed challenges the Cooperative is facing.
“We take pride in providing the best electric service possible,” Bacon said. “Our linemen are a dedicated group, and they work tirelessly to build and maintain our system and keep the lights on. Despite severe storms and the outages that do occur, we maintained reliability levels that are the envy of our industry. I am proud of what our employees are doing and their commitment to providing the best service possible.”
Bacon also spoke about the challenges the cooperative is facing.
“Costs have risen for everything. You have experienced it at the grocery store and in your other day-to-day expenses. We’re seeing it at Fairfield Electric Cooperative, too. We have seen significant cost increases in the materials we purchase to build and maintain our electric system. Utility poles cost much more than they did a few years ago and the price of electric transformers has soared from $874 in 2019 to $1,360 today.”
The business meeting concluded with the prize drawings. Tiffany Simpson of Ridgeway was the lucky grand prize winner of the 2011 Chevrolet Silverado. Bernard Neal of Lugoff won the 42-inch Craftsman riding lawn mower. Rounding out the top-three prize winners was James McKenzie of Winnsboro, who received a $500 credit on his electric bill. A complete list of the winners can be found at blythewoodonline.com.
Fairfield Electric Cooperative serves more than 32,000 customers in Fairfield, Kershaw, Richland, Chester, and York counties. Fairfield Electric is one of twenty electric cooperatives in South Carolina. Together these cooperatives serve more than 500,000 members in over 70% of the state.
