County Chamber Installs Town, Officers

WILDWOOD — Veronica “Ronnie” Town took her oath as chair of the Cape May County Chamber of Commerce from Sen. Jeff Van Drew (D-1st) at Wildwoods Convention Center Oct. 2, at the annual installation dinner.
Town is public affairs manager of Atlantic City Electric Co. whose territory mostly includes Cape May County.
Joining her as executives for the coming year were Jay Sporl, first vice chair, of Seashore Campsites, Lower Township, Steve C. Morey, second vice chair, of Hatch Mott MacDonald in Court House, Janet Buchanin, secretary, 1st Bank of Sea Isle City, Vickie Banks, treasurer, broker of Sticks and Dirt Real Estate, Jeffrey Gott, immediate past chair, Crest Savings Bank, and Vicki T. Clark, president, Cape May County Chamber of Commerce.
Directors are: John Allison, Chandi Ankrum, Lenora Boninfante, William Bugdon, Scott Campbell, Joanne Carrocino, Abigail Crafts, Florence Dawson, Joann DelVescio, David Ellenberg, Dan Glaze, Jeff Gott, Michael Hagan, Richard Hohmann, Beth Huber, Mark Kulkowitz, John Lynch, Arlene MacDonald, Christine Parker, Valerie Polding, Edwin Rosenfeld, Josephn Scheufele, Marcia Shallcross, Barbara St. Clair, Mary Stewart, Barry Taylor, Ralph Tiz, Johnnie Walker, Suzanne Walters, Jennifer P. Young.
Ken Parker, president, Atlantic City Electric Region, delivered the utility’s “Blueprint for the Future.”
That plan, he said, will “complement the N.J. Energy Master Plan, and proposed new technologies and enery efficiency programs that will reduce energy costs and volatility, improve reliability ad customer service and protect the environment.”
Since about 60 percent of customers’ electric bills are for generation, and 40 percent from distribution, such as wires and employees, the utility is working to promote energy conservation in order to help trim those costs, Parker said.
So-called “Smart Meters,” are part of the plan to inform customers of their energy use, and will inform the company of outages in areas without customers needing to call.
Parker said the state hopes to trim overall energy use by 20 percent by 2020, and believes some of the innovations planned by the utility will help achieve that goal.
He also reaffirmed the utility’s commitment to the community by such things as membership in the chamber and other groups.