Two trustees were elected to their first term and a third trustee was re-elected to his third term on the North Central Board of Trustees at the 79th annual meeting held June 9 at the Seneca County Fairgrounds in Tiffin. 

There was little suspense, as all three races were uncontested. In accordance with the cooperative’s Code of Regulations, Randy Armstrong, Steve Seitz and Ron Frisch were deemed elected. If all three races are uncontested, the code states the cooperative does not need to go to the expense of mailing ballots to its 8,200 members and conducting an election with mail and online ballots.

Armstrong and Seitz were filling unexpired terms of their predecessors. 

Armstrong was appointed in March after Don Strausbaugh resigned. Because Armstrong was the only member to file a nominating petition, the board decided to appoint him immediately rather than wait until the annual meeting. 

Armstrong, 60, represents District 1, which includes all of North Central’s service territory in Crawford and Richland counties. A resident of Holmes Township in Crawford County, he retired as a process engineer after 34 years with General Electric. 

“I hope I can continue the great tradition that this board has built,” Armstrong said in his address to the membership. “I have a lot to learn. I want to keep the rates competitive and continue to provide reliable service. “And I want to make sure all the employees go home the same way they came to work: uninjured.”

Seitz represents District 2, which includes all of the cooperative’s service area in Wyandot County. He was appointed in July 2014 to finish the remaining year of Don Willson’s term.   

Seitz, 59, resides in Tymotchee Township and is in his fifth year as a Wyandot County commissioner. 

“As a Wyandot County commissioner, I had the opportunity to help bring one of the largest solar sites east of the Mississippi into Wyandot County. Now that’s a cool type of energy,” Seitz said. “Wyandot County is a big farming community, but I never thought we’d be farming the sun.”

He noted the cooperative serves 9,600 consumers in eight counties with 1,176 miles of line. “To put that into perspective, our lines would go from Tiffin to Upper Sandusky 83 times. That’s a lot of wire to take care of.”

He encouraged members to check out the cooperative’s SmartHub app. 

“It’s really cool. It’s a great tool to help you manage your electric bill, and you can look at your daily use. It contains graphs, and you can compare this year’s electric use with last year’s electric use. It’s really awesome. There’s lots of helpful information on the website and the SmartHub app.” 

Frisch, 59, begins his ninth year on the board, representing District 5, which includes Clinton, Eden and Pleasant townships in Seneca County.
Frisch is a crop farmer and raises beef cattle on his Eden Township farm. 

“We are working as hard as we can to provide reliable and affordable energy. We’ll continue to do so.”