CEO’s Message: Empowered connections
In our part of the state, there can often be quite a bit of distance between neighbors. In the past, that distance defined what services would reach communities like ours and, just as likely, which ones did not.
It was that challenge that led to the founding of our cooperative in 1937, when electricity was transforming so many cities across the country. The new technology was lighting up streets at night, and electric appliances were beginning to change the patterns of everyday life. But beyond the city limits, many rural areas were left in the dark. So, communities like ours found their own solutions. With support from the federal Rural Electrification Act, neighbors pulled together to form cooperatives like SVEC. With local support and investment, we built a system that ensured our community would not be left behind. In the decades since, SVEC has carried on that mission by delivering safe and reliable electricity across the Suwannee Valley. But in recent years, it became clear that another essential service—highspeed internet—was following a similar pattern. While everyone can see how important a strong internet connection is in today’s world, I’ll admit that I had my reservations about our cooperative getting involved. After all, we take the work of maintaining and strengthening our electric system very seriously. Expanding into fiber internet felt like a significant step into unfamiliar territory. But the more we heard about the need for this service across our territory and looked into the possibilities for making a high-speed network a reality, the harder it got to deny the tremendous upside it could have for our community. Today, that build is very nearly complete, and I could not be prouder of everyone who made it happen. Despite major challenges, including recovery from four unprecedented storms, we still completed construction seven months ahead of schedule, with the exception of Advent Christian Village, where we are collaborating to provide service tailored to its unique layout. You can read more about that effort in this newsletter. In many ways, the completion of this network is a continuation of the promise those original consumer-members made almost 90 years ago. Just like they refused to let geography determine what opportunities were available to them, our community has once again worked together to build the infrastructure we need. Of course, this does not change SVEC’s fundamental mission. We will continue to focus our work every day on delivering the highest quality and most reliable electric service, just as our colleagues at Rapid Fiber will be busy maintaining and improving the fiber network. Still, I think it is worth taking a moment to recognize what we have achieved together. There truly is nothing that we cannot accomplish when we come together as a cooperative family. I believe this latest milestone is one SVEC’s founders would be proud of, and one future generations will appreciate for years to come.
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