Thomasville Insights
Welcome to Thomasville Insights with the City of Thomasville! Located in Thomasville, Georgia, the podcast will cover everything from Thomasville history and events to daily operations and City business, all while having some fun in the process. Please visit Thomasville.org for more information. Thanks for listening!
Thomasville Insights
Season 5 Episode 18- Getting The Power Back On
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We sit down with Electric Distribution Superintendent Brent Alderman and URC Manager Drew Wharton to explain how Thomasville plans for hurricanes, responds to pop up storms, and brings the grid back safely. We break down what happens behind the scenes, from materials and mutual aid to the tough calls on priorities, communication, and crew fatigue.
• long range hurricane preparation through materials, inventory, and staffing plans
• what the Utility Response Center does as a 24/7 dispatch operation
• why keeping a mobile number on your utility account helps notifications
• how on call crews scale up during severe afternoon storms
• what mutual aid is and how crews are deployed locally and regionally
• why feeders and large outages get addressed before single homes
• why radio communication and safety tags prevent deadly mistakes
To learn more about the City of Thomasville, visit Thomasville.org or follow us on social media.
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Welcome And Friendly Host Banter
SPEAKER_05Welcome to Thomasville Insights with the City of Thomasville. On the podcast, we'll talk to experts on everything from Thomasville history and events to daily operations and city business, all while having some fun in the process.
SPEAKER_01Welcome to Thomasville Insights with the City of Thomasville. I'm Austin Reims, and I am here with Ricky Zambrano. Ricky, we missed you.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I actually think you took more shots that day than when I'm here. Yeah. Which, you know, my my college coach once told me the more people slight you, the more they love you. So it really that that episode really showed your love for me, which that went deep. You know, it got me a little emotional, maybe a little tears streamed down. Um but yeah, it was it was it was tough listening to that episode while I was sitting on the beach um watching the waves and you know thinking about you. So yeah, it was it was it was really tough missing you while I was sitting on the beach.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you know, uh you you're missed desperately, and uh, you know, hope you had a good time listening to the Mets while you were on the beach. So we're we're keeping that gag up and going.
SPEAKER_05That part brings a storm to the beach. Oh man. Like it, like the game was about to begin and like thunder started to you know pound. So that's kind of what a Met game is.
SPEAKER_01Um Real quick, I almost feel sorry for him, but let's move on. That's hard for me to do. I I don't have a soul, so that's really hard for me.
SPEAKER_05I mean, we can't just cut away from that. Okay. I uh but I do appreciate you wanting to cut away from my misery. So that's a lot of things. I'm trying to be nice. I'm trying to be nice. Yeah, look at that. That's like the calendar flips to May, and there's a nice side to Austin.
Why Storm Prep Matters Here
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so uh, you know, as the as the uh what's the expression uh April showers burring May flowers or something like that as we get a match?
SPEAKER_05We missed the part of the April showers.
SPEAKER_01We missed the April showers.
SPEAKER_05We missed the part. The calendar kind of shifted and it went to May showers. But talking about rain.
SPEAKER_01Yep, it's uh as we get to um I mean it's kind of weird to be talking about hurricane preparation, but uh we're gonna talk a little bit about that and um just uh a lot what the what the city uh go goes through and goes on. Uh we're talking to uh those those guys who are in the eye of the storm. How about that? How about that cliche? But but these two we're bringing on board today uh are really um um at the center of uh you know, there's there's a lot going on, but they they are in the know about uh hurricane season, about storm preparation response, getting your power back on. Uh these two gentlemen, and I I'll say gentlemen lightly, but these two gentlemen, uh come on, you guys, I was I was insulting you guys. I didn't get uh anything back. But these two gentlemen uh say that.
SPEAKER_05They're important guys.
SPEAKER_01They're important guys, and you should always be nice to the to the guys who either work with power or control power because they can make your life miserable.
SPEAKER_05We got in other words, we got to treat them better than when we have Chris White here in the these guys can really mess up our lives if they wanted to.
