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Currents Suwannee Valley

PLANNING AHEAD

SVEC starts second year of its three-year work plan

APRIL 2025

CANAVERAL NATIONAL SEASHORE Enjoy the beauty and wildlife of pristine beaches AROUND THE COMMUNITY A successful blanket drive, your Youth Tour delegates and more

CEO’S MESSAGE

Building a plan for tomorrow

Suwannee Valley

Currents April 2025

It is no secret that keeping the lights on takes a lot of work every day. Everyone at Suwannee Valley Electric Cooperative is dedicated to that mission, from our member service representatives answering questions to the crews maintaining lines and clearing vegetation. But keeping more than 4,000 miles of line healthy and in working order requires more than simply tackling outages as they come our way. It also takes foresight to anticipate the challenges ahead. That might mean investing in technology to make our system more reliable and efficient for years to come or preparing to distribute even more power as our community grows. That’s why SVEC establishes construction work plans that look three years into the future. By modeling how our system will look in the years ahead, we can design an informed roadmap for what projects our cooperative Executive VP/CEO MICHAEL S. MCWATERS will need to start working on now to remain ready when challenges arise. In this newsletter, you can read more about our current plan and some of the goals we are working toward. SVEC is currently in year two of our three-year plan. Even with the setbacks of last year’s storms, we are making strong progress toward meeting goals to expand service, make our system more efficient and improve the reliability of the service you depend on. With so many unavoidable surprises, having these plans in place helps SVEC avoid unnecessary ones and keep the long-term cost of these projects manageable for our consumer-members. I hope you will all take a look to see what the next two years hold for our construction teams. You can also find some photos of our leadership brushing shoulders with the governor at this year’s Legislative Cookout for Florida electric cooperatives, as well as coverage of the blanket drive for United Way of Suwannee Valley’s Homeless Coalition. I hope you will also join us in congratulating this year’s Youth Tour delegates, Lydia Gunter and Kambry Mosley, who will be representing SVEC in Washington, D.C., this summer. Finally, mark your calendars for a couple of important safety events SVEC will be participating in next month. We will be joining Suwannee County Emergency Management’s Hurricane Preparedness Event on May 7 and hosting a storm safety presentation on May 19. Find more information on the next page, and be sure to join us to make sure you’re ready when hurricane season arrives. Whether it is for our household or our entire community, having a plan in place keeps us from being caught flat-footed when the unexpected arrives. As an SVEC consumer-member, you can rest assured that we are always prepared, even when the strong winds start to blow. Until next month, it is always our privilege to serve you. ■

2 | APRIL 2025

WE BELONG TO THOSE WE SERVE Business Office: 800-447-4509 11340 100th St. Live Oak, FL 32060 Lobby Hours: 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Monday-Friday Drive-thru Kiosk: Open 24 Hours 24/7 Power Outage Reporting: 800-752-0025 svec-coop.com facebook.com/sveccoop Instagram.com/sveccoop SVEC is an equal opportunity provider and employer. On the cover: SVEC lineworkers use their body weight and strength to ensure proper pole placement. Projects like replacing old power poles keep SVEC’s system reliable but also require careful planning. Read more on Page 4.

Suwannee Valley Currents

SVEC NEWS

Hurricane Preparedness Day Join SVEC and Suwannee County Emergency Management on Wednesday, May 7, in the Walmart parking lot for some important information on how to get ready for Hurricane Season.

Wednesday, May 7 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Walmart parking lot, 6868 U.S. Highway 129 in Live Oak

Storm safety presentation SVEC is hosting a storm safety presentation at the Branford Public Library on May 19. Join us to learn more about how to prepare yourself, your family and your home for severe weather this hurricane season.

Monday, May 19 5:30 p.m. Branford Public Library, 703 Suwannee Ave. NW

MEMORIAL DAY The SVEC office will be closed on Monday, May 26, in observance of Memorial Day. The 24-hour outage-reporting system will still be available, as will the drive-thru payment kiosk. Crews will be standing by to restore power if needed. Suwannee Valley Currents

IS AVAILABLE NOW!

