Lamar Electric Cooperative has announced the six $1,000 scholarship winners that were drawn at the Co-op Annual Members Meeting on Saturday, April 17th.  The winners are Kendall Stephens, Ashley Trenchard, Kallan Barber all of North Lamar High School, Gabe Purviance of Rivercrest High School, Blake Ballard of Prairiland High School and Kourtnie Stringer of Detroit High School.

The six winners can use their scholarship at any accredited university, college, junior college, technical school, or any other post-secondary educational institution of their choice.

Kendall is the daughter of Paul and Shannon Stephens of Reno, Ashley is the daughter of Louis and Kim Trenchard of the Faught Community, Kallan is the son of Clint and Kacie Barber of the Paris, Gabe is the son of Jim and Stephanie Purviance of the Cuthand Community, Blake is the son of Jeff and Patti Ballard of the Blossom Community, and Kourtnie is the daughter of Justin and Tanya Stringer of the Dimple Community.

The money used for these scholarships is from unclaimed deposits or refunds from our members. The law allows Lamar Electric to use a portion of these funds for scholarships, otherwise the money is turned over to the state. Each member can still file a claim with the state of Texas for unclaimed checks.

The past 22 years, Lamar Electric has awarded $86,000 in scholarships to local high school seniors. We are so very proud of each and every student.  W encourage every co-op member to take this opportunity to submit the name of your son or daughter next year.

America’s electric cooperatives have designated the second Monday of April as National Lineman Appreciation Day.

So on April 12 this year, Lamar Electric Cooperative will honor the dedicated people who often work in challenging conditions to keep the lights on. Connecting a new member, restoring power after inclement weather and keeping your lights on is all in a day’s work for our hardworking line crews.

They go through long hours of field training and classroom work to understand how our electrical delivery system works so that when there is a problem, they’ll know how to fix it. Fixing outages often means going out in tough conditions, often at odd hours, to tackle potentially dangerous problems to keep our community powered.

Their dedication and sacrifice should be celebrated and appreciated.

To mark Lineman Appreciation Day, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association in 2015 unanimously adopted this resolution:

“Whereas linemen leave their families and put their lives on the line every day to keep the power on; Whereas linemen work 365 days a year under dangerous conditions to build, maintain and repair the electric infrastructure; Whereas linemen are the first responders of the electric cooperative family, getting power back on and making things safe for all after storms and accidents, and; Whereas there would be no electric cooperatives without the brave men and women who comprise our corps of linemen;

“Therefore be it resolved that NRECA recognize the second Monday of April of each year as National Lineman Appreciation Day … to recognize the contributions of these valuable men and women to America’s electric cooperatives.”

Co-ops everywhere proudly acknowledge all electric linemen for the services they perform around the clock in dangerous conditions to keep power flowing and protect the public’s safety.

We invite our members to take a moment and thank a lineman for the important work they do. You can use the hashtag #ThankALineman to show your support on social media, or even better, tell the next lineman you see how grateful you are for the men and women who power our lives.

LINEMAN APPRECIATION DAY

April 12

When you find yourself in the dark, we’ve got your back.

Lamar Electric Cooperative

A contractor for Lamar Electric is replacing wooden utility poles in the rural areas of Lamar County beginning mid-March. Land owners may see the RTF Project Services, LLC contractors replacing poles in their pasture or back yard. The contractor’s trucks will have an RTF logo on each door, the RTF employees will be wearing bright colored vests and hard hats with the RTF name. RTF has leased a couple of trucks from NESCO and those trucks have the NESCO logo.

The RTF Contractor’s will be working in the southern and western parts of Lamar County which include the Reno, Novice, Faught, Blossom, Powderly and Pin Hook areas, including East of Minter in the areas of Brushy Creek, Rugby, South of Bogata and Cunningham

Depending on climate and soil conditions, utility poles can last 50 years or longer when pressure-treated with a preservative to protect against rot, fungi and insects. Lamar Electric inspects and re-treats approximately 5,000 poles every year.

If you should have any questions about RTF or their work, please contact Lamar Electric at 903-784-4303.

Minter Metering Point – Brushy Creek, Rugby, Bogata, Cunningham areas

Powderly, Reno, Novice, Faught, Blossom, Pin Hook areas

Lamar Electric Cooperative headquarters will open its new doors Monday, January 25th. The new site is located just west of Blossom, Texas on U.S. Highway 82, and is more central to many of our rural members.  The physical address is 5225 U.S. Highway 82 E, Blossom, Texas 75416. The Co-op will continue to use the P.O. Box 580, Paris, Texas 75461 for all mail items. The Drop Box will continue at the Paris location until February 26th then will close permanently. The hours will continue to be 8 A.M. to 5 P.M. Monday thru Friday.

The new building is a free-standing metal structure with brick and Texas stone on the front portion and sheet metal on the back side. The 14,000 square foot office building has a drive-thru lane that features a drive-up drawer instead of the previous tube for transacting business. This will allow better eye contact and easier communication with our cooperative members.  Highway 82 has a turning lane providing easier access for members to drive to the front of the building.  The entrance with the large sign is the member entrance. This entrance provides one lane for driving in and a separate exit lane.  The front door and meeting room is accessible without going through a gate or going behind a fence.

There is plenty of parking in front of the building for members. The building is completely ADA compliant with handicapped parking close to the front door.

The 4,000 square foot meeting room will hold about 250 people.  The meeting room is a benefit provided to our members free of charge other than a cleaning fee. Members will be able to use the meeting room for such things as birthday parties, baby showers, wedding receptions, anniversary celebrations and family reunions. The room can be reserved by a Co-op member who agrees to be responsible for supervising the event and be financially responsible for any damage done.

We look forward to seeing you!

Employees of Osmose Utilities Services have been hired to inspect and treat some of our utility poles.  Each Osmose employee will be wearing a hard hat and safety vest that identify them as Osmose employees.  Each vehicle will also be marked with the Osmose logo.

Lamar Electric has this inspection and treatment performed on several thousand of our distribution poles each year.  Inspection of poles is a critical action that allows for safer operations as well as reduced costs, allowing Lamar Electric to better manage the factors that determine pole performance and strength.  Identifying bad or weak poles in advance of failure allows for optimum conditions for replacement or repair and improves system reliability.

The employees of Osmose will be working in your area over the next few days inspecting and treating poles. The areas include electricity supplied from the Reno Substation to Reno, Mae Hill Road, Pinhook, E. Manchester, Blossom, Detroit and Kiomatia areas. Osmose is a very reputable company and its employees will show the utmost respect to you and your property.  Please extend the same courtesies to Osmose personnel as is given to Lamar Electric employees.

The pole inspection process involves using a hammer to “sound test” the pole, digging around the pole with a shovel, drilling inspections hole(s), wrapping the ground line area of the pole with a protective wrap, and backfilling the hole.

If you should have any questions about Osmose or their work, please feel free to call Scott Sansom at 903-783-4916 (Direct Line) or main line at 903-784-4303.

Thank you for your cooperation and assistance.