LINTON CITY SERVICES: Linton Electric Department has 12 employees to serve city

By Jo Chiparo Kevin Dale (left) and Ralph Lifford are two of the 12 employees of the Linton Electric Department. Part of their jobs is working to install broadband Internet services. [Order this photo]

It has been a quiet year for Linton's electrical department according to Electric Supervisor, Nick House.

However, he said there were four incidents during storms when the 34,000 volt line was down that affected the whole town.

"It's been mostly maintenance in 2008," noted House. "We are in the process of upgrading the 34,000 volt main feeder line throughout town and changing insulators. The feeder line is old -- 40 years old. We also changed some cross arms during the year."

He also said that a recent addition to the electrical department is a 120 x 100 maintenance barn for storing vehicles.

House explained that 12 men are currently employed by the department and are assigned specific duties.

"Everything is becoming more technically advanced now," House explained. "More and more computers are involved in our work."

Two men in the department -- Kevin Dale and Ralph Lifford -- work 30 percent of their time installing broadband Internet to residents.

Mike Thornton is assigned the responsibility of seeing that every home in Linton receives a new computerized meter. Nearly 600 have already been installed.

Thornton explained that, with the new meters, a meter reader will not have to walk the route and physically read each meter. As meter readers drive by town establishments equipped with new meters, the meter will send a frequency to computerized equipment in the truck relaying the meter reading. The information is then downloaded at city hall.

House said that the department has six linemen: Ralph Lifford, Dale LaRoche, Chad House, Kevin Wright, Rob Robison, and Rich Bedwell.

"The linemen maintain lines and do maintenance at substations," noted House. "They take care of all the power within the city limits."

Kevin Dale and Steve Phegley are laborers, and the tree trimmers are Roger Phegley and Ralph Bailey.

House said dispatcher Charlie Stephens relates all calls that come to the city barn then he (House) dispatches a person to the problem area.

House has supervised Linton's electric department for 17 years and says he likes his job that offers something different every day.

"I appreciate that the mayor (Tom Jones) and Brent (Slover) make sure we have enough money to run the department the way it should be run," House said.