Sally Newkirk, a 27-year Rockingham County resident, real estate broker, and community volunteer, is running for the Rockingham County seat on Shenandoah Valley Electric Cooperative Board of Directors.
Newkirk pledges to:
• Find solutions to aid members who have trouble paying their electric bill.
• Improve the resiliency and stability of SVEC’s grid through alternative, affordable energy technologies.
• Promote Broadband Internet access to SVEC’s rural members who lack it.
Newkirk recognizes that these are challenging times. Around 8,000 SVEC members already have a difficult time paying their utility bills and must often choose between rent, food, medicine or heat/electricity.
Through her work on affordable housing with her local Realtor Association, she understands that one aspect of affordable housing is a lower energy burden.
“As a major economic stakeholder in our region, SVEC has the power and responsibility to make energy supply decisions that best serve our residents, especially in these trying times,” Newkirk says. “As your SVEC director, and neighbor, I will work to ensure that SVEC decisions support economic development, local control, and affordable rates.”
Right now, SVEC members are learning to work from home, educate their children at a distance, and conduct other kinds of business online, including tele-medical consultations. Newkirk recognizes these services require high-speed internet that a lot of members don’t have access to.
Other Virginia electric cooperatives are bringing broadband to their members. As a director, Newkirk would work to lead SVEC in that direction.
Ballots will be mailed to all SVEC customers in the July Cooperative Living magazine.
More on her campaign is available online at newkirkforsvec.com and on Facebook.
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