Three candidates are up for election to the newly-created District 6 on the Valley Electric Association board of directors.

Ballots will be sent to each VEA member in the district, which includes parts of Pahrump north of Highway 372. It was one of two districts created in the first expansion of the VEA board since the 1960s.

The other new district, District 5, includes parts of the VEA service territory in Clark County, including Mountain Springs, Trout Canyon and Sandy Valley.

Dave Lowe, a five-year resident of Sandy Valley, is the only candidate up for election in District 5.

He was an appeals officer for the Nevada Department of Training, Employment and Rehabilitation from 1971-98.

Prior to that he worked as a personnel director for Southern Nevada Memorial Hospital, was a personnel administrator at the Nevada Test Site, editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal from 1959 to 1960 and an Army 1st lieutenant in the infantry at Fort Benning, Ga., from 1960 to 1963.

The District 6 candidates include:

* John Crane, was an industrial engineer with Federal Express from 1984-2004 in California, who then retired to Pahrump. He was a substitute teacher in Pahrump from 2006-2007.

Crane said he recently installed three wind turbines and solar panels at his home to reduce his dependence on commercial energy providers.

* David Dawson, a Pahrump resident since 2006, is a Valley Electric ambassador, which he said gives him an understanding of VEA's objectives. He is chairman of VEA's Conservation and Renewable Energy subcommittee.

Dawson retired after 30 years as a manager and strategic planner for United Technologies Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne in California.

* Deane Craig is a Henderson police officer and has been in law enforcement for 35 years. His hobby is collecting antique automobiles. Craig has been a resident of Pahrump for the past five years and has lived in southern Nevada for 12 years.

A nominating committee was appointed, according to the VEA bylaws, to find two eligible candidates in each district, VEA spokesperson Staci Behnke said. The nominating committees included Jim Petell, Joann Pinnock and Ruth Huncapher for District 6, Sam McCool, Robert Price and Kay Searle for District 5.

There is a 25-day period for any other prospective board members to submit a petition to be on the ballot; each must include the signatures of at least 15 VEA members in their district, Behnke said.

VEA customers in those districts will receive mail-in ballots but Behnke said members can also vote in person or cast a proxy vote at a VEA meeting.

The results will be tabulated by a mail house firm and announced at a VEA meeting in mid-August.