Covington Electric Cooperative (CEC) recently awarded teacher grants totaling $20,290 to 40 teachers (including individuals and teams) at schools served by the cooperative. The grants will enable these teachers to implement exciting projects in their classrooms that might not otherwise be possible.

CEC offers the Bright Ideas grant program each year to help teachers with learning initiatives that are not covered by traditional funding. The program is available to K4-12 teachers at schools served electrically by CEC. Individual teachers can apply for grants from $250 up to $750, while teams of teachers are eligible to apply for a maximum of $1,500.

“The CEC board of trustees is committed to supporting a variety of educational opportunities that benefit our members and their children,” said Ed Short, CEC general manager. “The Bright Ideas program is just one of the many ways we fulfill that commitment. This year, CEC received 18 grant applications and the co-op was able to fully fund every request. Typically, the request for funding exceeds grant availability and we aren’t able to fund all projects, but this year was different and we received fewer applications. We know teachers have been busy with changes due to the pandemic, and we’re very pleased with the interest we received in our program,” he added.

Grant recipients included teachers at Kinston School, Pleasant Home School, Straughn High School, Straughn Elementary School, Samson High School, Red Level Elementary School and Fleeta School. “These grants will benefit more than 2,400 students who are the children and grandchildren of CEC members,” said Short. More details about the grant projects will be published in an upcoming issue of Alabama Living magazine.

​​As CEC prepares to reinstate normal collection procedures, members who currently owe a balance on their electric account (this includes post-pay and pre-pay) need to contact the co-op to discuss payment options, and other ways CEC can help its members.

CEC temporarily suspended service disconnections and waived late fees due to nonpayment of bills on March 18 to help its members during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is one of the steps that CEC took to reduce stress on its members and provide local families and businesses with certainty during an uncertain time. Since the start of the pandemic, CEC has worked to support families and businesses throughout the community by also accelerating capital credit returns to eligible members.

As our community begins to recover from the pandemic, CEC will resume normal collection procedures for accounts with past due balances beginning May 26, 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic was unprecedented and CEC understands that many members may have had trouble paying their electric bills during this critical time. If you missed payments and have a past-due balance, CEC can help. The co-op mailed letters to members with past-due accounts on May 1 notifying them about their options. Members can make a payment arrangement on their account by calling CEC at 800-239-4121 during regular business hours, Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m.

CEC members who do not need arrangement assistance, can pay their bills in a variety of ways including; by mail, drive-thru in Enterprise and Sanford, online using the CEC App or website, kiosks, and through the automated phone system.

Electric co-ops are built by, and belong to, the communities they serve. That community focus drives CEC as it continues to respond to evolving COVID-19 challenges and local concerns.

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CEC is reminding members about the most recent convenient option for members to pay their electric bills. Pay Where You Shop provides a fast and easy method for members to pay their electric bill while shopping at participating retailers.

CEC members will need a barcode to present to the store clerk when you are ready to pay your electric bill. You can get this barcode from any CEC member services representative, or you can click here to get the barcode for your account (you must have your account number to retrieve the barcode online). Be sure to tell the clerk how much you want to pay on your CEC bill.

Please keep in mind that store clerks do not have any information about your account. You will not be able to ask them how much you owe, when it will be delinquent, etc.

Some of the participating retailers include Dollar General, Family Dollar, and CVS Pharmacy.

Covington Electric Cooperative would like to remind all residents to call 811 prior to any digging project to have underground utility lines marked. When calling 811, homeowners and contractors are connected to the local Alabama 811, which notifies the appropriate utility companies of their intent to dig. Professional locators are then sent to the requested digging site to mark the approximate locations of underground lines with flags, spray paint or both.

Click Here for more information about 811 and safe digging practices.

Due to upgrades to Covington Electric Cooperative’s online payment hosting site, members will need to take the following steps if they have stored their credit card information on the site.

First, log into your account by clicking on My Co-op Account.

Once you have signed into your account: Select the “Account Management” on the left navigational menu.