Fast, reliable and affordable Rapid Fiber Internet service is now available throughout much of SVEC’s service area. Find your zone by entering your address into the search tool on the Project Info page at rapid-fiber.com to see if fiber service is available in your neighborhood today! APRIL 2025 | 3

Full steam ahead SVEC begins second phase of construction work plan

Every three years, Suwannee Valley Electric Cooperative makes a construction work plan that guides all long-term building projects. The goal is to create a roadmap that will ensure the cooperative has the resources to quickly add a new service when consumer-members need it, maintain the high quality of service they are used to and improve reliability wherever possible. “Planning in the present averts emergencies in the future,” says SVEC Director of Engineering Kurt Miller. “If you don’t have a plan and you’re reacting to everything as it comes, that’s not a good situation. Particularly for large projects.” The cooperative’s engineers model the system to get a picture of how much capacity, voltage and range it will need in the coming years. With those considerations in mind, they can start prioritizing improvements and maintenance that will keep the system performing at the high levels our consumermembers expect. “This kind of planning is really a good thing because otherwise we would be reacting a lot,” Miller says. “We’d rather plan for something that could happen in the future than find out it’s happening now and it’s going to take eight months to fix it. We don’t want to be in that position.” Despite a challenging 2024 storm season that slowed down construction plans, SVEC is now in year two of the current work plan and making great strides toward the goals it set one year ago. Learn more about those goals and the price of building a reliable electric system. ■ 4 | APRIL 2025

Suwannee Valley Currents

2024-26 PLAN GOALS ► Expand automation with eight new

► Install 2,154 service connections:

circuits and other monitoring: Add smart technology to parts of the electrical system to detect and fix issues faster.

Deliver electricity to new homes, businesses and other buildings.

► Maintain power quality and reliability:

Implement system improvements, like substation capacity upgrades, to ensure a steady and dependable electric supply with fewer outages or voltage issues.

► Improve main power lines with smart

► Reduce energy waste: Make the system

miles of old power lines and upgrade older copper wires to better, more efficient materials.

more efficient with volt-ampere reactive resources and remote alarms to alert to inefficiencies so that less electricity is lost as it travels through power lines.

fault indicators: Install these devices to help quickly find and fix power outages.

► Upgrade infrastructure: Replace 64

► Replace 2,196 utility poles: Swap out

aging poles with new ones to improve safety and reliability.

TOTAL WORK PLAN COST SVEC only invests time and money in a project if it will have a clear benefit for consumermembers. Below is a breakdown of what each part of the three-year work plan costs. NEW CONSTRUCTION: for new services, transformers and meters. SYSTEM IMPROVEMENTS: for upgrades like automated metering and outage reporting, substation capacity improvements and reliability projects. SYSTEM MAINTENANCE: for poles, conductors and grounding upgrades. Suwannee Valley Currents

$12,660,089 NEW CONSTRUCTION

$16,709,751 SYSTEM IMPROVEMENTS

TOTAL: $38,347,127

$8,977,287 SYSTEM MAINTENANCE

APRIL 2025 | 5

RECIPE and SAFETY

Apricot-Cinnamon Coffee Cake INGREDIENTS

2½ cups flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon baking soda ½ teaspoon salt 1 cup brown sugar ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg 1 cup chopped pecans 1 cup finely chopped dried apricots 1 cup sugar

2 sticks butter, softened 3 eggs 2½ teaspoons vanilla ½ cup sour cream Drizzle: 1 cup powdered sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla 2 teaspoons butter, softened 2-3 tablespoons half-and-half Zest of 1 lemon

DIRECTIONS Generously butter inside of an angel food cake pan. Set aside. Preheat oven to 350 F. In medium bowl, stir brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and pecans together. Split mixture in half. In one half, stir in chopped apricots. In another medium bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt until blended. In large mixing bowl, mix sugar and butter until blended. Add eggs and vanilla until mixture is just incorporated and no lumps appear. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture in two additions until blended. Add sour cream. Batter will be thick. Spoon half of the cake batter into cake pan, sprinkle brown sugarapricot mixture around top and spoon on the rest of the cake batter. Top with reserved brown sugar-pecan mixture. Bake for 30 minutes. Reduce heat to 300 F and continue baking for an additional 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool cake in pan on cooling rack. When cooled, gently loosen outer edge of cake with knife. Invert pan to remove onto serving plate. For drizzle, mix powdered sugar, vanilla and butter until crumbs form. Add enough half-and-half to form drizzle consistency. Drizzle cake and sprinkle with zest. ■

Safety first Electricity powers modern life, but it can be dangerous if not handled carefully. Check back here each month for new tips on how to stay safe around electric power at your home or business. Even if you are not using an electric device, safety should still be a priority. Proper handling of electric devices and wiring can help you avoid future safety issues. • Unplugging an appliance that’s not

being used saves money and protects it from overheating or power surges. • If an appliance’s socket is hard to reach, consider investing in a smart plug or extension bar. • Store small electric appliances and unused cables in a safe place.

