Laura Seney
Welcome to Live Wire, a podcast powered by Kosciusko REMC. We are a member owned and locally operated cooperative that supplies electricity to portions of Kosciusko, Fulton, Wabash, and Whitley counties, here in northern Indiana. Live Wire is a program where we come together to discuss co-op matters, energy, community topics, and to communicate with KREMC members. I am your host, Laura Seney.

Laura Seney
Welcome back to another episode of Live Wire. Joining us in studio today is Mike Whitaker, Manager of Operations at Kosciusko REMC. He is here to discuss winter electric safety, what to do during winter, power outages, and other winter electric tips. Hey Mike, how are you today?

Mike Whitaker
I'm great. How are you?

Laura Seney
Good. Thank you for joining us.

Mike Whitaker
No problem.

Laura Seney
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your role here at Kosciusko REMC?

Mike Whitaker
Sure. So this summer, I'll be here 21 years. I started out as a meter tech, went around, and, in the old days, I like to call it. 20 years ago, when I started, we had to go around and get people's meter readings. And the difference between months is the amount that they would pay per kilowatt. If people didn't turn in their meter readings, that's what we had to do. We also did disconnects for nonpayment. And, you know, among other things. We were always on the go. And I did that for about a year and a half. Then I entered into the apprenticeship program, which is a four year program to become a lineman. And then I was a lineman up until last year when I took this position. So I've been in this position a little over a year now and enjoying it and just learning a lot still. Excited about the future.

Laura Seney
That's exciting to hear your journey through the company.

Mike Whitaker
Yeah, I guess I didn't mention what I do. So, last year in January, I took the position of Operations Manager. So, basically I oversee the engineering and operations department, how the line gets built. Any contractors that we bring in and that kind of stuff.

Laura Seney
Awesome. What are some of the biggest electrical hazards homeowners faced during the winter?

Mike Whitaker
So obviously, in the winter time, people are more concerned about their power going out because it's cold. But in the winter time, if there's things that cause people's power to go out, sometimes it can be ice storms. It can be heavy snow that are getting on branches, causing, the power lines to break and snap. One misconception that a lot of people have is if the power line is on the ground, then it means it's de-energized and that, you know it would be safe to walk around. Don't ever assume that a power line laying on the ground is de-energized, and that it does not have power on it, especially if there's ice and snow, because that can act like an insulator. That wire could leave there hot on the ground and you would never know. There's no indication that that wire has 7000 volts on it, so you always want to just take precaution and assume that any wire on the ground is energized and dangerous.

Laura Seney
And what should people do if they like, see a wire on the ground or are facing something like that?

Mike Whitaker
Just call into our office and just reported as a wire down, and someone will come out and respond, you know, as soon as they can. We treat that as a hazardous situation. We go out and inspect it. And if it is, sometimes it can be a phone wire or sometimes it could be a cable wire. Sometimes it is our wire. So you always just assume that it is our wire. And, we let the people that are trained in that area make the decision on what to do. But that way, you know, the members are safe and there's no risk to them.

Laura Seney
That makes sense. How can people safely use space heaters and electric blankets and other devices to prevent fires during the winter?

Mike Whitaker
Well, that's a good question. This time of year, people like to use space heaters. It just kind of takes the chill out of the air. So I actually just looked this up because, you know, they're so commonly used. This is an example, a small space heater, it's usually, you know, around 30 to $50 is going to use about 1500 watts of electricity. So that turns into anywhere from like 12, 13 amps that are being used. And that's not the issue there. The issue is the extension cord that people plug them into. Because if I have an outlet on the side of my room, but my La-Z-Boy is in the middle of the living room, you know where I can sit and watch TV. I want that space heater to be kind of right there, blowing on me so that I'm going to stay warm. People just go by any random extension cord, and we like to save money when we can. If I'm looking at an extension cord and I didn't know the difference, I'm going to buy the extension cord that's 30ft long that costs $10 versus the 30ft cord that's costing me 50 bucks. That's an obvious choice. But the cheaper cord is only rated for about 10 amps. So you can see that that extension cord would be overloaded by this one space heater. The problem is people run that extension cord from their outlet on their wall over by their lazy boys. They plug a surge protector into it. Then they have the space heater plugged in, and they have their lamp plugged in and they have their phone charger. You know, they might have other stuff plugged into that. So they're really overwhelming that extension cord, which creates heat because there's so much load and electricity traveling through it at once, it can't handle that load. And it basically starts melting down the insulated properties on it and then wherever that's lame, it basically just catches the carpet on fire. It can catch appliances on fire. People kind of start smelling something hot. They assume that, oh, it's my space heater. By then the carpet's on fire or the upholstery is on fire. And those type of fires tend to spread very quickly. So space heaters are great to take the chill out of the air. I would recommend that you use a space heater that has a thermostat on it where you can set it. They also have space heaters that have oil. They kind of look like the old radiator styles, where it will actually heat that oil up. The thermostat will then kick it off, and then the oil stays warm and it radiates the heat into the room. Those are the best ones to use, but if you have one of the cheaper ones that just has an on and off switch and you know it's running all night long and you're asleep. Those are the dangerous ones. So if you are going to use one of those though, just plug it directly into your outlet and make sure that it's away from, you know, any clothes, any appliances, or, you know, your couch La-Z-Boy. Just make sure that it's clear that that hot air is not going to directly blow on something.

