A MESSAGE FROM YOUR GENERAL MANAGER/CEO

GARY RAYBON

Sticking To Our Mission

One morning, a co-op manager came to work to find a slightly burnt stick on her desk. She knew there had to be a story behind the stick.

The stick was about 18 inches long and no bigger than the diameter of your little finger. It wasn’t big enough to be dangerous if it fell on you—it was barely big enough for a dog to chew on. Yet, as she found out from the lineworker who eventually showed up to tell its story, this little stick managed to knock out power to more than 100 electric meters.

The co-op manager heard the frustration in the lineworker’s voice as he described how thoroughly he patrolled up and down 8 miles of line, trying to locate the source of the problem. He couldn’t find it, but he wouldn’t stop looking until he did. He knew that lights were out and members needed electricity. Nobody, co-op employees included, enjoys being without power.

The lineworker was turning around to patrol the line yet another time when his eye caught something. It was the stick—this tiny stick wedged in equipment atop a pole—that had knocked out service to so many.

Once he’d found it, things moved quickly. Repairs were made, and power was restored.

Normally, that would be the end of the story—but that story made me think about all we do to serve the members of Wharton County Electric Cooperative.

As I learned about this outage, I reflected on the work ethic and dedication of our own lineworkers, who work with diligence to restore electricity in their commitment to serving you, our members.

The story also made me want to share with our members the challenges of power restoration. The difficulty in finding this stick is an example of why, when you call our office, we don’t always know how long restoration will take or what is causing an outage. We do our absolute best, but there are so many variables in nature that we cannot control.

Some would say I shouldn’t share this anecdote because if members knew just a little stick could knock out power, they would be concerned about reliability.

I see the point: When you look at all the trees, birds, and animals in our service area and consider all the various weather conditions we endure, it’s clearly a daunting task for us to keep the lights on. Yet we do keep them on, most of the time. Day after day, week after week, our lineworkers and other staff ensure that our members have power.

Although some might worry about one small stick causing so many to lose electricity, I look at the millions of sticks we face daily and think: Isn’t it great that we do keep the lights on so consistently?

I also think about what an amazing group of people our members have serving them. Thank you for letting us do what we do. We promise to keep picking up the sticks every day.