SPEAKER_01So we'll do all of them. We'll mess up Chris's life. Please do.
SPEAKER_05We all try and uh set that as a goal, right?
Meet The Electric And URC Leads
SPEAKER_01That's right. Poor Chris. He has to deal with it. Uh with uh that's our city manager Chris White, who who deals with uh all of us, but uh uh most of all the rap scallions in the marketing department. So Ricky, kick it off for us. Introduce our guest.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, we we we're joined here today with our electric superintendent Brent Alderman and um our URC manager Drew Warden. Guys, welcome. We appreciate you guys uh thank you being here with us. And uh it it it is it is a pleasure having two guys that play such a pivotal role in so many different scenarios where you know we talk about hurricane season obviously coming up in June, uh, but we also talk about these pop-up storms that just come in off the co off the Gulf and and just kind of wreak some havoc. So it's not just there's a long-term preparation involved in what you guys do in the short term, and we kind of kind of want to dive into that. So uh let's get started real simple. Brent, just uh you can give us uh how many years you've served uh served our beautiful city, um, and then uh you know give us your day-to-day responsibilities.
SPEAKER_04Okay. Well, I've been with the city of Thomasville Electric for 43 years. Wow. Started in 1983.
SPEAKER_01So you were like what, 10 years old when you started?
SPEAKER_04It's been here longer than I was born. Yeah. If you believe that one. Yeah, but uh no. So my my day-to-day uh responsibilities uh really are just ensuring that uh our ongoing projects, our maintenance, our new construction, uh those kind of timelines are kept, and then the uh safety aspect of the crews, uh, you know, keeping the uh guys in protective gear and uh trying to make sure that that everyone goes home intact the way they arrived that morning and that we do our job and take care of our families and our and our community.
SPEAKER_03Awesome. And Drew? Uh I've been with the city for 25 years, actually started on the line crew, um, worked for Brent for a while. All right there. Um so uh I'm over to Utility Response City.
SPEAKER_05We we might we might have to shift some of these questions and get some insight on Brent. So I'm sure you get all the insight you want if you ask around.
Hurricane Season Planning And Materials
SPEAKER_03Might not be friendly for a podcast, a different type of podcast. Um over to Utility Response Center. So we're a 24-hour utility dispatch center. Um, got operators that work 12-hour shifts. We uh work 365 24 hours a day. So I'm I'm over those operators. I manage them, make sure that they're um able to do their job, that they uh they have everything in place, all the softwares, all the systems, those kind of things, uh planning for it. Kind of unrelated to URC directly, but also I manage our GIS and our asset management softwares. So, and that's another thing that really ties in a lot with the storms and things.
SPEAKER_01Um each one of you had have been part of the city's preparation in response to some of our most recent storms and hurricanes. Um what is your first priority? Brent, I'll start with you. What's your first priority in your areas when preparing for hurricane season?
SPEAKER_04Well, when when preparing for hurricane season, um a lot of communication between the operational side, which are the line crews, uh, and the warehousing staff, uh, the electrical engineering part, uh, and keeping you know materials uh available uh for use during those those times because it's gonna be the quantity of materials are gonna is gonna be a lot greater uh during that need or those few days to weeks. So preparation with materials, um trying to, if it's a hurricane that you know it is coming in and it and you're in the path, that's the time that you start trying to arrange help from other utilities, mutual aid help, trying to estimate as best you can about how many people you think you may need. And again, that depends on what the weather team predicts the storm to be. Uh so you know, preparing for help, materials, uh, and then just a plan to, you know, get essential services back on as quick as possible, and then just kind of work out from that uh area and and work the outages as as they come in as related to large number of outages, kind of take priority over a small outage, try to get as many people back on as can't as we can. So that that kind of preparation.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I never I never really thought about materials, but that's true. They're probably hard to come by after the hurricane.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, so yeah, I mean if it's uh big big storm or what if it's a hurricane or you know, uh a tornado path that has, you know, a 20-mile destruction, it's gonna capture more than just Thomasville. So uh material uh and availability is is key. Uh so we have to work with our vendors and we have to make sure we have enough inventory coming in to put back up and rebuild the electric system. I mean you can't just run out the lows and get this stuff. Nah, you you cannot go to Lowe's or Walmart and the colours. They don't carry poles, they don't carry transformers.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, they don't carry crossarms. And before we go with Drew with the same question, um just just for clarity, um, how many miles of lines do we cover?
