Board of Public Affairs
The Bryan Board of Public Affairs is a five-person board elected to oversee the operations of the community-owned utility. The Board keeps itself informed on a regular basis of utility services, financial position, and personnel. The Board has four committees that meet once a month. At these meetings, management discusses all significant utility activities with the Board.
The full Board meets the first and third Tuesday of each month in open session at 5 p.m. at the Utility office, 841 East Edgerton St. The public is always welcome. The meetings are also broadcast live on BMU TV 4 and live-streamed on our YouTube Channel.
All meetings are archived on the BMU Video YouTube Channel.
In 2018, the Bryan Board of Public Affairs—BMU’s governing body—initiated a strategic planning process, the first such strategic planning process in more than 20 years. The strategic plan encompasses the period 2019-2022 to help preserve for Bryan residents, businesses and institutions the many benefits of living and working in a municipal utility community. The Board of Public Affairs, BMU senior staff, and participants from each utility department comprised the strategic planning team.
The strategic planning team worked through a series of sessions to update BMU’s vision, mission and values; review organizational strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats; identify key strategic issues for the next three years; develop objectives to achieve the strategic goals; and establish success measures to track the strategic plan’s progress.
To ensure that the strategic plan reflects community priorities, BMU staff conducted face-to-face interviews to collect customer opinion information. The Board selected Hometown Connections, Inc., public power’s utility services organization, to facilitate development of the strategic plan with the Board and staff. The primary objective of the strategic plan is to support BMU’s continuing excellence in providing safe, reliable, competitively-priced and environmentally-responsible utility services that are focused on the customer and community and protected through superior financial, technology, and workforce management.
Dick Long was elected to serve on the Board in 2014. He is retired from Bryan Municipal Utilities where he worked as a Power Plant Operator. He started his career with the city in the street department. Dick is originally from Sylvania, but he has lived in Bryan for 34 years. He and his wife Vicki have four grown children and 10 grandchildren. Dick served in the U.S. Army, and he is a lifetime member of the Dustoff Helicopters Association. Dick is an avid sportsman, enjoying hunting and fishing year-round.
Karen Ford was elected to the Board in 2014. Born and raised in Bryan, Karen has a married daughter, Chelsea, and two grandchildren. She works at OSU Extension Williams County. She is a past employee of BMU, having worked from 2000-2013 as a Purchasing Agent. She is a 2nd generation employee as her father, Daryle Lorntz, who worked for the utility. She earned a business management degree with an accounting background and has continued her education. In her spare time she enjoys gardening and traveling.
Jim Salsbury was elected to serve on the Board in 2014. He is retired from Bryan Municipal Utilities where he worked as a lineworker for 30 years. He is a lifelong resident of Bryan. He and his wife Cheri have two grown children, and they attend Trinity Lutheran Church. Jim served in the Army Reserves from 1971 to 1976. He enjoys classic cars and is an fan of the Ohio State Buckeyes.
Tom Sprow is retired from Potter Inc. where he was Senior Sales Manager for 30 years. He was born and raised in Bryan and has a business degree from Ohio State University. Tom and his wife Donna have four grown children and 11 grandchildren. In his spare time, he enjoys working in his shop, designing and building projects for his church and family. He was elected to serve on the Board in 2016.
Annette Schreiner was elected to the board in 2019. Annette is an Antwerp native and moved to Bryan after graduating with an associate degree in accounting from Northwest Technical College, and because she loved the way the square was decorated at Christmas time and the Jubilee in the summer. Annette continued her education at Defiance College earning a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting. She is currently the Accounting Manager for Paulding Putnam Electric Cooperative.
Annette is the mother of two children, two brothers, and two teenage nephews.