PIQUA — Pioneer Electric Cooperative held its 86th annual meeting on Saturday, March 26, at Upper Valley Career Center in Piqua, and streaming online. The hybrid event featured an innovative digital scavenger hunt to engage new member segments. Member feedback from the event was overwhelmingly positive with many commenting on the hybrid setup, brief business meeting, and fun digital engagement.
The meeting was led by Terrence Householder, Board of Trustees chair, who presented an overview of the cooperative’s accomplishments in 2021. Householder focused on Pioneer’s local communities highlighting safety, broadband, Pioneer’s new strategic initiatives, large projects, and ongoing system maintenance. He announced $2,653,005 capital credit returns to current and former members in 2021. He also noted that members were awarded $62,000 in residential rebates and $8,000 was awarded from Pioneer’s scholarship program.
Ron Salyer, president and CEO, gave a management update. He praised the Pioneer employees for their work throughout the year including 475 work orders completed, 2,668 service orders done, 668 outages restored, 410 miles of trees trimmed, and 533,760 miles driven without an at-fault vehicle accident. Salyer also talked about Pioneer’s continuing efforts to provide high-quality, responsive service. Proactive investments in system maintenance, technology innovations, and built-in backup systems all resulted in Pioneer achieving the lowest outage minutes, including major storms, in eight years. The update also included a conversation about fair prices.
Salyer noted that Pioneer only charges for the cost of doing business and that there is no revenue for 3rd party shareholders. An overview of Buckeye Power, generation, transmission, and distribution was provided before a video presentation from Patrick O’Loughlin, president and CEO of Ohio’s Electric Cooperatives. In closing, Salyer echoed Householder’s excitement for projects and initiatives in 2022 and beyond.
Results of this year’s Pioneer Board of Trustees election:
For Pioneer Board of Trustees in Champaign County, Mark Bailey
For Pioneer Board of Trustees in Miami County, Colleen Eidemiller
For Pioneer Board of Trustees in Shelby County, John Goettemoeller
For Champaign County Board:
Geographical Area No. 1, Bill Tullis
Geographical Area No. 2, Dan Beasley
Geographical Area No. 3, Keith Perdue
Geographical Area No. 4, Roland Himes, Jr.
For Miami County Board:
Geographical Area No. 5, John Probst
Geographical Area No. 6, Kimberly Cope
Geographical Area No. 7, Robert Zimmerman
Geographical Area No. 8, James Henry
For Shelby County Board:
Geographical Area No. 9, Bernard L. Zircher
Geographical Area No. 10, Bill Clark
Geographical Area No. 11, Paul Swartz
Geographical Area No. 12, Randy N. Caudill
Pioneer Electric Cooperative is a not-for-profit, consumer-owned electric distribution utility headquartered in Piqua,
