Best wishes to each and every member for Health, Happiness and Prosperity in the New Year!

PLEASE NOTE: I hereby beg your pardon for the delay in the distribution of our weekly newsletter as we have just (TODAY) regained access after an unanticipated software update over the holidays. I will process and distribute newsletters for each week that was missed as soon as possible.

A New View on the Horizon

The club welcomed Sherry Kunka from Sharyland Utility last Thursday. Sharyland originated in 1999 for the express purpose of serving a 6,000-acre real estate development in South Texas. Today, the company operates as part of the Southwest Power Pool within the Competitive Renewable Energy Zone (CREZ) serving thousands of retail customers across 26 Texas counties.

As Sherry tells it, the concept is simple because wind represents a reliable source of energy. There are a total of 5 wind zones in Texas and, brace yourself, the panhandle is home to the top 2. The company's focus is to capture the energy, store it and then transmit it to collection stations around the state.

This 5 billion dollar CREZ transmission project represents a significant long-term economic impact to communities along the proposed routes for transmission lines in the form of jobs, sub-contracting opportunities, sales taxes and ad valorem taxes. This is slow, unique and risky work requiring assistance from staff hovering above the work site in helicopters. Built-in redundancy translates into fewer incidents of weather-related outages. Once in place, the transmission lines will require ongoing operation and maintenance.

Currently, steel lattice towers are crossing I-27 at Tulia with an average of 4 to 5 towers per mile and the company has just opened an Operations Center in Amarillo, thereby increasing our direct benefit from this incredible undertaking. To date, over 22,000 tons of steel, alone, has been railed into Amarillo from suppliers around the country. From here, it is then trucked out to work sites or to one of the collection stations. The journey is similar for concrete, wire and countless other materials utilized in the construction and maintenance of transmission lines. The company has plans to build substations in Herford, Nazareth, White Deer, Silverton and a fifth one known as Cottonwood.

Also noteworthy is that, while designed for wind generation, the CREZ transmission lines are classified as open transmission lines and can be easily modified to transmit other sources of energy, such as gas. The company receives and processes interconnection requests from other providers on a regular basis. When asked about Excel, Sherry informed us that there is currently no interconnection with Excel, which operates within a competing electric council. However, Sharyland Utility maintains an excellent relationship with their competitor and they continue to work with the common interests of Texans at heart. There is no person better qualified than Sherry to promote this ongoing relationship as she joined forces with Sharyland only after having spent 20+ years at Excel. Thank you, Sherry, for an enlightening us with the details of this exciting project!

The club received a Christmas card and letter from the staff at Boys Ranch. Club President, Renee Wilson, relayed the message of love and gratitude to everyone who made a contribution to the annual gift.

Thank you to everyone who worked to facilitate the weekly meeting including:

Gina Rodriguez, Dale Bippus, Basil Walker, Renee Wilson, Doyle Moore, Julie Ontiveros and Mark Haworth. Melvin Edes and David Johnson provided meaningful prizes for the foundation drawing and we appreciate the two of you!