SPEAKER_04Uh we have three to four hundred miles of line. Uh and our service area is uh just a little over 600 square miles.
SPEAKER_01Wow. And that's just electric. That's just electric. And so there's a lot more that that the city of Thomasville maintains. So yeah. Um all right, let's pass it on to let's pass it on to you, Drew. Yeah, if I can comment on one thing that Brent was saying right there. No, you can't. I'm just kidding.
SPEAKER_03Um in terms of the lines that you know what Brent's talking about, one of the things that's unusual about Thomasville versus a lot of the other cities in Georgia is how much rural area we have, how much is out on plantations, how much of it is inaccessible. And then we have a combination of that and what's in the city. So it's uh it's a challenge to sit there and be able to maintain all of that.
SPEAKER_01So preparing for hurricanes and things like that, what's what's your what are your first priorities in the in these times?
SPEAKER_03So one of the things about a hurricane in terms of how we work in the office is it's very intense versus normally when things come in small bursts. So uh we we kind of have to prepare all year long because whatever you're responding during a storm is gonna be whatever you do every day. So if you're developing bad habits or you're not, you don't have everything in place, it's just gonna be worse and it's gonna be magnified when you have a storm. So it's uh it's a lot of preparation for that. As we get closer to the hurricane season, though, some of the priorities are our software, um, making sure that everything's working because we rely heavily on multiple different softwares to sit there and be able to manage the storms effectively. And then also um making sure that the lessons we learned from the previous storms, we had implemented those to make things work more efficient.
SPEAKER_01And one thing, real quick, efficiently, is uh for our utility customers, make sure they have a cell phone number or a number associated when you call in, right? Or you say, I have problems at this address. If that address has a cell phone associated with it, does that make your life easier?
SPEAKER_03Cell phones are better because uh cell phones can receive the text from us. So whenever we have outages, um, anybody that's got a cell phone, they receive a text, it's giving them a notification that their power is out and when there's power restored. Um, it's kind of a two-edged sword because in a lot of ways now we receive less phone calls because people are like, Well, I can tell you already know. Yeah, right. Um, but we actually have we don't just rely on phone calls. We have our meters report when they're out. We have uh we have our um SCADA software, which is that's without getting into it, basically is what controls the the main breakers that that uh feed our system, and we have the ability for them to report power outages. So we have a lot of a lot of stuff that um gives us information during storms of of what's out for customers part themselves, though, yes, absolutely having their phone numbers updated um in the system, it's it's very helpful. Sometimes that phone call is the most important thing.
SPEAKER_04In relation to that, you you're talking about in neighborhoods. Uh a lot of customers doesn't realize that it could be in some neighborhoods or some locations that one part of the block is fed from a different circuit or a different tap line, and this customer may be on, and two houses down, they may be off, and they're like, Well, we we're on the same street, we're in the same area, why is my power off?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so yeah, it doesn't work. Power distribution doesn't work work the same way as streets, right? I mean correct. Yeah, so yeah, don't ever assume because your neighbor's power is on or you know that yours are off or whatever. You just don't know.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, their lights are on, wire mine out. Yeah, you're coming from a completely different direction.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And yeah. Uh Ricky, you had a question coming up here? Oh, do I? Oh, okay.
Software Systems And Customer Phone Numbers
SPEAKER_05Yeah, so so just kind of keeping on the theme, obviously, as we've heard from you guys, there's some long-range preparations, and when you're looking at hurricane season and things of that nature, um, and and as Drew just mentioned, there there are day-to-day preparations in general. Um, but as we as we kind of shift a little bit um and we talk about you know these severe, you know, short-term storms just kind of rolled through, um, you know, what's the main priority for these storms? So if you guys can both uh tag in on that. Uh Drew, you want to start?
