• Set your thermostat as high as comfortably possible. The smaller the difference between the indoor and outdoor temperatures, the lower your cooling costs will be.
• Use ceiling fans wisely; living room and kitchen during the day; bedrooms at night.
• Close window coverings, like curtains and blinds, during the day to block sunlight.
• Use caulk and weather stripping to seal air leaks around doors and windows.
• Remember to avoid using the oven when you can. Cooking on the stove, using the microwave and grilling outside will help you avoid heating up your kitchen.

Use the Home Energy Suite tool on our homepage to perform energy savings scenarios and call us to schedule a free home energy audit.

Russell Segers of Amicalola EMC was one of 13 recipients of the Honorary State FFA Degree awarded at the state convention held in Macon on April 25-27, 2019. The Honorary State FFA Degree is given to individuals who have rendered outstanding service to agricultural education and the National FFA Organization. A total of 44 individuals have received Honorary State Degrees based on their exceptional work in the state of Georgia. All recipients received a plaque and a medal in recognition of their service.

The National FFA Organization, formerly known as the Future Farmers of America, changed its name in 1988 to reflect the growth and diversity of agriculture. There are nearly 670,000 FFA members nationwide. The Georgia Association has more than 42,000 members, making it the third largest Association in the nation. The FFA makes a positive difference in the lives of students by developing their potential for premier leadership, personal growth, and career success, through agricultural education.
Amicalola EMC is a not-for profit electric utility providing electricity and related services to over 49,000 locations in Bartow, Cherokee, Dawson, Fannin, Forsyth, Gilmer, Gordon, Lumpkin, Murray and Pickens counties.

Help us celebrate Earth Day 2019! Even a small change, like changing to LED bulbs, can make a big difference. We are giving away LED bulbs at all three locations today, to the first 50 members who stop by.

The Basics of LED Lighting: LED stands for light emitting diode. LED lighting products produce light approximately 90% more efficiently than incandescent light bulbs. How do they work? An electrical current passes through a microchip, which illuminates the tiny light sources we call LEDs and the result is visible light. For more information on lighting and other energy efficiency topics, please visit www.energystar.gov.

The Walter Harrison Scholarship selection committee is proud to announce that Emily Robinson of Jasper and Austin Pitchford of Dawsonville have been named among the 11 winners of the 2019 scholarship. The Walter Harrison program is sponsored by the electric co-ops in Georgia, including Amicalola EMC. Recipients were chosen based on their academic achievements, extracurricular activities, and their service to the community. Congratulations to Emily and Austin!

We will never call and demand payment of a past due account over the telephone. In fact, because of payment card industry mandates, we are prohibited from taking your credit or debit card information directly from you. You can use our automated payment options and enter your card number, but we cannot take it from you over the phone.

We’ve had reports today of someone calling a few of our members and demanding payment or telling them their account is about to be disconnected.  The only calls we make regarding past due accounts are automated calls, instructing the member to call us.

If you receive a call, and someone tells you your account is past due and you need to call a 1-888 number, here’s what you should do: First: hang up! Don’t give the caller any information about yourself or any of your accounts. Secondly: If you are concerned about your account, call us directly. One of our member service reps will be happy to verify the balance on your account and discuss any questions you may have.

Please use extreme caution when discussing any financial information and don’t fall victim to a scam!

Amicalola EMC held its annual youth awards banquet on March 21, 2019. CEO Todd Payne and the board of directors awarded college scholarships to 138 deserving students from Cherokee, Dawson, Gilmer, Lumpkin and Pickens counties.
In addition, four high school juniors were named as delegates to the 2019 Washington Youth Tour: Seth Bouldin of Cherokee High, Rianna Henderson of Gilmer High, James Logan Joiner of Pickens High and Jenna Lecours of Dawson High. The youth tour is an all-expense paid trip to Washington with over 100 other outstanding Georgia high school students. All scholarships are funded using unclaimed property, in accordance with O.C.G.A. 44-12-236.
A crowd of approx. 425 attended the banquet, including high school juniors and seniors, their parents, school administrators, Amicalola EMC staff members and board of directors.
Amicalola EMC continues to support our youth, our schools and our communities. We’re extremely proud of the accomplishments of these high school students and wish them every success as they continue their education.

Please don’t fall victim to a scam. Amicalola EMC does not call our members/consumers and demand payment over the telephone. As a matter of fact, to comply with current payment card industry mandates, we are not allowed to take a debit or credit card account number over the phone, under any circumstances. If you wish to make a payment on your account, you must either use the automated telephone bill paying options, go through the member service portal on our website, come in to our office or set up credit card draft or bank draft payments. If you receive a telephone call from someone posing as an employee of Amicalola EMC and they are demanding payment – please don’t panic! Hang up and call us at 706-253-5200, or 706-276-2362 or 770-864-7979. Press the option to speak to a member service representative, give them your account number and ask for the status of your account. Please use caution when you are discussing any financial information over the telephone and please don’t fall victim to a scam.

Our crews, and the crews who’ve come in to assist us, continue to work diligently to restore power. Currently, we are down to 58 separate outages, for a total of 687 members out. As members get power restored in some areas, other areas are experiencing outages due to the continuous rain and high winds we are experiencing. More rain is in our forecast for this morning, and with the ground already saturated, trees are falling onto our power lines. It is important to remember that while we have an effective and well organized right of way management program, our power lines run cross country and are in rural areas. There are thousands of trees that are 80, 90, 100+ feet tall and these are well out of the range that we are allowed to clear, once they’ve fallen. When they do fall, they are striking the wires and bringing the power lines down with them, many times resulting in broken poles. Crews have already reported 22 broken poles. Please remember to stay away from any downed power lines: always assume they are still energized. We thank you for your continued patience, as we work hard to get the lights back on.  All power will be restored as soon as is safely possible.

We experienced high winds across our service area last night, Tuesday, Feb 19. With the ground already saturated, the high winds have brought down many trees. In addition, many trees have snapped, bringing down power lines with them. Currently, crews are reporting many broken poles as well. At the present time, we have 141 separate outages, for a total of 2981 members out, primarily in Gilmer and Pickens counties.

Four additional contractor line crews have arrived to assist in power restoration. This is in addition to all Amicalola EMC line and right of way crews. We’ve requested more crews and are awaiting their arrival.

We remind you that the current outage map may be viewed from our website, www.amicalolaemc.com and from our mobile app. To report an outage, please call 706-253-0359, 706-276-0359 or 706-864-0359. We also remind you that while we post information from time to time on our social media sites, they are not manned 24 hours a day and the effective way to get an outage reported is by using the numbers above to call our automated outage system.

We ask that you stay away from any downed power lines. Stay clear to stay safe! We ask for your patience as we work to restore power to our service area. We also ask for your prayers for the safety of our employees, those who have arrived to assist us and for our members who are affected by this outage.

The quarterly meeting of  Operation RoundUp was held in January and $20,000 was awarded. Donations were presented to the following local non-profits: ACES Youth Home, Boys & Girls Clubs of North Georgia, Ferst Readers of Pickens County, Gilmer County 4-H, Next Generation Youth Development, Inc., Optimist Club of Pickens County and Prevent Child Abuse Pickens.

Qualifying individuals also received financial assistance directly from Operation RoundUp for the following:
Mortgage payments, groceries, medical bills, propane gas, clothing, rent and medical supplies.

Operation RoundUp is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. Over $2.3 million has been donated to non-profits and needy individuals in the Amicalola EMC service area. Remember: the monthly cost can never be more than .99 a month and the average is only about $6 a year. Please call 706-253-5200 to join!