Socorro Electric Cooperative, 215 Manzanares Avenue
File photo | El Defensor Chieftain

 

Every spring the Socorro Electric Cooperative, Inc. holds its annual meeting to do business that will affect every member for the coming year. If your name is on your electric bill you are a member of the co-op.

This year the annual membership meeting is on Saturday, April 23 in Macey Center’s main auditorium. The main order of business this year is the election of three Trustee positions. Prospective candidates are asked to file their candidacies before February 1. Any member residing within their respective district who wishes to be on the ballot must file a declaration of candidacy.

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, candidates must call the co-op’s office at 575-835-0560, Ext. 1001, or email [email protected] to schedule an appointment to submit a completed Member Declaration of Candidacy Form. The candidacy form is available at the office of Socorro Electric Cooperative, Inc., 215 E. Manzanares Avenue, or on SEC’s website.

The completed candidacy form must be received at the co-op office no later than 4:30 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 31.

To enter the SEC office, everyone must follow SEC’s COVID-19 requirements of face covering and body temperature check.

The three Trustee positions to be decided are:

District 1, currently held by Paul Bustamante, Board Chairman

District 4, currently held by Michael Hawkes

District 5, currently held by Anne Dorough.

The registration period for the annual meeting is from 1-3 p.m. and the business meeting is set for 3-5 p.m. Three percent of the total membership is necessary for a quorum, which means in the neighborhood of 300 members need to be registered.

All members will be able to vote on each race, regardless of the district in which they live.

Socorro Electric serves customers living in Catron, Cibola, Sierra, Socorro and Valencia counties.

In other SEC business, Manager Joseph Herrera reported at the December board meeting that a Request for Proposal (RFP) for a Broadband Feasibility Study had been published, with SEC receiving six responses. Herrera said that the finance committee reviewed all the responses and recommended that the Board approve the Power System Engineering, Inc. proposal if grant money can be utilized for the Broadband Feasibility Study. After discussion, the board voted to accept the Finance Committee’s recommendation to approve the proposal if grant money can be utilized for the Broadband Feasibility Study.

In other words, the actual award will not be released until SEC can locate an acceptable funding mechanism to pay for the completion of the study.

“So at this point, the study has not yet been started,” said Jimmy Capps, Director of Communications and Public Affairs, in an email. “The Board and management can then decide if it is financially feasible to explore the next steps that could lead to the implementation of broadband on a system-wide basis.”