“It was a rush getting to go out, working to get the power back on, and knowing so many people were relying on us.” - Lael Leblanc, lineman
the program begins, the first 16 weeks are devoted to climbing poles 30 to 70 feet high. This process may cull as many as half of the first-year students. “When you see students who are hesitant, that’s usually a sign of some type of fear,” Dunham noted. While caution and awareness are integral to staying safe, linemen are re- quired to work quickly, he added. Public comfort aside, electricity ensures economic prosperity, safety, good health and happy citizens, among other things. As guardians of the grid, the lineman’s mission is to restore power fast without harm to life or limb, meaning arms, legs, fingers and toes. Training on the job with experienced linemen, classroom learning, and ongoing safety meetings and professional development seminars ensure elec- tric co-op linemen of all ages stay alive and well. At the Oklahoma Association of Electric Cooperatives (OAEC), Kenny Guffey, director of safety and loss control, racks up thousands of road miles traveling to Oklahoma’s 30 electric co-ops to present over 200 safety programs each year for linemen. OAEC sponsors an additional 14 workshops at their training facility in Oklahoma City. To further solidify the message, local co-ops hold monthly safety meet- ings as well as on-site tailgate meetings where crews assess the details and risks of a job before the work begins. The payoff for the safety awareness is fewer accidents and fatalities.
Oklahoma co-ops count six work-related lineman deaths over the past 25 years. That’s six too many for Guffey, but he is pleased that the industry-wide focus on safety, along with the ongoing development of improved tools and climbing equipment, are making a difference. “Years ago it was almost a badge of honor to have burn scars on your arm. Anymore, not so much,” Guffey said. “The guys who impress me are the
ones who retire with all their fingers and toes.”
Lineman injuries, Guffey pointed out, nearly always point to a moment of carelessness or complacency.
“Ninety-nine percent of injuries are because that lineman didn’t do some- thing right,” Guffey said. “Line work is only as dangerous as you allow it to be. With proper work practices, and the knowledge and training that we have today, there’s no reason why every lineman shouldn’t go home every night,” Guffey said. That’s some comfort for the families who wait at home while the weather rages, knowing their loved one is out there somewhere in the thick of it. Back in Woodward, Arlan Penrice is now a tech III apprentice lineman at
NWEC and expects to earn his journeyman lineman certification in a year and a half. While he had his pick of great job offers after graduating from OSUIT, he knew where he wanted to be—at home. “I could’ve gone anywhere, but I liked the co-op atmosphere,” Penrice said. “Everyone here is like family, and they honestly care about you.” Last year, Penrice scored 500 hours of overtime, much of it working through western Oklahoma’s catastrophic December ice storm. Sure, he’s had a few tight moments on the job—fireballs flaring in his face when a wrench taps a floater line, stomach-dropping rides in a bucket bouncing in a 40-mile-an-hour wind—but none of it dampens his enthusiasm. When friends rib him about his work, asking him why he doesn’t live a little bit, Penrice tells them, “I live every day.” “When you’re up in a bucket truck with no one else around, and the sun comes up over the Gloss Mountains, that’s when you tell yourself, I love my job,” said Penrice.
You Want To Be a Lineman? It Begins With Training. Young men and women who’d rather not work behind a desk
can build a good life as an electric utility lineman, but to net a good job, it helps if you’re well trained. Lineman training pro- grams vary from certificate schools, which focus strictly on the trade and require roughly 15 weeks to complete, or two- year college programs that provide the necessary work skills plus an associate degree. Students graduate as tech/level I, II or III apprentice line- men, dependent on their level of skill. To achieve journey-line- man status, most individuals should expect to invest four to five years of time, including school and on-the-job experience. Still interested? Contact the OSU Institute of Technology at
The Oklahoma Association of Electric Cooperatives Safety and Loss Control staff host trainings, like this Climbing School, which emphasize safe working practices for the well-being of rural electric employees. Photo by Hayley Leatherwood
918-293-4742,
www.okstate.edu, or Northwest Lineman College, 888-LINEWORK,
www.lineman.edu.
MAY 2017 13
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