Membership Matters
November 2004
Blue Ridge Electric Spearheads New School/Business Partnerships
Blue Ridge Electric is spearheading a new community relations program to partner local business and industry with area schools in an effort to benefit students and schools. The school/business partnerships have worked successfully between schools and businesses in Caldwell County for years. Blue Ridge Electric would like to help implement the idea across its service territory as part of the cooperative’s commitment to education.
Blue Ridge Electric’s Caldwell district office became involved in the program over 10 years ago when it began a partnership with Collettsville Elementary School.
The headquarters of the cooperative’s subsidiary, Blue Ridge Energies, currently partners with William Lenoir Middle School, and Blue Ridge Electric’s corporate office partners with Horizons Elementary School. Schools and businesses in Blue Ridge Electric’s service area in Watauga, Ashe, and Alleghany counties have expressed strong interest in this community relations opportunity.
The cooperative’s district managers are currently meeting with county school superintendents and school principals to outline the program and will soon be asking local business and industry to participate. So far, the reception has been outstanding according to Joe Ward, Alleghany district manager. “Our principals and superintendent are very excited that Blue Ridge is spearheading this program.
School/business partnerships are simply that—a partnership between a business and a school with a formal plan to help the school in specific areas. “This is not simply a way to get a check for needed items,” explained Grey Scheer, director of community relations for Blue Ridge Electric. “It’s intended to be a true partnership that benefits local schools and businesses.”
Members Only News
-For Members of Blue Ridge Electric
Steps to Restoring Power
While Blue Ridge Electric works every day to keep your power reliable, severe weather sometimes damages power lines and leads to outages.
The major cause of outages is damage from fallen trees. That’s why we have an ongoing right-of-way maintenance program to protect over 7,000 miles of power lines serving some 67,000 members across our system.
Restoring power after a major outage is a big job that involves much more than simply throwing a switch or removing a tree from a line. The main goal is to restore power safely – for members and linemen – in the shortest amount of time possible. Even before a weather-related outage occurs, Blue Ridge Electric employees are monitoring conditions and beginning a plan of action. Once an outage occurs, our plan for quick and safe power restoration includes:
Step 1: Transmission structures and lines that supply power to one or more transmission substations are restored first. These main delivery lines receive first priority because they serve tens of thousands of people.
Step 2: Restored next are distribution substations, which “step down’ or reduce voltage from transmission lines so it can be distributed to thousands of members.
Step 3: Main distribution supply lines are restored next if the problem cannot be found at earlier check points. These are the lines on power poles along roads.
Step 4: The final power supply lines, called tap lines, are restored next if needed. These lines “tap off” the main distribution lines.
Step 5: Damage can also occur on the service line leading from the transformer pole into your home. This can explain why your neighbors have power and you don’t.
The fastest way to report an outage is by calling our PowerLine at 1-800-448-2383.
The Perspective
An Editorial by Chief Executive Officer Doug Johnson
The Cooperative Difference
There’s a difference you’ll notice when you’re served by a cooperative. As a locally owned company – owned by the consumers we serve –Blue Ridge Electric is focused on your needs and priorities.
Your cooperative’s commitment to you begins with helping keep your electric bill as low as possible. Our mission is to deliver power to you at the cost of the service. There are no hidden fees and no profits for investors in faraway cities. Any money that is left over after operating your cooperative and maintaining and investing in our electric system stays in our communities to be returned to our members in the form of capital credits or put to work strengthening the economic well being of our towns and neighborhoods.
Our commitment to you extends to partnering with our local communities in making our area a place where we’re all proud to work and call home. In fact, it’s our official guiding purpose to be a major shaper of the future of our area.
Because we’re so closely linked to our communities, there are countless examples of activities in which we’re involved, both corporately and on a volunteer basis by individual employees. A few examples of this “cooperative touch” include: working with our educational community to provide scholarships and grants, supporting local health care projects, sponsoring fairs, providing local groups with safety information, volunteering in worthy causes such as Little League, our schools, Relay for Life, March of Dimes, supporting cultural activities – and the list goes on.
Why would Blue Ridge Electric be involved in these kinds of activities? Because electric cooperatives believe we should be an exemplary corporate citizen in our communities. Service means not only making sure electricity is flowing but also ensuring that the community and its citizens are thriving.
Service means helping friends, neighbors, and business colleagues in our hometowns – the people you see on a day-to-day basis. Service means reaching toward new horizons to make life better for everyone.
Blue Ridge Electric is a company with a deep sense of care about the people it serves. That care goes beyond keeping the lights on. It’s about neighbors helping neighbors. And that’s what Blue Ridge Electric is all about – carrying out cooperative values to benefit our member-owners and the communities we serve.
Statement of Nondiscrimination
Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation is the recipient of Federal financial assistance from the Rural Utilities Service, an agency of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, and is subject to the provisions of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended, the Age Discrimination Act of 1975, as amended, and the rules and regulations of the U. S. Department of Agriculture which provide that no person in the United States on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, age, sex, or disability shall be excluded from participation in, admission or access to, denied the benefits of, or otherwise be subjected to discrimination under any of this organization’s programs or activities.
The person responsible for coordinating this organization’s nondiscrimination compliance efforts is Julie O’Dell-Michie, Vice President of Human Resources and Administration. Any individual, or specific class of individuals, who feels that this organization has subjected them to discrimination may obtain further information about the statutes and regulations listed above from and/or file a written complaint with this organization; or the Secretary, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 20250; or the Administrator, Rural Utilities Service, Washington, D. C. 20250. Complaints must be filed within 180 days after the alleged discrimination. Confidentiality will be maintained to the extent possible.
Blue Ridge Electric will be closed Friday, December 24 and Monday, December 276 in observance of Christmas.
Offices will be closed Monday, January 3, 2005 in observance of New Years.
Happy Holidays!
Published monthly by Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation for its 52,382 member-owners.
