After months of discussions to bring about a consolidation or merger between the Carroll and White County REMCs, members of Carroll County REMC stopped the process in a close vote Saturday at Delphi Community High School. Although the nay vote stopped the immediate action to unite, it is unclear what the next step will be on the part of Carroll County REMC.

According to board president Tom Flora, the board has not yet met to form a plan about what to do next. Flora said Tuesday options include; to pursue a merger, wait for a year or longer to pursue, or do nothing. Flora said he thought the membership voted to halt the merger because they distrust mergers in general.

Local resident and Delphi Chamber of Commerce President Krista Watson said there were issues raised at the Saturday meeting that were not adequately addressed. Watson said although the benefit of joining assets was discussed at length during the 90-minute board member presentation, Watson said ways to keep costs down after the merger were not explained adequately. She said the directors said the merger was in the best interest of Carroll County residents several times but they did not explain exactly how it would be better financially.

Watson said the Delphi Chamber position was that Delphi should not lose another business, which was a fear expressed if the merger or consolidation would have been approved.

Flora resident Steve Ashby attended the Saturday meeting, as well as meetings leading to the vote. He said that voting members' questions were not answered to their satisfaction.

"A lot of people had questions and they (board members) didn't have good answers," Ashby explained.

He reiterated that one question was whether the Delphi REMC office would close. He said it was explained the total number of personnel would be reduced from 46 to 34 through attrition. However Ashby was concerned the loss of personnel would be at the Delphi office in order to preserve service workers.

"People didn't seem to accept that the merger would be good for Carroll County," he said. "It was never explained convincingly how it would benefit Carroll County members."

White County REMC Board member Ralph Zarse explained Monday that although it was not the plan to close the Delphi office, as attrition occurred, "some jobs may have to be realigned."

"They (Carroll County members) aren't business people," he said. "They don't understand what's going on."

"We're not going to sit idle and do nothing," he concluded. "We work for our members. We aren't going to give up."

There were a total of 419 votes cast on Saturday; 199 yes and 220 no. There needed to be 210 yes votes to consolidate.

Other Carroll County directors are: Jim Jeffries, John Reiff, Marilyn Hile, Don Willy, Bob Allbaugh, and Kevin Bender, who was elected Saturday. Ron Kennedy is chief executive officer.