SPEAKER_03Sure. Um internally what we do inside URC, uh, we change our schedules. We uh we instead of having operators working um, you know, at having so many at nighttime, we bring a lot more people to daytime um and adjust our shift based on whatever the line crew is gonna work so that we can have staffing for it. Um that that's something that's really important. We have to put that in place. Um we do a final check on all the softwares, we get all of those things ready. Um and we also will organize extra support staff. If it's a major storm that comes in, I will um I will organize a damage assessment. Um to sometimes we send people out right after the storm ends street by street to look at it because we're looking for more than just the uh power being out, we're looking for CNS wires being down, we're looking for trees in the road, all of the other departments that are affected by it, and we are collecting all that information. Our priority is electric by far, but we do have to look at all those other things.
SPEAKER_04So on the electric side with these afternoon thunderstorms that that cause problems, what we, as the electric department does, we have a dedicated crew of two guys, uh two linemen, that are on call 24-7. Uh and they take the primary uh blunt of calls after hours. If it's a thunderstorm, they'll work it. If they get to a point that they're overwhelmed and they've got more than they could do, we also have a standby crew that is assigned to be those guys backup. So those the URC will call those two additional guys in. And once both teams are working, if anything else comes in, then the URC will just start going down our list of employees or our our linemen, our staff, and and start calling additional help in.
SPEAKER_03One thing I do want to say um also that that Brent didn't bring up, but I know it's super important for the hurricanes in terms of electric is mutual aid. That's one thing we do before storms is getting the other crews lined up.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. It's usually hugely important. Uh and and we we give mutual aid. Some some of our crew you'll see go, uh I guess some of them went to Mississippi in the ice storm kind of thing, right? There's all kinds of things.
Pop Up Storm Response And Staffing
SPEAKER_04Drew was me uh mentioning mutual aid. So what mutual aid is, um is uh basically an agreement through investor-owned utilities, electrical co-ops, public power communities like Thomasville. So we have agreements with other utilities in uh in in time of a natural disaster, whether it's tornadoes, a hurricane, ice storm, uh if this utility is available to help another utility, a request is made, and people will say yes, we can come help with X amount of uh crew and equipment. Uh and it's the same way works for us, we'll do the same. Uh see, we're gonna pretty much take a hit from this storm. We're already on the phone with uh Electric Cities of Georgia as who that we're we're affiliated with them as a public power community. So they will start trying to, you know, Thomasville's requested some uh standby crews for this storm. Uh if you feel you're available to help, they'll get on the list and they'll e email us names of crews and the city they're coming from and about how many people they're going to send so we can make those arrangements for hotels and and that kind of stuff. But yeah, mutual aid is very, very important.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's a big deal.
SPEAKER_05It's important, and I'll tell you what, it's um it's a special part of it because you know, when you when you see the stories of the responses and stuff like that, and and um you know it's been it it's been a joy to kind of monitor on social media when we've had our crews at at other locations and and all of the appreciation that comes from those areas that we get tagged on, and um, you know, that's that's that's really special and it it is shows the humanity of people.
SPEAKER_04Uh so that's a really cool thing. The the guys or the families that that do these things, uh, you know, you may see the Thomasville guys in North Carolina or Florida or Louisiana, and when they get there, there's guys from other municipals in Georgia, public power, that they've known throughout the years and they've worked with on multiple storms. So all these guys kind of build relationships and and when they get out on these storms, they just they work as a b as one big team.
SPEAKER_01That's cool.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, it's pretty awesome.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_05Just just to add one last thing. I remember one of your crews was gone in in December, I believe it was, and it was looking like they potentially might have to stay through Christmas. Yes.
