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WREC Moves Office to Shady Hills Area

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By Carl  Orth | The Suncoast News

Published: October 31, 2007

HUDSON, Fla. - HUDSON, Fla. - Withlacoochee River Electric Cooperative has moved to its Bayonet Point District office near the Suncoast Parkway.

Formerly based at 6840 S.R. 52, just west of U.S. 19 since 1969, the Dade City-based member-owned cooperative packed its bags to head east to 12013 Hays Road.

The transplanted district office still bears the Bayonet Point name, even though the building now has a Shady Hills address. The new location is just north of S.R. 52, west of the Suncoast Parkway and east of Moon Lake Road.

The new office officially opened Oct. 15, a co-op spokesman, David Lambert, said.

Member feedback has been "very good," Lambert commented.

One WREC member-consumer, however, complained to The Suncoast News he had been left in the dark about the move. The member, Jack Seitz, thought the timing of the relocation had been poorly publicized.

He said he conducted an informal poll among some 50 neighbors and other Withlacoochee members, who almost uniformly thought the relatively remote new location is inconvenient.

No signs had been posted about WREC moving its payment center and payment drop-off box, Seitz said.

"I like to get a stamped copy" as a receipt for payment, Seitz explained. That's why he drives to the office to pay in person.

He doesn't like to mail his payment because he has been burned with late fees in the past, Seitz said.

He lives within 5 minutes of the former Withlacoochee office, but now has to rack up about 18 miles round trip to the Hays Road office.

Seitz suggested a payment station at a drug store on a corner at S.R. 52 and U.S. 19 near the old office location.

Withlacoochee, however, does not set up a network of payment stations within area stores like Progress Energy, Lambert said.

"Local pay stations, they charge a fee," he said. "That's why we don't use pay stations." In effect, it would cost customers more money, he said.

Other payment options include paying online with a charge card or automatic debits from checking accounts each month, Lambert pointed out.

Withlacoochee decided to move the district office because the cooperative had outgrown the old site near U.S. 19, Lambert said.

The Hays Road location offers 30,000 square feet for offices, warehouse and mechanics' shop. In comparison, the S.R. 52 site had about 19,500 square feet of space.

"It's a lot roomier," Lambert said about the new district office.

Traffic problems and the close proximity to the coast were the other factors that convinced Withlacoochee executives to pull up stakes.

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