Ozark Border annual meeting Friday

Ozark Border Electric Cooperative officials are expecting a simple day Friday at the 84th Annual Membership Meeting, which will be held at the cooperative’s headquarters.

The annual meeting will begin with drive-thru registration and voting from 7 a.m. until 2 p.m. and will conclude with the business meeting at 2:30 p.m.

Only one district has a race this year and General Manager/CEO David Schremp said, “we don’t have any bylaw changes or anything like that being voted on.”

In District 2, Tom Rankin of Poplar Bluff petitioned to run against incumbent Judy Lunsford of Poplar Bluff.

The nominating committee proposed the incumbents who are: District 1, Jordan Collins of Ellsinore; District 2, Lunsford; District 3, Bill Hager of Harviell; and District 4, Greg Lintz of Dexter.

Each member who registers will receive an automatic $20 bill credit. Attendance prizes will be given away to cooperative members after voting and registration are finished. Members must register in person to vote and to be eligible for the prize drawings; however, you do not have to be present during the drawing to win. The prize drawing and business meeting will be streamed live on the cooperative’s Facebook page.

The cooperative mailed an annual meeting registration form to each member on July 22.

Schremp said, “We’ve had a few people that have called us and said, ‘why, haven’t I received mine.’ It’s not an issue. They have to have a valid ID so we can confirm who they are, and we can look it up.”

The registration form allows each member to vote for Board of Director candidates and to be included in the drawing for attendance prizes. The cooperative by-laws and Missouri statutes prohibit voting by proxy; therefore, people will need to attend in person to register and vote. Someone else cannot register for another member. Only the member or their spouse may register and vote at the meeting.