Kosciusko REMC Announces Retirement Of Long-Term Employees
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Kosciusko REMC President and CEO Steve Rhodes recently announced the retirement of two long-term co-op employees. Customer service representative and cashier JoAnn Johnson and lead lineman Rex Burnett both marked their last day as co-op employees Friday. Between them, they have served almost 62 years at KREMC.
During her more than 31 years of service, which started Dec. 27, 1976, Johnson spent her entire career at the co-op's front desk, where she greeted customers, and served as a front-line contact for service applications, membership issues and bill payment.
Johnson made the decision to retire in order to spend time with her new grandson, Noah Michael Mettham, who was born Dec. 19, 2007.
"Noah is my first grandchild, and I have the chance to serve as his babysitter," she said. "That was just too good of an opportunity to pass up, and I'm looking forward to the time I'll get to spend with him, watching him grow."
Also retiring from the co-op is Rex Burnett. He joined the co-op team March 7, 1977, as an apprentice lineman, and progressed through the ranks to lead lineman during his 30-plus years of service, where he provided outstanding service to members, working on both system improvements and restoring power during outages.
Burnett is retiring to move to Texas, where he will join his wife, Sarita. She moved to the Dallas area to take a position with J.C. Penney's more than a year ago.
"I'm going to relax and get to know my wife again," said Burnett.
Johnson noted that she will miss her co-workers and, "I'll also miss the members who come in to make their payments. I'll miss seeing those people every month."
She won't miss "getting up every morning and being so busy on the 17th of every month when bills are due."
"The camaraderie - working with the guys," is what Burnett noted he will miss. "I won't miss being on stand-by and the ice storms. I really won't miss the ice storms!"
CEO Rhodes said, "We're all going to miss JoAnn and Rex a great deal. They have both been very loyal, very valued employees of the co-op, and we truly appreciate the time and effort these people have given to provide our members with outstanding service."
Kosciusko REMC is a Touchstone Energy® cooperative, serving more than 17,000 members throughout Kosciusko County and into surrounding counties.