• Avoid wrapping cables around objects like a hair dryer or laptop. This can stretch the cable and lead to overheating. • Never leave an electric cable, even one that is unplugged, on a hot surface. It can damage the insulation and the wiring inside.

To learn more about building safe electric habits, click the Outages & Safety tab on the SVEC website, svec-coop.com, and follow us on social media.

6 | APRIL 2025

/sveccoop

@sveccoop

Suwannee Valley Currents

Canaveral National Seashore romances the senses

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

BY VISIT FLORIDA STAFF The Canaveral National Seashore, near the Kennedy Space Center, comprises nearly 58,000 acres. Florida’s largest national seashore is also the nation’s fourth largest. Get there via New Smyrna Beach and Titusville. You can fish, hike, go boating, watch wildlife, go horseback riding, absorb Florida history, hear nature lectures and go hunting in season. Officials have recorded 1,045 plant species and 310 bird species. The seashore is home to 14 wildlife species on federal threatened or endangered lists. Among them are sea turtles, manatees, bald eagles, wood storks, peregrine falcons, indigo snakes and scrub jays. The wildlife is part of the romance. Every year, for example, the seashore is home to the annual cycle of the sea turtles. If you are lucky, you might spy a turtle or its telltale tracks. Turtle watches take place during June and July. Call the park for details.

Suwannee Valley Currents

If you are even luckier, you might spy a jaguarundi. These otter-like cats are not Florida natives, but park lore says at least one of the creatures roams the area. A photo of one of the exotics is posted in a park information center. A favorite among visitors is the 6-mile Black Point Wildlife Drive, a winding road with stops to gaze over woods and wetlands, where birds wade and bob and, if they tire of human intrusion, flap away. This drive is part of the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, adjacent to the seashore. It is difficult to visit this undeveloped shore without feeling like you’re traveling through time. The Timucua, one of Florida’s indigenous tribes, stood on this beach centuries ago. The Spanish, French and British colonists stepped ashore on beaches much like this one. Timucuan mounds take you further into the past. If your timing is right, you might see an archaeological dig taking

Visitors can get a pass to the shore for $15-$25.

place at Castle Windy, a midden dating at least to 1300 A.D. Turtle Mound reaches back to the same era, and a wooden walkway elevates visitors toward a panoramic view of the Atlantic and Mosquito Lagoon, the latter aptly named during certain months. Bring repellant. Parts of another mound, called Seminole Rest, may be as much as 4,000 years old. More recent history includes the 19th-century settlement of Eldora. It once was a village of 200 people who grew citrus, indigo, pineapple and other agricultural products. It served as a steamboat stop before the railroad arrived. It also was the site of a government “house of refuge” for shipwrecked mariners. The village expired around 1975, but one house has been restored and is open to the public. ■

APRIL 2025 | 7

SVEC IN THE COMMUNITY Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis met with leaders from Florida Electric Cooperatives during the annual legislative cookout in Tallahassee.

Legislative Cookout SVEC, along with other Florida electric cooperatives, met with Gov. Ron DeSantis and state legislators during the Legislative Cookout and Rural County Days. We are grateful for the continued support of our elected officials in recognizing and advocating for the vital role electric cooperatives play in serving our communities across Florida.

PHOTOS COURTESTY OF CHRISTY TUCKEY/SVEC

External Affairs Manager Katelyn Barrington, second from right, smiles with executives representing Lafayette and Hamilton counties during Rural Counties Day at the Florida Capitol.

Warm gestures

SVEC CEO Mike McWaters takes a break with SVEC’s cooking team for the Legislative Cookout. From left are McWaters, Austin Long, Daniel Warren, Raymond Poole, Evan Skeen, Jimmy Williams and Jerrad Boles.

Thank you to everyone who donated to the blanket drive benefitting United Way of Suwannee Valley's Homeless Coalition. Your generosity will help provide warmth and comfort to those in need right here in our community.

Congratulations to our Youth Tour delegates! Congratulations to Lydia Gunter, of Suwannee High School, and Kambry Mosley, of Lafayette High School, for being selected to represent SVEC and the great state of Florida at the National Electric Cooperative Youth Tour in Washington, D.C., this summer! 8 | APRIL 2025

Lydia Gunter Suwannee High School

Kambry Mosley Lafayette High School

Suwannee Valley Currents