Thanks for all the great years

Here we are at the end of the year and the end of my career at Little River. I have been proud to serve you for 47½ years. I have always felt that LREC has provided great service to our members. Each job and person here is a vital part of the delivery of energy to your residence, businesses, churches, and schools.

Working as a lineman for many years was hard work. I put in many long hours restoring service to our cooperative and members of many other cooperatives during ice storms, hurricanes, and other storm-related major outages. The work was rewarding; it was a job well done after all the members’ service was restored.

I am thankful to F. W. Brown, Little River’s first General Manager, for giving me the opportunity to work for such a great organization. I didn’t realize at that time that one day I would step into the role of General Manager. I can truly say that this has been the most stressful of any of the roles I’ve had here in my career but I’m appreciative of the chance to work for you, the members, and the employees of LREC in a whole different way.

I feel we have made many great accomplishments. Little River is in great shape financially, our right-of-way has been returned to a 5-year cycle, our maintenance of all equipment in the field is on a schedule set forth by Rural Utilities Service, and, most importantly, we’ve made the safety of the employees and members our first priority.

We have the smallest workforce in the state compared to the other 19 electric cooperatives. Although we may be small, the employees here are very skilled and dedicated to their positions and the membership. Each of them goes above and beyond to fulfill all the needs required to keep the cooperative going. I have great confidence that Little River will continue to be the great cooperative that it’s always been, under the new leadership.

New leadership

My congratulations to Little River’s next General Manager, Jeff Lewis. Mr. Lewis comes to Little River with numerous years of experience in the electric cooperative industry. He has been employed with Central Electric Cooperative, our power provider as well as for the other 19 cooperatives in the state, for over 20 years. I hope that he has as great an experience at Little River as I had.

Thanks for all the great years at Little River. I feel that it is in great hands to carry on.

Happy holidays!

I want to wish all our membership and my family at LREC a Happy Thanksgiving and a Merry Christmas. In observance of the holidays, our office will be closed Thursday and Friday, Nov. 25–26; Friday, Dec. 24; Monday, Dec. 27; and Friday, Dec. 31.

MIKE ELLIS
General Manager