Cheryl Mathis, Ab Roesel, and Kaye Shipley have qualified to run against incumbent board members at the Snapping Shoals Electric Membership Cooperative elections on July 26.

Mathis is a retired business development expert, neighborhood activist and member of St. Mathew Missionary Baptist Church in Covington; Shipley is a businesswoman with experience in the Chemical and Healthcare industry; and Roesel is a retired teacher and former army pilot with experience in the electrical contracting industry.

The election for the utility’s board of directors is July 26 at the Horse Park in Conyers. Voting begins at 8:30 am and runs till 11:15 am.

Snapping Shoals EMC customers can also vote via a proxy form. The utility serves some customers in Lithonia.

All three candidates share a platform calling for more transparency to EMC decisions, an independent review of a proposed coal-fired power plant, and protection from rate increases--especially for low and fixed-income families.

Mathis said she wants a future with “abundant, cheap and clean energy” for children.

”I’ve been paying my bill to Snapping Shoals for over 18 years now and would love to see an EMC that is more responsive to its members and forward-looking in their energy planning,” Mathis said.

The candidacy filings come several months after an election at Cobb EMC that saw the entire board replaced by candidates seeking a more democratic and transparent management at the EMC.

Shipley said she wants a transparent process when it comes to energy decisions and their predicted costs.

“As a board member I’d work to make sure any Snapping Shoals family or business could have answers to these questions and more,” she said.

The new board at Cobb EMC voted in February to stop payments and break ties to a proposed coal-fired power plant in Washington County. A report by Georgia Watch, a consumer watchdog, found that the plant could increase electric bills by over $208 a year. Roesel said he’ll take a hard look at the EMC’s energy decisions and what they would mean for rates.

“When a consumer watchdog organization finds that the energy decisions your EMC is making could lead to a 16% rate hike you’d expect some serious answers from your EMC Board,” he said. “Instead of an independent analysis proving the need for Plant Washington we’ve gotten the run around.”