LIHUE — Calvin K. Murashige, Jan TenBruggencate and Carol Bain have been re-elected to the Kauai Island Utility Cooperative’s (KIUC) Board of Directors. The three directors will each serve a three-year term ending March 2019. Murashige, 70, was first elected
LIHUE — Calvin K. Murashige, Jan TenBruggencate and Carol Bain have been re-elected to the Kauai Island Utility Cooperative’s (KIUC) Board of Directors. The three directors will each serve a three-year term ending March 2019.
Murashige, 70, was first elected to the KIUC board in 2012. The Lihue resident and retired family court judge said he got involved in the board to give back to the community. He received 3,639 votes.
“Obviously, I’m happy to be re-elected and would like to thank the membership for their continued trust in what I’ve done these past four years,” Murashige said.
“I think the utility is headed in the right direction. As directors, it is our responsibility to ensure that the cooperative continues on the path to renewable energy and doing whatever we can to keep our rates reasonable,” he added.
TenBruggencate, 68, a three-year member of the board, was raised on Molokai, graduated in journalism and English from the University of Hawaii and has lived on Kauai since 1971. He received 3,310 votes.
“My thanks to the KIUC membership for their vote of support for our incumbent directors,” he said. “I hope it is an indication that our members believe we are headed in the right direction as a cooperative. My thanks, too, to candidates Mina Morita and Bill Peterson, either of whom would have been an excellent choice, for stepping up and offering their expertise to our member-owned cooperative.”
“We have come a long way in the past few years, and we have a fair distance to go as we head toward a 100 percent renewable goal,” he added. “We will need some help with both economics and technology, but both are moving in the right direction to help us continue to achieve increases in our renewable portfolio at prices below the cost of fossil fuels.”
Bain, 64, moved to Kauai in 1985. She resides in Puhi, and retired as a communication and journalism professor at Kauai Community College. She received 2,556 votes.
“I think the KIUC is on the right track and the fact that the members chose to re-elect the incumbents indicates good confidence in the years ahead,” Bain said.
“There are some very important projects ahead for KIUC like the pumped hydro-storage project on the Westside of the island that I look forward to continuing to work on. I will continue to work in the best interest of our membership,” she said.
Also receiving votes were Hermina “Mina” Morita (2,365), and Bill Peterson (1,629).
KIUC mailed 25,504 ballots and received 5,322, for a turnout of 21 percent. Merriman River Group, a California-based election management firm, conducted the election.
The newly elected board members will be inaugurated on March 22 at 11 a.m. in the KIUC Main Conference Room. The board will hold its regularly scheduled meeting at 12:30 p.m.
