by Josh P. Crotzer
Last June, Bret Timmerman was taking advantage of a sunny Saturday to work around his property, when his wife came out to alert him that their power was out.
Timmerman is a crew foreman with Little River Electric and his home is also served by the co-op. So, he knew his house wouldn’t be the only one affected. He also knew that the on-call crew that day was already restoring another outage.
“I immediately got in my truck and started riding our lines, looking for the cause,” says Timmerman. “Even when we’re not on-call, we’re watching each other’s backs.”
Timmerman soon discovered that a tree fell and broke a three-phase pole near Mt. Olive Church Road. A three- phase line is a main artery of the co-op’s distribution network. An entire circuit— about 285 members—was without power and it looked like it could be several hours until it was restored.
But thanks to the quick response from Little River Electric lineworkers, it took half the estimated time.
“We were worried it was going to take us about eight hours,” says Timmerman. “We had to call in more people. But everyone came together and got it back on in less than four hours.”
Timmerman says crews can’t always start work immediately. When restoring an outage of this type, time is needed to make conditions safe for crews and the community.
“I made sure the scene was clear, then went to the substation to make sure that the circuit was open,” says Timmerman. “We have to go through several safety procedures, including actually seeing a physical gap in the conductor.”
Meanwhile, additional lineworkers were having their Saturdays interrupted—lineman Cruse Smith left his son’s birthday party—to lend a hand.
“We care about our members,” says Chad Stone, operations manager. “There are people on oxygen and medical alerts, so we’ve got to be ready anytime to get the lights on.”
By the time Timmerman completed his procedures at the substation, his fellow linemen were ready with three bucket trucks, an excavator, and a 50-foot pole. Despite additional challenges like navigating a narrow passage to the pole and a truck getting stuck in soft terrain, they had the pole framed, the wires connected, and the circuit energized within two hours of getting to the damaged pole.
It was an impressive sight for Grady and Archie Butler, brothers who live nearby and watched the restoration efforts from Grady’s driveway.
“It was amazing how quickly they put that pole up and the wires in,” says Archie. “We thought it was going to be the next day before we had power. It seemed like they were reading each other’s minds.”
Timmerman says it doesn’t require magic to overcome challenges like the ones they faced that day, just “dedicated guys” who care about their community.
“You can have the greatest tools and all new equipment, but if you don’t have the guys that will come in when you need to, it doesn’t mean anything,” he says. “It doesn’t happen without determination. We have that here.”
