Watt's New
A series of conversations about “Watt’s” new in the energy space, hosted by Cobb EMC - one of the nation’s largest electric membership cooperatives based in Marietta, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta.
Watt's New
Power Heroes - The Story of Bucket Trucks and Brotherhood
When the lights flicker back on after a storm, there's a special group of professionals who made it happen. Brad Leatherwood, a line foreman with nearly 35 years of experience at Cobb EMC, pulls back the curtain on the challenging yet deeply rewarding world of electric linemen. #ThankALineman
This is Watt's New, a series of conversations about what's new in the energy space, hosted by Cobb EMC, one of the nation's largest electric membership cooperatives, based in Marietta, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta. Now here's Watt's New.
Mike Codichini:Back with another episode of Watt's New. My name is Mike Codichini, I'm the Director of Member and Public Relations at Cobb EMC, and National Lineman Appreciation Day falls every year in April. We like to celebrate our linemen here at Cobb EMC every day of the year, but this is our lineman appreciation episode, and Brad Leatherwood is our guest today. He knows a thing or two about what our linemen do. He's a line foreman here at Cobb EMC. Brad, welcome to the show. Thanks for coming on.
Brad Leatherwood:Thank you, I appreciate it.
Mike Codichini:Let's talk about your background real quick and what got you into the role as a lineman.
Brad Leatherwood:Fresh out of high school, 18 years old, had a job at a local hardware store, ran a lot of equipment. My family was like, yes, that's not a great job to be in. You need try something else and Cobb EMC, fortunately, had a newspaper article that they were hiring a lot of people and so I applied and got hired on in 1990. And I've been here almost 35 years, became a lineman and later on in life, going through the ranks, I became a foreman, and I've been a foreman now for about 11 years.
Mike Codichini:Let's discuss the training that you need. What does someone need to get started in this type of role?
Brad Leatherwood:Well, there's a lot of training facilities out there. Now what we're doing is we're implementing in some of our local schools on the trades group, different with the gas company, electrical companies and so forth. They're introducing ways for kids to get a job besides going to college. Some people just don't know what they're going to do With that. There's some other training facilities the Northwest Georgia Lyman College, the elite Lyman College and we sponsor them a lot and help them in whatever's needed. Sometimes we help them with the interview process and so forth. With these training groups it gives you everything that you need. It is a school, so it's going to take some time to get the proper training, but they provide all the tools with the purchase. When you leave there, most of the time you'll have your CDL license, you will have your crane certification, all your OSHA classes and all the training that you would have to go to one of these facilities here at Cobb EMC.
Mike Codichini:It's dangerous work. Let's just say it, but I want to hear about the pros of the work you do. What are some of the positives?
Brad Leatherwood:Well, the pros is it's just satisfaction of the work and it's a brotherhood. It's a brotherhood not just where you work at, it's throughout the entire industry, no matter what state you work in. It definitely pays very well. It's got great benefits and a lot of companies will help out with tuition, with school, if you want to further your education. Here at Cobb EMC, we have family days, we have food trucks come in. They provide a lot of things for our entire employees, not just for the linemen.
Mike Codichini:We mentioned, it's inherently dangerous work. What key safety protocols do you have to follow?
Brad Leatherwood:Well, we do have our safety manual and we do have work procedures, and those sometimes have to constantly change in our industry and we have groups that meet and talk about them. But every job that we participate in we have tailgate discussions and we go over each one of these safety protocol or safety rules, work procedures, the hazards involved, what we need to look for and so forth.
Mike Codichini:Talk about other tasks that you and your team perform when you're not fixing the system due to storms or outages.
Brad Leatherwood:Sure, the crew I'm on, we do a lot of substation maintenance. We work with a different department. We change out our regulators that regulate the voltage going out onto our system. The breakers that watch for fault current Also work on multiple type switches throughout our system, making sure they work properly and functioning properly on a pretty much a daily basis.
