Sussex Rural re-elects directors

WANTAGE — Three cooperative board directors Robert Untig, Bradley Sparta and Dick Wetzel were re-elected to the board of the Sussex Rural Electric Cooperative on Monday at High Point Regional High School.
Untig received 952 votes, Sparta had 950 and Wetzel had 933.
Chairman Jack Haggerty started the meeting by announcing the names of the 2016 Youth Tour Participants. Every year, cooperatives from across the country send high school juniors to Washington, D.C. for a week. He said there will be over 1,600 students from across the country participating in this year’s youth tour.
Sussex Rural Electric will send the following students this year: Sneha Suri from High Point Regional High School, who will serve as Junior Chaperone after representing New Jersey nationally in 2015; also from High Point High School is Kassidy Wagner; from Pope John High School is Chase Babus; and from Vernon High School are Sarah Ashraf and Brianna Cimaglia.
Haggerty then announced that the cooperative’s very first $1,000 scholarships were awarded to Nathan Stillings and William Sytsema in honor of the cooperative’s recently deceased auditor James Howard Goodwin. They wre presented with the scholarships on May 18 at the High Point Regional High School Scholarship Awards Dinner.
Secretary/Treasurer Ray Cordts then reported that the “Utility Plant in Service” had increased $1.2 million, reflecting the cooperative’s ongoing investment in system upgrades designed to increase system reliability and safety.
Overall, he reported that it was a good year, financially, for Sussex Rural Electric.
Haggerty then returned to the podium saying that, “Cooperatives aren’t like other businesses in our community. We’re not focused on making a profit — at our core we exist to meet community needs.”
Sussex Rural Electric Cooperative President and Chief Executive Officer Jim Siglin then addressed the audience and proudly stated that members’ overall satisfaction with the cooperative is high and that they were able to deliver the “highest possible service at the lowest possible cost.”
The co-op currently has 45 employees.
According to Siglin and later reiterated by guest speaker Jim Bausell, Senior Vice President of the Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA), the cooperative has an American Customer Satisfaction Index score of 90 percent, compared to competitor JCP&L’s score of 69 percent.
“ACSI scores for investor-owned utilities average 75," Siglin said. "The Cooperative Utilities industry average, over the last five years, has been in the low 80s. Our score of 90 is a great accomplishment and a testament to our employee’s commitment to excellence.”
Following a series of questions from the audience, the meeting was closed and cooperative directors and senior employees then distributed about 40 door prizes to the membership, with the top prize being a 40-inch, high-definition Samsung television.