Covington Electric Cooperative members are encouraged to attend the 2016 Annual Membership Meeting to be held Thurs., April 7, at the Kiwanis Community Center south of Andalusia on County Road 56 (South Bypass Hwy 55). CEC members, their families and friends, may attend this free event.

Registration will begin at 3 p.m.; entertainment starts around 5 p.m.; and the business session begins at 7 p.m. The McKameys, a popular family gospel group, and local talent Buck Gaines and his Roy Orbison Tribute will entertain during the meeting. CEC will host a mock electric line exhibit, as well a kid’s corner with face painting.

More than 30 attendance prizes will be given to lucky CEC members at this year’s meeting. The major prizes to be given away are: a 2007 Ford F150 Truck; a 5’ x 10’ utility trailer; $500 cash, $400 cash, $300 cash and $200 cash. Each CEC member who registers at the meeting will receive a $15 bill credit, a LED light bulb, a pot holder and pen. Members must be properly registered at the meeting to be eligible to win a prize. Full details are available in the March issue of Alabama Living.

Nominees named by the nominating committee to be voted on for possible election to the board are:

District III — Willie Smith and Jerry Bush

District IV — Heflin Smith and Alan P. Dieas

Willie Smith and Heflin Smith are incumbent trustees for Districts III and IV respectively.

Willie Smith is employed by The First National Bank of Dozier as president and CEO. He has been with the bank for 34 years. A lifetime resident of Brantley, he has been a member of the Covington Electric Cooperative Board of Trustees since 1991, and he currently serves as chairman of the board.

Smith served 12 years as a member of Crenshaw County Board of Education, and is a previous three-term mayor of Brantley.

Jerry Bush is a retired U.S. Postal Service rural carrier. His wife, Georgia, formerly worked as the medical lab manager at Crenshaw County Hospital. The Bushes attended Troy University.

They currently stay busy with their restaurant, Bush’s Bar-B-Que in Luverne.

Heflin Smith is a graduate of Kinston High School and served his country in the National Guard and the Army Reserve. He served as Mayor of Kinston for several terms. Smith is a former member and former fire chief of the Kinston Volunteer Fire Department. He also served 20 years on the Kinston Recreations Board.

He is former president of the Rural Alabama Development Board, former trustee of Kinston High School and a former member of the Kinston Rescue Squad. Smith also donated land for the Heflin Smith Sports Complex in Kinston.

Smith retired as manager of the Opp Farmers Co-op after 18 years of service. He is a member of Kinston United Methodist Church, where he serves as Sunday School superinten- dent. He and his wife, Geraldine, have three children and four grandchildren.

Alan P. Dieas is the pastor of Sweet Water Baptist Church in Fleeta. Dieas graduated high school from Chamberlain High School in Tampa, Fla., and from the Florida Baptist Theological Seminary in Graceville, Fla. He has been a pastor for 31 years.

Dieas is a former member of the Kinston Ruritan Club and he served in the Kinston Volunteer Fire Department for eight years. He has two married sons, Christoper (Amanda) Dieas, Stephen Jason (Alida) Dieas and one married daughter, Jennifer (Earl) Pingle. He has one grandson Colton Dieas, the son of Christopher and Amanda.