Tri-County Electric Cooperative has named its next General Manager as long-time current GM makes plans for retirement.
The current General Manager and 22-year employee of Clay County Electric Cooperative Luke Johnson will assume his duties on January third when Marsha Scott retires.
Johnson says raised in Illinois he has a genuine concern for and connection with the people served by Tri-County. He adds he is thrilled about the opportunity to work with the members and 49 full-time employees of the cooperative.
Johnson plans to relocate to the Tri-County service area where he says he has many friends and family connections in the Mt. Vernon area.
Johnson says there are many difficult issues and challenges ahead for the cooperatives in Illinois and together they will continue to work hard for the benefit of members.
Scott is completing 42 years at Tri-County Electric.
“It has been an honor and a privilege to serve the members of this cooperative. In my opinion, and it might be biased, Tri-County is an outstanding organization. We have a great group of directors and employees and I wish Luke well.”
Scott has seen a lot of changes over the years.
“The changes, wow. It really varies. When I started here in 1980 I started as a computer programmer and we were still on a punch card system. So technology has brought us very far. And the technology on the outside of our organization has changed as well. Our trucks and equipment are better, and of course, our employees are more technically savvy as well. It definitely has changed over the years.”
But Scott sees challenges ahead.
“We are in a time of change. From possible coal-fired power plants which are reliable, dependable and proven to new technologies which eventually may prove to be good. But moving to more intermittent sources of power in the form of renewables. Not that renewables are bad but intermittent is different than how the whole electric system has been built with these more dependable generating stations.”
The President of the Board of Directors Donnie Laird, on behalf of the board, is thanking Scott for her dedicated service to the membership and wishing her well in retirement.
The board selected Johnson following a thorough search conducted over many months. The board takes its fiduciary responsibility very seriously and interviewed some highly qualified candidates – ultimately selecting Johnson.
TCEC is a not-for-profit rural electric distribution cooperative serving 16,000
residential, agricultural, commercial, and industrial members primarily in Jefferson, Marion, and Washington counties in Illinois. TCEC is headquartered in Mt. Vernon and maintains a district office in Salem and an outpost in Nashville.