[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 11]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 15615]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




           HONORING HAITI RURAL ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE LINEMEN

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. BILLY LONG

                              of missouri

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, October 1, 2015

  Mr. LONG. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor of 7 volunteer electric 
linemen from White River Valley in Branson, Missouri, who traveled to 
Haiti this June and August to help provide sustainable seven-day-a-week 
electric service to Haitians.
  Cory Brandon Sanders, Raymond Roy, William Gyger, William Marr, 
Matthew Maggard, Mark Visnosky, and Jacob Kennedy donated their time 
and talents as part of the National Rural Electric Cooperative 
Association's (NRECA) Haiti Rural Electric Cooperative (HREC) program.
  This project is the first formal privately owned and operated 
distribution utility in the country, which intends to demonstrate the 
feasibility of solar-diesel hybrid power generation for isolated rural 
mini-grids. The goal that these men worked toward making 1,600 
connections within a grid to unite the underserved Haitian communes of 
Roche-a-Bateau, Coteaux, and Port-a-Piment.
  Mr. Speaker, these 7 selfless linemen from Southwest Missouri deserve 
our thanks and recognition for their dedication to the HREC's noble 
goal of bringing affordable and reliable power to the southern coast of 
Haiti. Stories like theirs make me ever-prouder to serve Missouri's 
Seventh Congressional District.

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