The Down East Seniors Club held its Nov. 15 meeting at the Blind Center of North Carolina in Washington. President Stewart Rumley led the meeting. Jim Hackney played for the singing of “God Bless America,” and Ed Bolen gave the invocation. Ed Hamrick read factoids for the date in history, and Dick Paul provided humor.

Chip Ide asked all members who planned to attend the Dec. 20 Christmas party to pay $28 per person at the next meeting. The next meeting will be Nov. 29.

Vernon Howell introduced Heidi Smith, customer relations manager with Tideland Electric Membership Corp., as the speaker. Smith serves many other functions with TEMC and has gained a wealth of knowledge about the co-op and its operation in the 25 years she has worked there. Ninety percent of the customers are residential and about 20 percent of these are vacation homes. The minimum residential power charge is $31 per month. Of the 700 metered structures destroyed by Hurricane Irene, only 400 were rebuilt. Ocracoke Island has the first electric microgrid in the state. The microgrid includes diesel/electric generators, Tesla batteries and solar panels in an effort to reduce power purchases from outside suppliers during the expensive peak-demand times of day. Most power blinks are caused by tree limbs falling on power lines. A circuit breaker momentarily cuts power in the lines to prevent the lines from burning up before the limb can fall off. If the problem is not cleared up in three consecutive blinks, the breaker opens and stays open until someone corrects the problem.

Rumley won the 50/50 drawing.