Keeping our eyes on Rappahannock Electric Cooperative

For years Rappahannock Electric Cooperative has said it won’t deploy broadband all the way to residents’ homes. Meanwhile, other electric co-ops around the country have been doing just that, including Central Virginia Electric Co-op, which set up a wholly owned subsidiary that is bringing fiberoptic broadband to the homes of every single CVEC member who wants it. Electric co-ops are particularly well suited to this task because they own rights of way and poles that are needed to get broadband all the way to their members’ homes.

So it’s great to see REC is apparently now considering taking a step towards bringing broadband to Rappahannock County (Rappahannock News, May 7).

Just last August, at the customer-owned electric coop’s annual member meeting, REC president Kent Farmer stated flatly that REC will not be deploying broadband ber on the last mile to residents’ homes. REC’s website has not so far indicated that the coop will alter that position.

Yet it seems REC might now at least be considering inching closer to making rural broadband actually happen here. We don’t know for sure because REC holds its board meetings behind closed doors, leaving co-op member-owners in the dark as to what our well-paid board members are doing.

It helps to know the history behind all this. For if in fact REC is moving o of its earlier resistance to broadband deployment the co-op is responding to pressure from last year’s reform board candidates and the Repower REC campaign to improve the co-op. For that pressure to succeed, more REC member-owners will need to inform themselves and vote in board elections to support e orts like Repower REC to reform the co-op.

Last summer Dr. John Manzari ran for REC’s board of directors on a strongly pro-broadband platform. He sought to get REC to reverse its refusal to deploy broadband across that last mile to people’s doorsteps. If you look at the count of votes of REC members who selected a candidate, Manzari won the election. But as detailed on the RepowerREC.com website, Manzari still lost because of unfair REC election practices designed to give incumbent board members control over thousands of blank proxy ballots. The incumbent board used those blank proxies to keep Manzari o the board.

Many recent news articles describing other U.S. electric co-ops’ broadband deployment can be found at Facebook.com/ RepowerREC. The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association rightfully boasts that these other electric co-ops’ e orts are helping their communities right now, during the COVID crisis.

Let’s hope that someday REC too will bring broadband to its rural members so that NRECA can boast about that. That day will come sooner if rural residents work with Repower REC to keep the pressure on REC and ensure that our cooperative is truly democratic, so that rural residents’ voices are heard.