Dear fellow La Plata County residents:
My name is Kim Martin and I am running for the position of District 2 representative to the LPEA Board of Directors. My husband and I have lived in Marvel for 17 years and have been Grange members since 2002.
If elected, I will bring many years of board, business, governmental and not-for-profit experience to the LPEA Board. Currently, I serve on the Durango 9R School Board as the elected representative for a large portion of LPEA's District 2, as well as the Fort Lewis College Foundation Board. In La Plata County, I have also served on boards of directors for League of Women Voters, Tri-States Headstart, Rivergate Planned Development, and the advisory board for Music in the Mountains.
I am committed to using my work and board experience to:
Work to use the resources we have here in La Plata County as opposed to getting our electrical energy from coal mined in Wyoming. We can keep those jobs and that money here for our citizens rather than sending them off to other communities. We have sunshine and natural gas that can be captured and turned into electrical energy, irrigation ditches with enough gravity to support small hydro power and wind. Unless our LPEA Board of Directors actively looks for sources of clean energy, they probably will not be found. Our members deserve choices in the way they get their electrical power. Ensure fiscal responsibility and future-oriented management with a focus on transparency and careful attention to the ways your dollars are spent. Lower prices for LPEA customers with local, efficient, clean energy installations.Encourage member participation by reducing regulations and encouraging homeowner energy systems.It is very important that you vote! Since my opponent and I have quite different viewpoints about the future of energy procurement in La Plata County, and since traditionally only 20 to 25 percent of members vote, your vote will make a difference.
Ballots for this election have been mailed. You still have time to return them by mail, but they must be received by 4 p.m. Friday, May 12, so they must be mailed before May 9 to ensure timely delivery at the county clerk's office. Ballots may also be dropped off at LPEA's offices in Durango or Pagosa Springs, the La Plata County Administration office in downtown Durango, Farmer's Fresh in Ignacio and Bayfield Town Hall.
If not voting prior to the meeting, members can bring their ballots to the LPEA annual meeting at Sky Ute Casino and Resort in Ignacio on May 13. Registration for the annual meeting is free and begins at 9 a.m., with the business meeting to commence at 10:30 a.m. Any member voting at the annual meeting must do so prior to 10:30 a.m. If you have questions about the election, go to http://www.lpea.coop or call 247-5786.
Kim Martin
Hesperus
