Dear Members,

A Message from President and CEO, Mike Malandro.

The past twelve months have been a rewarding exercise in balancing the supply chain, keeping expenses for cooperative members as low as possible and preparing for the future with youth education and workforce training. As always, our number-one goal is reliable electric service that prioritizes the safety of our employees and community.
 
We celebrated the launch of our pre-apprentice powerline worker program in partnership with Wor-Wic Community College and the Virginia, Maryland & Delaware Association of Electric Cooperatives. The first class of future lineworkers graduated in December. The program offers local students hands-on training for rewarding jobs in our community. We also supported the opening of the Perdue Henson Junior Achievement Center, a program to boost financial literacy, work readiness and entrepreneurship for students throughout the Eastern Shore.

We continued our high-speed internet buildout, offering broadband to 10,000 families by the end of 2023. Choptank is building infrastructure and connecting customers faster than any other provider on the Shore. With this technology, we hope to bring economic development to the area, along with better educational opportunities, tele-health capabilities, increased job activities and more.

Working to connect members to Choptank Fiber did not prevent us from delivering affordable, reliable and safe electricity to our members. Maintaining over 6,000 miles of electric lines across the Eastern Shore, we continue to receive a 99% reliability rating from the ASAI, and we are pleased that our long-term investments continue to pay off.

For over 85 years, Choptank Electric Cooperative has served its members and community faithfully – and we hope that we can continue to do so for many years into the foreseeable future.