Kincaid, Burchell retain MEA board seats

PALMER – In a relatively tame election night – at least as compared to previous years – incumbents on the Matanuska Electric Association’s board of directors retained their seats Tuesday.

…Retired educator Peter Burchell and board vice president and businesswoman Janet Kincaid were the top two vote getters in this installment of the annual election. Challenger Bill Folsom failed in his bid to unseat one or the other of them.

…Also on the ballot were a raft of by-law changes, all of which passed handily. The most interesting of them paved the way for MEA to round up utility bills to the nearest dollar and use the excess for charitable giving.

The program, called Round Up, exists already but is the sort of thing members have to choose to join. The bylaw change makes it O.K. for MEA to make the program something customers have to opt out of. Though the by-law change is moot unless the Legislature approves House Bill 114.

Aside from a call for MEA to support Native corporation CIRI’s quest to build a wind farm on Fire Island, the “Member Comments” section of the meeting was dominated with quotidian concerns – a request for better food than popcorn and ice cream at annual meetings, a question about where to buy high-tech light bulbs.

…That stands in marked contrast to previous years, in which the meeting was often used as a place to air grievances and take MEA employees or board members or both to task for various things.