At the 69th New Hampshire Electric Cooperative annual meeting of Members, board members said the Cooperative is in good financial shape and is looking toward further improving the financial situation and customer service in the future.

State Senator Deborah Reynolds, (D-Plymouth), addressed the members and read a Senate resolution, recognizing the Cooperative on their recent success and awards.

Reynolds said that as both an Electric Cooperative member and a State Senator who represents many other Electric Cooperative members, she was delighted to be at the meeting Saturday.

"I'm proud to be here to honor many of the Cooperative's accomplishments," Reynolds said, noting that the Cooperative won the 2008 Community Service Award from the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.

Dave Talbot, treasurer, said the New Hampshire Electric Cooperative is in the best equity position in its 69 year history.

"We have really strengthened the economic conditions of the Electric Co-op," Talbot said.

Talbot said the Cooperative's equity to asset ratio in 2007 was 21.2 percent, the highest it had ever been and it now currently stands at closer to 23 percent.

Earl Hansen, chairman of the Cooperative's board of directors, discussed efforts to seek out sources of renewable energy.

Hansen said that the board has a goal of having 25 percent of the Cooperative's energy being produced by alternative energy sources by the year 2025, and the organization has made good progress on meeting that goal.

Hansen talked about the advantages and disadvantages to alternate energy sources such as wind and solar power, and he noted that the company is planning to get some its energy from wind farms in Maine Massachusetts in the near future.

Also the meeting, Hansen revealed the results of the election, in which 12,842 votes were cast, and announced that two incumbents and a newcomer was named to the company's board of directors.

After running unsuccessfully as a petition candidate six times over the past several years, Plymouth resident Bob Reals broke through this year, winning election to the Board as the top vote-getter with 7,247 votes.

Finishing was incumbent Board member Gail Paine of Intervale, who received 6,409 votes and the third open seat was won by fellow incumbent Chip Kimball of Sandwich, who got 5,781 votes.

The Reals, Paine and Kimball beat out two petition candidates – Daniel Barraford of Barnstead and Carol Friedrich of Wentworth – and a third candidate, Samuel Brickley of Holderness, who was nominated by the Cooperative's Voting Committee. Barraford received 5,443 votes; Friedrich, 5,232 and Brickley, 5,038.

The winner of a pickup truck that was awarded to one member who returned his or her ballot to the Co-op was announced a the meetings end. Arthur Morrill of Meredith was selected in a drawing to receive the Dodge Dakota pickup truck that is being retired from the Co-op fleet.

The New Hampshire Electric Cooperative is a member-owned, not-for-profit electric distribution cooperative serving over 80,000 members in 115 New Hampshire communities.