Bertram’s Price wins PEC board seat
Alice Price and husband Jeff Charlton at a surprise party at Bill’s Burgers in Burnet. Supporters organized the celebration after Price won a three-way race to represent District 5 on the Pedernales Electric Cooperative Board of Directors.Courtesy photo
Alice Price of Bertram won the District 5 seat on the Pedernales Electric Cooperative Board of Directors. She will be sworn in on Friday, June 20, when the co-op holds its annual and regular monthly meetings.
Travis Cox was re-elected to his District 4 seat during the PEC board elections, which ran from May 21 through June 13.
PEC’s annual membership meeting starts at 9 a.m. at co-op headquarters, 201 S. Avenue F in Johnson City. The board’s regular meeting will follow immediately. Price and Cox will be sworn in and the 2025-26 board officers will be elected.
Price replaces board member and former Burnet County Judge James Oakley, who termed out after 12 years in the District 5 seat, which represents Burnet County and small portions of Llano, Lampasas, and Travis counties. PEC directors serve three-year terms with a limit of four terms.
Price defeated opponents Douglas A. Vandiford II of Marble Falls and Milton Scott Powell of Horseshoe Bay.
“I am grateful that the community would put their faith and trust in me to hold this position,” she told DailyTrib.com. “I’m very excited. I know I have a lot to learn and am looking forward to the challenge.”
Price is an assistant district attorney for the 424th/33rd District Attorney’s Office, which serves Burnet County. She and husband Jeff Charlton raise cattle on the Bryson Family Ranch in Bertram and live in the same house that her great-grandparents built in 1907. Her grandparents and great-grandparents all lived in the home during the Great Depression in the 1930s.
Family members passed down stories of when electric lights were first switched on in the house, thanks to rural electrification.
“There was always a ton of excitement when my family talked about having the lights turned on for the first time,” Price said. “They were so excited to have a refrigerator, all the modern conveniences we take for granted. My grandmother got an electric sewing machine. They could keep milk longer. They didn’t have to milk the cows as often. They didn’t have to have ice delivered. They understood how electricity impacts our everyday lives.”
The family has another connection to the cooperative. Her father, E.B. Price, served 30 years on the PEC board, the last time in 2008.
Alice Price has a record of public service. She served as a commissioner for Burnet County’s Emergency Services District No. 8 and on numerous community boards, including the Central Texas Youth Football League, the Burnet Youth Football League, and the PTA.
“I really enjoy doing this type of work,” she said when asked about community service. “If you are able to pitch in and help your community, it’s the worthy thing to do.”
The three-way District 5 race was not without contention, but Price said she is looking forward, not back.
“I want to say thank you to my lifetime friends who helped me get out the vote and hung signs and encouraged me when I faced some negative social media attacks during the campaign,” she said. “I did not retaliate and did not engage in any negative campaigning against my opponents. That is not who I am.”
An independent, third-party company that handles election management services, Survey and Ballot Systems, will share the certified election results at Friday’s meeting.