BLUEBONNET TO ACCEPT APPLICATIONS FOR BASTROP COUNTY BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative is accepting applications to fill a vacant seat on its 11-member Board of Directors. Applications for the District 3 seat, which represents Bastrop County, will be accepted through 5 p.m., Friday, Dec. 30, 2016. 
The District 3 seat, one of three from Bastrop County, was left vacant by the death of Director Kathleen Handy in May 2016. To be considered for the vacant seat, an applicant must have primary residence in Bastrop County for at least six months and meet all eligibility requirements in the co-op’s bylaws.
The eligibility requirements for Bluebonnet’s Board of Directors and the Application for Nomination form are on the co-op’s website, bluebonnet.coop, and can be accessed by hovering the cursor over the About tab, clicking on “Leadership,” then clicking on “Becoming a Director.” The Application for Nomination form also is available at Bluebonnet’s five member service centers in Bastrop, Brenham, Giddings, Lockhart or Manor.
A Board of Directors committee chaired by Secretary/Treasurer Roderick L. Emanuel, and including Directors James B. Kershaw, Russell Jurk, Milton Shaw and Robert Mikeska, will review applications from eligible cooperative members. Emanuel and Kershaw are the other two District 3 directors from Bastrop County. Shaw is from District 1 (Caldwell County), Jurk is from District 4 (Lee County), and Mikeska is from District 7 (Washington County).
Applications must be submitted by 5 p.m., on Dec. 30, 2016, and include either a certified check or money order for the $250 filing fee or a petition with at least 50 signatures from co-op members with meters in Bastrop County. Applications may be submitted in person at a member service center in Bastrop, Brenham, Giddings, Lockhart or Manor, or emailed to Bluebonnet’s General Counsel Sarah Newman-Altamirano at sarah.newman-altamirano@bluebonnet.coop. If a candidate submits his or her application by email, the signature petitions or $250 filing fee must be delivered in person to one of the member service centers or mailed (postmarked no later than Dec. 30, 2016) to P.O. Box 729, Bastrop, Texas, 78602.
After reviewing eligible candidates’ applications, the committee may interview the top candidates before making a recommendation to the full Board of Directors. The Board will vote to appoint the new director during its January, February or March meeting.
Handy was re-elected to the board in May 2016. The new director will serve the remainder of Handy’s unexpired term, which ends in May 2019.