Tri-County Appoints Eccher to Management Post

MANSFIELD, PA (October 6, 2003)- Tri-County Rural Electric Cooperative has appointed Craig Eccher of Wellsboro as the cooperative's executive vice president and chief operating officer.

Eccher's duties include overseeing the day-to-day operations of the co-op, interfacing with the board of directors and budget preparation.

Eccher joined the Tri-County staff in 1990 as manager of engineering services. Prior to that, he had worked as an electrical engineer for Niagara Mohawk and the New York Power Authority.

During his tenure with Tri-County, Eccher was responsible for many system improvements, including the construction of the Lobo-Fisher and Chapman-Tamarack high-voltage transmission systems, which have significantly improved reliability to the southern portions of Tri-County's electric distribution system.

In 1998, Eccher became the chief operations officer for Tri-County's power company subsidiary, Wellsboro Electric Co. A year later he was named Wellsboro Electric's president and chief executive officer, a post he continues to hold.

Eccher earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the State University of New York at Binghamton and is a graduate of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association's (NRECA) Robert I. Kabat Management Internship Program at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.

He serves on the executive committee of the Energy Association of Pennsylvania, the advisory board of Citizens & Northern Bank, the member committee of Laurel Health System, the Wellsboro Municipal Authority and is the chairman of Growth Resources of Wellsboro (GROW). He is also past chairman of the NRECA Engineering and Operations Committee.

A Potter County native, Eccher and his wife, Brenda, and their four children reside in Wellsboro.

A member-owned, non-profit utility, Tri-County has served the residents of north-central Pennsylvania since 1937. The cooperative provides electricity to more than 17,800 consumer-members in Tioga, Potter, Bradford, Lycoming, Clinton, Cameron and McKean counties.

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