I ran into a long-time French Broad Electric member the other day and he wanted to tell me what he had observed one of our crews doing on his property the week before.  I immediately thought the worst, but my concern quickly turned to a feeling of pride as he told of his observations.

He said the crew arrived early in the morning to change a pole on a large hill behind his house.  The pole had been damaged the night before and had to be repaired as soon as possible.  It was located on top of the hill with no road close to its location.  Since the pole was inaccessible by line truck, the men had to winch the new pole close to the old one.  As soon as they had the new pole into position, they immediately began digging a new hole beside the old pole location.  He described how the men beat and banged on the hole, removing dirt and rock, one scoop at a time.  He estimated it took almost two hours to get the hole deep enough to set the pole and the men never took a minute’s break to rest.  When the hole was deep enough, one of the linemen climbed the old pole and tied a pulley to its top.   The crew ran the winch cable up to the top of the old pole, through the pulley, and tied the cable to the new pole and amazingly lifted the new pole in place.  After setting the new pole, they all grabbed shovels and began filling in the hole as the crew leader lined the pole up perfectly! 

The real work began then he said.  Two of the linemen climbed to the top of the new pole and began placing all the necessary materials on it.  Once the cross arms and braces were installed, they carefully moved each wire from the old pole to the new one.   He was amazed at how they stretched and reached out as far as they could to the old pole, placing a rubber hose on the wire and moving it to the new pole.  Once the line was removed from the old pole, they tied it into the insulator on the new pole, being extremely careful the wire did not come in contact with anything.  After the wires were moved, the other workers on the ground took the old pole down and removed the materials from it.  The member was amazed at how long the linemen had to stay on the pole and how they never stopped until the job was done.  He was equally amazed the guys on the ground were always busy and made sure the linemen on the pole had everything they needed. 

Once the job was complete, the member was impressed they picked up all the leftover pieces and carried them back to the truck, even though no one would have ever known if they had not. 

Our crews work hard at what they do and are committed to your cooperative, making sure we do the best we can to keep the lights on for all our membership.

Thank You,

Jeff Loven
Email: jeff.loven@frenchbroademc.com


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