SPEAKER_04Uh I believe that was up to Marietta for the uh I believe it was Marietta. Yeah. Uh they were like they were able to get to get back before Christmas, then but it was kind of uh hit or miss and yeah, that freeze line shifted a little more north and east. Uh so uh Marietta didn't sustain that much damage and they were able to come back home. But yeah, they would, you know, if it was a holiday, we're just gonna keep right on going.
SPEAKER_01Yep, that's that's part of the job. And yeah, one of the reasons uh you know we we respect the heck out of what what you guys do as as on electric and the URC, there they're no days off. Um no days off. No days off during storms.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, absolutely. Well, and not not during storms, but you guys are 365. 365 anyway. So yeah. But I'm not there to hold them. All right, so uh so so so Brent, pretty, pretty popular question here. True or false, okay? Our linemen can respond to an outage at any time during a severe storm or hurricane.
SPEAKER_04Power goes out, and Drew's gonna call them in.
SPEAKER_05That is false.
Mutual Aid Crews And Logistics
SPEAKER_04So typically in bad weather, uh we are called out, and if there's specifics in the weather that may be unsafe for the guys to go up in the bucket trucks and work on the on the lines and the poles, OSHA says that there must be a qualified person to determine if it's safe enough for that. That lift to go up in the air and that that guy to work. They don't, OSHA does not set a specific wind speed limit, but it is advised that once the wind speeds exceeds 20 miles an hour, that the situation is evaluated by the by the crew on site or the person in charge on site. And if they feel that it's unsafe, then you stop work. Do we go up and work when the wind speed is above 20? A lot of times, yes. But we try to leave that up to the person in charge on the job site and the linemen themselves.
SPEAKER_01If the winds are below a certain amount, you feel safe, you're still out there in the rain, you know, you're in there.
SPEAKER_04We typically work from those trucks during the storms when the wind speed is way over 20 miles an hour. We don't really like to what we call boom down, which is bring the bucket truck down, cradle it, and wait it out. We don't like to do that. We want to get the power restored, but when it does move and the power lines and the trees are all moving six to eight feet one way or the other, it's time to come down and be safe for. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01Man, that's we have we got another uh uh true-false question here for for Drew. Uh when the power is out, the first priority is to get the power on at Ricky's house. Ricky lives at Archibald. It's in yes, it is still. Um so uh so that that will be our first priority is getting uh medical stuff, uh Archibald on.
SPEAKER_03During a major storm, the first priority is actually dictated by the EOC. And it's not to restore power, but it's to clear a path so that you can get to Archibald to their different facilities. We come in from old Monticello and we come in from old Albany Road. So even if it means getting a bulldozer out there and pushing all the broke poles out of the way and making it harder for us to repair later, that is the highest priority. And then we start doing power restoration. And yes, the emergency, uh, the uh services like that, the hospital, that that is a very, very high priority. If they're down, I mean they have generators, fortunately, but it's not safe for them to count on that only. So getting the getting archibald back on is the highest priority. And then we have a we have a list that goes down from that. We uh we focus in on the the main, what we call feeders. They're they're circuits. It's like um you you could have anywhere from, I don't know, 50 to a thousand customers that are behind one of those feeders. And you have to get those on first because if you don't get those on first, it's not going to matter the individual important outage that's behind it. And then we do uh hospitals, uh not hospitals, I'm sorry, we uh we do uh restaurants, we do the Walmart, um grocery stores, kind of thing. Places that are really important for our citizens to be able to access. At one time we had a very detailed list, but to be completely honest, you can't follow it. Yeah, yeah, you have to have a general guideline, you have to have experience, and you have to react to whatever's happening.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so uh Brent, uh how does your team communicate needs from other departments in in order to respond? How does that work?
When Crews Must Pause For Safety
SPEAKER_04So our communication, our primary way is through uh two-way radio. Uh we're in touch with the URC uh via a specific radio channel just for electric operations. Each department in the city has a channel that they can use for their communication. Uh in in the power business or the storm business, the communication, clear communication is super, super important. So that's why we rely on the radio traffic. Everyone is hearing the conversation.
