No petitions were received for a member to run as a director against the current incumbents in the election. Directors Roberts and Lindsey will be officially seated at the annual meeting to represent Districts 1 and 5 because no petitions were filed for those districts.
Eugene Roberts
District 1, incumbent director
EUGENE ROBERTS
Director Eugene Roberts represents District 1, which includes all of Spice Valley and Marion townships in Lawrence County served by Orange County REMC. Roberts has served on the board since 1986. He is a graduate of Shoals High School and has lived in the Huron community for the past 50 plus years.
He is completing 22 years of serving on the Hoosier Energy board of directors, having completed two years as board chairman and a total of 11 years as a board officer. Roberts retired as a supply systems analyst of the guns/weapons directorate at the Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center in January 1994.
He and his late wife, Bonnie, were blessed with two sons, Robin and Ryan, who both reside in nearby Bedford. He has four grandchildren — Darci, Andrew, Adam and Bret — who are currently enrolled in college.
Roberts is a long time active member of the Huron Church of God. He presently is the president of the Spice Valley Township Advisory Board. Roberts also serves on various other boards, one of which is the Bryantsville Hunger Relief Project, which grows, stores, bags and ships high protein corn as a food supplement to the needy throughout the world.
Along with being an avid sports enthusiast, Roberts covered sports for the Mitchell Tribune for 20 years. He continues to attend many sporting events and enjoys visiting nearby areas of interest, traveling in general, writing and researching local basketball history.
Ben Lindsey
District 5, incumbent director
BEN LINDSEY
Ben Lindsey of French Lick is a lifelong resident of Orange County and has served as REMC as director of District 5 for the past 18 years, during which time he has served as secretary, vice president and president.
Lindsey is a member of the first class to graduate from the newly created Springs Valley High School in 1958. Lindsey has been married to the former Janice Lewis for 56 years. The couple has two daughters —Rhonda Orr, who with her husband, Danny, has four children, and Liz Stinson, who lives in Indianapolis and has two children. Orr, a graduate of Indiana University and University of Indianapolis, lives in French Lick and works as a broker for Brooks Galloway Real Estate. Stinson, a graduate of Oakland City College and Indiana University, lives in Indianapolis and has taught first and second grade in the Hamilton Southeastern school district for 29 years.
Lindsey owns a grain and cattle farming operation located on Sulpher Creek between French Lick and Paoli and rents nearby land to supplement his operation. Prior to becoming a full-time farmer in 1984, Lindsey was a partner with his brother in the Lindsey Ford Tractor Dealership for 23 years. Additionally, he was a contracted school bus driver for the Springs Valley Community School District for 26 years.
Lindsey has served his community and country throughout the years as a member of the United States Air Force, as a French Lick volunteer firefighter and a Springs Valley Jaycee. He served area farmers for nine years as a member of the Farm Service Agency committee and presently serves on the French Lick Township advisory board. Lindsey is a member of Ames Chapel United Methodist Church and a lifetime member of the American Legion Post #76 in French Lick. He enjoys playing golf. He and his wife enjoy riding their motorcycle and taking short RV trips.
