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For 85 years, Farmers RECC (Farmers Rural Electric Cooperative Corporation) has been powering the region, and the cooperative’s lasting sustained efforts has created a legacy, and an undeniable, positive footprint in the region. In the late 1930s a group of farmers who wanted to bring electricity to the rural areas in the community worked together, and Farmers RECC was born.
“We started with the mission to provide reliable energy prices, as a not-for-profit entity,” said Caralyne Pennington, Director, Member and head of Public Communications.
In 1938, the first substation was located in Barren County in the community of Goodnight.
From there, the need for electricity grew and the cooperative grew along with it.
These days, Farmers RECC services portions of 11 counties. Longtime CEO Bill Prather retired, and Toby Moss was hired in January of this year as the new CEO. The entity is governed by a board of elected officials, who go through the election process each year.
“Barren, Hart, Metcalfe are the core of those eleven counties. We have a little over 26,000 meters, and 3,700 miles of lines. We have 65,000 poles,” Pennington said.
Employees of Farmers RECC prepare to help the community in a time of need.
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Over the past eight decades the cooperative’s dedication to service and excellence has never changed, but technology changed through the years drastically.
“Electricity has certainly changed, but how we deliver power has not changed. Our system has become a lot more technologically apt. We have automated metering, and we can now pinpoint power outages through that infrastructure, to hopefully restore power more quickly,” Pennington said.
Farmers RECC has located satellite warehouses in the three main counties, putting supplies in closer proximity to where linemen are working.
“The way people can report outages has also changed,” said Pennington.
In addition to calling in outages, which people can still do, they can report a power outage via the mobile app, and the website.
There are currently about 60 full time employees; they are also cooperative members.
No task is too big or too small when it comes to keeping the people of South Central Kentucky powered.
Although Barren, Hart and Metcalfe are the three main counties in the service area, Farmers RECC serves parts of eleven local counties.
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“We pride ourselves on being an important part of the community, we love it,” Pennington said.
“Our employees volunteer and do community service. We have school board members, volunteer firefighters, and Chambers of Commerce members. We have everything from people who volunteer with CASA to people who coach little league. We are happy do that, because
that’s one of the tenants of the cooperative business model, and it is part of our strength,” Pennington said.
Another strength exhibited by the cooperative also lies in the nature of what a cooperative is.
Crew members for the Farmers RECC Cooperative work tirelessly around the clock to restore power to members.
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“When a situation like the severe weather in March happens, or just this week, we can rely on our cooperative for mutual aid. Crews came from Florida and South Carolina. When our embers are all cared for, we can also extend help to cooperative members. That helps us with our reliability. We also work together to accomplish things. Our CEO was in the lunchroom making sandwiches for the crew,” Pennington said.
To learn more about Farmers RECC, visit their website here.
They also invite everyone in the community to attend their annual meeting, July 11, 5:30 – 8pm. Entertainment will be provided by Rockland Road. There will be an electric vehicle display, free buckets and energy saving LED bulbs to attendants, cash prices and a drawing for $100 gift cards. They will also draw for the Farmers RECC Scholarship.
Farmers RECC employs approximately 60 full time employees.
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