SPEAKER_01You know, like uh communication is it keeps you alive. In other words, you gotta shut this down so that when uh somebody's working on it, they don't get persecuted. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_04So you can't be wrong. You can't be wrong. Uh during during the storms, whether it's hurricane or afternoon thunderstorm, one miscommunication can end someone's life and change their family's life forever. So it is it is life and death uh communication.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it absolutely is. Um one of the things we do when crews are working out there on sunny days is we we have settings on our breakers that we are that we call them hotline tags, and they basically they change the settings on the breaker where if something happens out there, the breaker will not try and close back in and it will it'll open quicker, and it's all about the safety of the crews working out there because if something goes wrong, you want the power to instantly go out and you don't want it to try and come back on. Uh, another big area is whenever we're restoring power, like Brent was saying, that it's so important to save the radio because you you somebody could say, Hey, we're ready to sit there and close that breaker in, we're ready to restore it. And if everybody's not on the same page, you could have somebody else out there that was working in the area that somebody wasn't aware of. But because everybody's listening in, they're like, whoa, whoa, hold on. Don't don't do that.
SPEAKER_01All right. So uh last question here. Um, and um uh Brent and um Andrew, this goes to you guys as well, but uh let's let's end up the interview. What's the toughest storm response you've been a part of?
SPEAKER_04Um the toughest storm that I've I've been a part of was early in my career, uh Hurricane Kate 1985.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Um I remember that that was uh Thomasville's last direct hit, probably, right?
SPEAKER_04Uh yeah, probably a direct hit. Uh we've been close.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04I mean, Michael was west of us, but it was if we had sustained that direct hit, Thomasville would not look like Thomasville. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_04But Hurricane Kate probably, I would say.
SPEAKER_05What category was that?
SPEAKER_04Uh I believe Hurricane Kate was a category one.
SPEAKER_03Well, it was just how it hit us. It was just it developed in the Gulf, I believe, and it just came directly of Thomasville. So it's it's not even the category that matters, it's how close it is to land, right?
Restoration Priorities
SPEAKER_04And you know, over these 40 years since Hurricane Kate, the the electric system has been upgraded, uh you know larger power lines, larger classification of wood poles and heavier construction uh technology, so it is improved uh from what it was then, but uh all that plays a uh significant role in being able to restore and how much damage you sustain. Yep.
SPEAKER_01There were trees everywhere, yep, trees everywhere. Oh, that's all about it.
SPEAKER_04And it hit us in the middle of the night. Yep, that's right. Yeah, that's right. I remember my power going out as a child.
SPEAKER_01We're not saying you're old, but we were both kids. Yes, we were kids. We had to write about this in second grade. But you look younger than us, so it's totally not fair. But uh so um uh um Drew, what about what about you?
SPEAKER_03What was mine was Michael, mine was Hurricane Michael. It was the it was the first large one um after I'd left uh working in electric and gone to to run our URC.
SPEAKER_05And um You thought you got off easy.
SPEAKER_03Well, no, not really. It's it's it's a lot different. It's it's a lot, obviously it's a lot less physical, but mentally it was just it was hell. It was um, I mean, it was we we've changed, the city's changed the way we do things a lot. But you know, back then it was not uncommon. You would just work 24 hours, 36 hours. Um, you just kept working. And so um, yeah, I was relatively young. There was a lot of things in my department that I didn't need to be worked on, and it was just 20 hour days. It was uh it was just it was it was pretty bad for me.
SPEAKER_04Well, Drew, Drew just made a statement that it's very true, and there's a lot of truth to it. You there is a threshold now, a limit to how much you work your guys at one time. Uh, and it's been defined by a lot of agencies and it's and it's a proven fact. We try to stick to a 16-hour day now. Uh let's let's say that again.
SPEAKER_0516 hours. A 16-hour day. 16 hours. Right. 16 hours. That's like a double.
SPEAKER_04That's a that's a double shift.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah. So most of us work a sort of hit. Most of us work a single.