Mike Codichini:And you've been here at Cobb EMC since 1990?
Brad Leatherwood:Th at's correct.
Mike Codichini:You have to be able to share a story or two about work you did in the field. Maybe a customer success story?
Brad Leatherwood:Sure. Hurricane Katrina is the one I can think of. It happened a while back. We sent multiple, multiple crews. We sent equipment, cars, trucks and gave them to these companies. They lost everything and you can't imagine what it looks like on the news until you actually put your when you see it it firsthand. And so while we were doing our job safely and the first subdivision that we turned on, these people didn't have power for three months and when the lights came on, there were people screaming, they were of joy and what was so great is people would come from all over and they didn't have anything, but they would give us stuff, they would bring us coffee, they would bring us things to eat and they would share difficulties that they were having and they were just so appreciative of us, and that's just the great part about this job.
Mike Codichini:I think at that point you realize you're providing a vital service. And where was that?
Brad Leatherwood:Well, this was Picayune I hope I'm saying this correct Mississippi. It was the I that came through Louisiana and we started far north in Mississippi and worked our way down, so we only can stay out of town for two weeks, and then we bring other crews in for another two weeks, and so we were back and forth for several months that way, helping them out.
Mike Codichini:I'm glad you talked about that, because that brings up a whole different aspect of your job that a lot of people might not know about, and the overall term for it is mutual aid.
Brad Leatherwood:Yes, that's correct.
Mike Codichini:So if something happens to another cooperative outside of our area, our crews are able to get the trucks, get the equipment, get the team and go to that area to help them restore power. Same goes for us. If something happens here, crews from outside of our area come in and help us restore power and fix the damaged system if need be. And that's called mutual aid, and I just think that's one of the coolest parts of your job. It's kind of an unspoken agreement between cooperatives, kind of a brotherhood.
Brad Leatherwood:And we all have the same lingo when we're talking. It doesn't matter what where we're working at, they know what we're talking about and we work hand in hand together.
Mike Codichini:The podcast is called Watt's New. So what's new in technology in your field? Any new innovations or achievements that you come across?
Brad Leatherwood:Oh, absolutely, over the years. It's just our fast response on outage time. It's incredible how our system operates and how we can isolate a certain problem, whether a car hitting a pole, a tree damaging several poles. We can get the majority of our system back online and only have very minimum outages.
Mike Codichini:Where would you like to see this profession going in the next few years?
Brad Leatherwood:I'd like the training to get bigger and bigger. I'd like to see here in our industry, at Cobb EMC, I'd like to see us possibly training other facilities besides our own people. We are growing and we are a huge network.
Mike Codichini:Do you have any advice for the younger generation who wants to pursue this type of work?
Brad Leatherwood:Well, this is a self-satisfying job that we work in. It's a very dangerous job. It requires constant training, but it also requires hard work, challenging work time that you have off from your family, sometimes on holidays and weekends, but it definitely pays off in the long run.
Mike Codichini:There's a day dedicated every April to linemen nationwide, and we love celebrating here all month at Cobb EMC. You guys are our frontline workers. You go out there in the nasty weather, miserable conditions, 24-7, 365. It could be time away from your families on holidays. Whatever the case may be, you're doing inherently dangerous work, all of it so our members can stay connected and you bring them safe, reliable power. Not just that, but you are regularly inspecting more than 9,000 miles of lines across five different counties. Whether it's changing old poles out or building new substations, replacing underground cables, the work never stops. I can speak for everyone here at Cobb EMC when I say that we appreciate you. We admire the work that you do and your dedication to our members and the community is just unmatched. So thank you.
Brad Leatherwood:Well, thank you very much.
Mike Codichini:Brad Leatherwood, a line foreman here at Cobb EMC, during Linemen Appreciation Month. You can catch this episode, and future episodes of Watt's New, at CobbEMC. com/P odcast.
:Thank you for listening to Watt's New, hosted by Cobb EMC. Listen to more episodes at CobbEMC. com.