Halfway there and counting
Contact Information: Business: 1-800-239-3092 (Monday-Friday 7 a.m. - 4 p.m.) Toll Free Outage “Hotline” 1-800-533-0323 (24 hours a day) Board of Trustees President: John Henry Vice President: Melvia Carter Secretary: Glenn Branum Josh Gardner • Carey Thompson Tom Duncan • Dave Lyon Melvin Dale • Linda Arnold Website: www.pioneerelectric.com Payment Options: By Mail: Pioneer Electric Cooperative P.O. Box 370 Greenville, AL 36037 Bank Draft: Contact a customer service representative for details Credit Card: By phone or in person Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express Night Depository: Available at each office location Online: www.pioneerelectric.com In Person: 7 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. Greenville: 300 Herbert Street Selma: 4075 Ala. Highway 41 Authorized Payment Center: First Citizens Bank 40 Lafayette St. Hayneville
By Terry Moseley, Executive VP/General Manager
At Pioneer Electric Cooperative, being an active member of our community isn’t just a part of our cooperative mission. It’s a calling that each of our employees feels. Everyone who works at the cooperative serves their neighbors day in and day out simply by making it possible for us to provide reliable electric service. But so many Pioneer Electric employees go beyond that. It might be taking time out of their nights and weekends to coach youth sports or fill a leadership position at their church. Maybe you’ve seen them volunteering to help others in our community who have fallen on hard times or just doing everything they can to support local businesses. To anyone who understands the cooperative mission, this shouldn’t come as a surprise. We provide an essential service to this community, but we are also members of it. Even when our work is done for the day, the call to make this a better place to live for everyone doesn’t stop. Every 10 years, that call goes out to each of us to set aside some time for our community by participating in the census. As I discussed in my column earlier this year, the U.S. census has played an important role in how people throughout the country are represented since it began in 1790. This year, the census is particularly important for the people of Alabama. For over 100 years, our state has sent seven congressmen to the House of Representatives. But due to population changes, many projections indicate that number could drop to six after this year’s count. If participation in the 2020 census is limited and the state’s population is undercounted, we could even lose two seats in Congress. But that isn’t where the importance of the census ends. The data collected by census workers is also used to guide spending on important development programs like infrastructure, education and more.
Pioneer Electric’s 2020 annual meeting is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 17. Board of trustee election results for Districts 3, 6 and 9 will be announced at the meeting. In order to vote, you must be a Pioneer Electric Cooperative member in good standing on Aug. 18, 2020. If you are interested in more information on the election process, visit www.pioneerelectric.com or contact Cleve Poole at 334-382-6636.
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The census even includes questions about heating fuel and utilities in each community. This information is used to analyze air quality and energy needs so that federal agencies can forecast future energy demands, analyze the fuel sources available in each area and fund programs to help low-income residents afford to heat their homes. In short, the information gathered in the census has an impact on almost every aspect of our community. Over the last several months, you should have received an invitation to participate online or with a paper questionnaire. The good news is that many of you have already completed your census. For Butler, Dallas, Lowndes and Wilcox counties, nearly half of all residents have responded to the census. In Butler and Lowndes counties, response rates are even up compared to 2010. That is a great start, but it is important that those counties finish strong. Dallas and Wilcox counties, on the other hand, are trailing their response rate from 10 years ago. We have ground to make up, so I encourage anyone who hasn’t responded to the census to do so as soon as possible. If you haven’t received your invitation to participate or have misplaced your paper questionnaire, you can visit my2020census.gov to complete it online. The process only takes a few minutes, which isn’t a bad tradeoff to shape Alabama’s future for the next 10 years. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the self-response deadline for the 2020 census has been extended to Oct. 31. So even if you have been putting it off, there is still time to stand up and be counted. If you have yet to respond to the census, I strongly encourage you to do so. You will be helping your community and ensuring that everyone in the state of Alabama gets the representation we deserve. n
www.alabamaliving.coop
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7/16/20 1:59 PM
