Insights & Observations

By Joe Stuver

Sights worth seeing: MORE MOISTURE!

It’s going to be a wonderful spring, if it gets here before summer.

We send out a huge community salute to Bucky Billing and Lyle Rogge, who retired last week after serving TRECO, and their community, very well indeed over their long tenure. They helped keep the power flowing to their customers in all kinds of foul weather, in all kinds of circumstances, and were among the first on scene to cut that same power during fires.

Linemen continue to hold one of the most dangerous jobs in the country. I can’t imagine climbing a dang power pole, let alone in high wind, at night, when it’s snowing and/or pouring rain. Plus, it takes a pretty damn stout person to first, climb a pole with spikes, and second, again to climb a pole when the wind is threatening to blow you into the next county.

I remember when I interviewed Milt Zimmer, who had spent a lifetime in the business. His fingers were twisted, and one didn’t work at all, from exposure to the nasty chemicals in transformers. They receive unwelcome gifts that keep on giving as well as their day-to-day dangers.

I witnessed first hand just how dangerous the job can be, sometimes from unexpected sources. It was a horrible early fall storm, just after I graduated from high school, and it knocked down hundreds of REA poles across the county. I got a job with a company brought in to help get the power going again. It was arduous work, but it was outside in the now lovely fall weather.

We were replacing downed wires at a ranch. A fellow named John David climbed to the top of a pole, and directed me to straighten out a fallen line. The other was still intact.

When I straightened the line, it made contact with the still existing one. I heard a loud shriek from John David, the poor fellow up on the pole, as sparks flew from the wires.

The rancher had forgotten to inform us that he still had a generator hooked up to those same lines. I rushed, in a panic, to pull the line away. I succeeded at first, but there was some slack further down in the line, and again it made contact. The resulting shriek froze my blood for a second time, but I continued to drag the line away, while looking up to see the poor fellow shaking as the electricity flowed through his body, while desperately clinging to his grip.

I am not sure how he survived without falling; he was a strong, stout guy indeed. He came down the pole in record time. Needless to say, he wasn’t very happy with the landowner.

Thanks again guys. You are not only my personal heroes, but also the heroes of an entire community.

We also need to thank Barb Coulter for all of her years at Broadus Insurance, in making sure our residents get the best and cheapest insurance on the market. Broadus Insurance has also over the years donated time and money to about every volunteer program that came along, and there are indeed many.

Thanks Barb.

More about Mexico next week!