SPEAKER_04Well, when these storms hit, the the linemen, we have this mentality. We want to try to restore everyone. But it just physically you're not able to do that. You have to have rest.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04So um, and you get way more work and way more progress is accomplished during the day when you have daylight. Working at night when you're exhausted is almost defeating the purpose. So, you know, when it gets nine o'clock at night and we've worked, we're gonna start winding it down and and try to get our guys uh eight-hour rest period. And that's that's mandatory now.
Radio Discipline And Life Or Death Calls
SPEAKER_05And and I think that's one of the parts that that's important to say the the crews, they love what they do. They do, absolutely. They do, and and when you love what you do, that's where you get that adrenaline rush to try and make an impact. Exactly. And that that makes it tough for for both of you guys to manage the situation because some may want to be trying to be Superman or Superwoman, and you gotta keep them tamed and make sure that they're not you know going exceeding the limits to put you know their team or themselves in danger. And exactly, you know, I think that that's that's always that's always part of that equation.
SPEAKER_04Drew and I sometimes butt heads a little bit. Um at night, and Drew's like, well, we got one more of like Drew, we're we're done for the night. We're done one night. We'll we'll pick up in the morning. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And then Drew was like, okay, okay, okay. I understand. Um and a lot of times it is, it's like triage. It's it's you you have to prioritize, you have to, it's not really cutting off a limb, but you have to be like, well, no, we're not gonna get that back up. We're not gonna get that power back on. Um, because we we've got to prioritize. We have to, in the in the evenings, when it's when it's winding down, you're yeah, I I'm looking for more simple outages that we can do if there's time. But we will also tell them, it's like, well, sometimes you'll tell them, hey, go look at it, and if you don't have enough time, don't do it. And that's a mistake because they will do it. And so you just have to stop telling them because they're just like, they know I'm gonna fix it while I'm here. And then Brent gets on to me about it.
Hardest Storms Lessons And Wrap Up
SPEAKER_05We'll we'll wrap up things with with with with quite simply a big thank you to you guys for being here, but also for everything that you do and everything, uh, you know, whether it's, you know, we've been a little lucky with the with the weather patterns here lately, but there's always things to do. There's power outages for a variety of different reasons. So we appreciate the work that all of your teams do, and uh especially when it's those severe moments that uh your teams, uh, and this is plural, are stepping away from their families and and and spending time serving their community and going above and beyond. So um so we appreciate you guys being here. We appreciate your teams and and everything you'll do. Uh uh a few announcements. Uh coming up on uh Thursday, May 21st, uh we have our first coffee and conversations with the Chiefs. Uh that is with our police chief uh Wade Glover and our fire chief uh Tim Connell. Uh it'll take place from 7:30 to 8:30 at grassroots coffee. So come on out, have a chat with uh with our chiefs about public safety matters and just uh have a have a cup of coffee.
SPEAKER_01To jump in, they're very conversational. You'll talk about them. So I mean just heads up, come talk to them.
SPEAKER_05They're cool. We'll be lucky we get out by 8:30 if they can talk to them. That's right.
SPEAKER_01Uh uh 8:30 p.m.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. with a question mark. Um and then it is uh Georgia primary season, so um, you know, early voting has begun, but there are there are um, you know, governor, lieutenant governor, Senate, House representatives, and uh judicial positions. Um get on out. It's part of your civic duty, right? We talk about it on the podcast civic duty. So get on out there. The election, obviously, uh primary election takes place on May 19th.
SPEAKER_01Thank you guys for listening. I appreciate y'all. Um, you know, subscribe to the podcast on your favorite listening app and uh make so that way you can give us a hard time.
SPEAKER_00You've been listening to Thomasville Insights with the City of Thomasville. The show is produced by the City of Thomasville Marketing Department. The show's music is by pond5.com. To learn more about the City of Thomasville, visit Thomasville.org or follow us on social media. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast on your favorite listening app so you don't miss an episode. Thanks for listening.