Blue Ridge Electric Invites Public to Open House/Customer Appreciation Day
For Immediate Release
Contact: Renee Whitener, Director of Corporate Communications, Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation, (828) 758-2383 ext. 3213; Pager:1-800-471-1323; or E-mail: Renee Whitener
Lenoir, North Carolina (August 26, 2002) – The public is invited to attend an open house/customer appreciation day on Friday, September 6, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., at the new Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation office located at 1889 Hwy. 21 South in the former Lowe’s Hardware Building.
Blue Ridge Electric personnel will host
members for refreshments, tours of
the facility, bucket truck rides with
linemen, and giveaways.
Also featured during the open house will be a public art gallery – the first of its kind in Alleghany County – situated in the building’s main entrance area. Displayed in the gallery at the open house will be: oil paintings by John Sturgill, water color and mixed media paintings by Lynn Davis Camp, wood furniture by David Biggerstaff, pottery by Robin Cater, photography by Stewart Royall, a quilted wall hanging by Eileen Penny, and quilts by Delta Peterson.
Blue Ridge Electric moved into the new facility in late July after spending the last 40 of its 60 years of service to Alleghany County in the cooperative’s former building on Main Street. Blue Ridge had been considering a move for several years as the Main Street site became an increasing safety issue.
“Our Alleghany operations had outgrown its Main Street facilities,” said Doug Johnson, chief executive officer. “We’d begun having concerns with our linemen and vendors moving materials such as large poles and heavy equipment vehicles in and out of the downtown site,” he explained. “The new location is a much safer and more customer-oriented site that will serve us well for many years.”
“With safety a primary consideration in everything we do, we’re excited about the move because the new facility gives us the necessary space to maneuver more easily,” said Joe Ward, operations manager. “We’re able to load and unload big items such as power poles much easier,” he continued. “And because our vehicles are undercover, we’ll be able to respond much more quickly in the winter to customer situations because we won’t have the warm up the vehicles as we did when they were parked outside.”
The new building was part of an innovative property exchange that benefited Alleghany residents in many ways as the cooperative partnered with the county and town. After Lowe’s sold the building to Alleghany County below book value, the county then transferred the building to Blue Ridge Electric in exchange for the cooperative’s “Cash and Carry” building on Main Street, which provided local educational opportunities as a satellite campus of Wilkes Community College. Further benefits were realized when the town of Sparta purchased Blue Ridge Electric’s former office at tax value. In addition to utilizing part of the building for better water and sewer office facilities, the town is leasing space to the Board of Elections and will lease its former town hall to the Chamber of Commerce.
“Significant cost savings were achieved by the innovative property exchange,” said Don Adams, Alleghany County Manager. Sparta’s Town Manager Tom Douglas agreed, saying “Blue Ridge Electric has always been an excellent community partner and this is just another example of that partnership. Furthermore, their new office building creates a positive image for those entering Sparta.”
Blue Ridge Electric is a member-owned electric cooperative serving over 63,000 members in Alleghany, Ashe, Watauga, Caldwell, Wilkes, and Alexander counties.
