The following was sent by Orcas Power and Light Cooperative.
The core strength of our cooperative comes from our linemen, those dedicated guys in the bright safety gear who drive the trucks, string the lines, monitor and repair our electrical grid to keep it safely running and the lights on in our homes and businesses.
On Friday, April 17, OPALCO General Manager Foster Hildreth visited each of our three line crew facilities to celebrate their critical roles in the co-op and in honor of National Lineman Appreciation Day (declared by Congress for April 18, 2015). Staff provided some treats, decorated their crew rooms and each lineman received a new work shirt.
These were not just any work shirts – but an industry specific fire retardant shirt sporting the new OPALCO safety logo as designed by engineer Ed Lago. Why the special material? The conditions under which our linemen routinely work expose them to high voltage, and wearing gear that provides them with that extra layer of safety is just one of the steps we take to send them home safely at the end of a long work day.
Hildreth made the “three-island tour” to acknowledge all of the OPALCO linemen.
“You guys are deserving of recognition every day for your vital service to the membership,” he said. “I’m in awe of your commitment – knowing that you are out there day and night, in calm or wind or sleet or snow to restore power.”
He further recognized those linemen who have come up through OPALCO’s apprenticeship program.
Jay Fowler, General Foreman on the Eastsound crew, said this: “They’re a great bunch who go out, do their job right and keep OPALCO running. I’m proud to lead this group and watch them develop.”
Fowler, along with Matt Minnis, Roger Sandwith and Dan Watters, are all home-grown products of the OPALCO apprenticeship program. Nathan Ahrens joined the OPALCO team as a power lineman after he completed the Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee School.
On Lopez Island, General Foreman Steve Dengler finds his crew stretched pretty thin these days. Still his line foreman, Brian Swanson, and journeyman linemen Kai Burleson and Kevin Zoerb, make him proud to be part of the work team every day. His crew recently added Trevor Steinbrueck as a hot stick apprentice lineman. Like Dengler, Burleson and Zoerb, Steinbrueck grew up on Lopez. The crew is looking to hire a journeyman lineman to replace Tim Savage, who retired in 2014.
Friday Harbor is led by General Foreman Steve Eyler and anchored by long-time resident Rex Guard as line foreman. The crew of five journeymen linemen is: Bob Belcher, Luke Furber, Russ Hebert, Sean Parsons and Guard.
The fifth cooperative principle is “Education, Training and Information.”
OPALCO’s four-year apprenticeship program is a good example of that commitment. Journeymen linemen mentor and train the apprentices, alongside a prescribed progression of work experience and training.
The first year the apprentices get on-the-job training as ground men and take a correspondence course to prepare them for the next three years of the program.
Years two through four include classroom time every other Saturday (November through May) at the Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee School in Seattle and five weeks spent with other apprentice linemen at Camp Rilea in Oregon. The first year of camp is climbing school (two weeks), year two is distribution hot-sticking school (two weeks) and year three is a week-long transmission hot-sticking school.
Safety is a major focus throughout their training and all apprentices become certified in CPR, First Aid and pole-top rescue.
