SMECO
Susie Hance-Wells is a lifelong resident of Calvert County. She graduated from the University of Delaware with a bachelor’s degree in agriculture, and since then she has managed her family’s 320-acre farm, taking it from a tobacco and cattle farm to a farm-to-table operation.
She has served on the Agricultural Land Preservation Advisory Board, the Planning Commission, the Colonial Farm Credit Board, and the Farm Bureau in Calvert County. Hance-Wells served on the corporate board of the Southern States Cooperative for six years, and she is currently the chair of the Calvert County Board of Appeals.
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SMECO
Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative was founded in 1937. Through the Rural Electrification Administration, the co-op received a loan of $165,000 to construct 175 miles of line to serve 600 customer-members. SMECO operated a generating plant at Popes Creek, Maryland, from 1938 to 1953. SMECO has had five general managers: 1938, Forrest Coakley; 1974, Walter H. Smith; 1989, I. Wayne Swann; 2003, Austin J. Slater, Jr.; and 2020, Sonja Cox. As of January 2020, SMECO served 165,000 customers and is one of the largest electric co-ops in the country. SMECO serves all of Charles and St. Mary's counties, the southern portion of Prince George's County, and all but the northeast portion of Calvert County.