Laura Seney
That makes sense and that's good to know, because I did not know that about extension cords, that you could overload them that way.

Mike Whitaker
Yeah. So the extension cords, when you look at them, they'll have an AMP rating and it'll tell you, you know, the gauge wire that it is. And this is rated for ten amps. This is rated for 15 amps. This is rated for 20 amps. So you definitely want to make sure you pay attention to that when you're buying one, especially if you're going to be using it for a space heater.

Laura Seney
That is good to know.

Mike Whitaker
I always tell myself, do I really want to spend the extra money? But if I did not and my house catches on fire, what's going to be more expensive?

Laura Seney
Yes, that is very, very true.

Mike Whitaker
The extra 20 or 30 bucks you're going to spend for that extension cord is definitely worth it.

Mike Whitaker
Yeah, plus the heavier ones, they last longer. They're more durable. You get what you pay for.

Laura Seney
Yeah. That's so true. Do you see people's space heaters? Do they end up, like, costing way more than people think they will in terms of electricity?

Mike Whitaker
Yeah. Typically electric space heaters are not good for your electric bill. It's basically like an electric oven kind of has an electric coil. And then there's a fan that blows. So they are expensive to run. But you know, things that you can do to kind of prevent that is, you know, wear sweat pants, wear sweatshirts, you know, maybe have a blanket. It's okay for your house to be a little bit chilly. But we live in a society where, hey, it's available and I'm going to do it, right? You know, growing up as a child, my parents always preached, you know, our light bill was so expensive, it was $30 this month, or it was $40. That was a lot. So if you left the house and, you know, left a light on, that was a sin. Your parents were telling you you're in trouble and just nowadays people take, you know, electricity for granted and, you know, incomes are up. So people just are not, as I want to say, responsible with their light use or their electricity use. You know, set your thermostat maybe at 70 instead of 72, things like that. But you can still be comfortable and not have a space heater blowing at 90 degrees on you.

Laura Seney
That makes sense. How can people prepare for winter storms and minimize power disruptions?

Mike Whitaker
So that's a good question. I think in the winter time, people don't really go outside that much, so they don't really look around. We don't get a lot of calls about people concerned about stuff taking out their electricity, but it's a good idea. So out at the road, wherever the transformer is, there's a pole that has a transformer on. It's a big round gray thing, and usually there's a wire that runs from that pole to your house, and then that's where your electricity goes into the meter, and then it goes into your house. If there are large tree branches above that wire, you know, that are rotted or look like they're going to fall. It's a good idea to call a tree company and have them come out and remove those so that in the middle of the night, if it's zero degrees and that branch falls, then you're not going to be without electricity. There's a misconception that the electric company will cut any tree that's close to any power line. So we trim and cut trees out by the primary line, which is usually out by the road, unless you live back a really long lane and there's overhead wire. That is the voltage that's either 12,500 volts or 7000 volts. If there's three wires at the top of the pole, it's 12 five. If there's one, then it's like 7200. That's what we trim around. It's safer for us. We have trained professionals that do it. Obviously we don't want average Joe tree trimming service to be out there doing it. They don't have the proper equipment that's dangerous for the public, and we definitely don't want an accident. The wire that goes from the transformer to the house is a lower voltage wire, and typically any tree company would feel safe and comfortable trimming around that. So that's why we recommend that you call just a public, you know, a company that does tree work and that can save you an outage in the middle of the night. And it gives you a peace of mind that, you know, I can go to bed. It's windy. We're going to get some ice. Pine trees typically are pretty bad if we get ice or if we get heavy snow, the branches will bend over and they can only take so much. It's a very brittle tree. And then the branches just snap and then they'll fall. They rip your service down. You know, it's kind of expensive if your service gets ripped off of your house, you got to replace the wire. You got to replace the meter base, you know, pay the electrician to come do it if you don't know how to do that yourself. So you got to balance that out. Just like you balance out the cost of a cheaper extension cord versus a, you know, more expensive extension cord. Are you willing to pay for the tree service now, or are you going to pay for the electrician later? Unfortunately, we see that they'd rather pay for the electrician later. Because, you know, it's never going to happen to me. But I mean, it's up to them. It's their property. They can do what they want, but that's just a recommendation.

Laura Seney
That makes sense. What is the distance like trees and branches should be from a power line. How close do they have to be before it's like, oh, this is something I should worry about.

Mike Whitaker
So really on the main line out of the road, this the 7200 lines, you know, trees can grow up within a couple inches of those. Obviously we have a tree program here. We go around, we monitor, you know, all of our service territory. We're on a five year rotation. Obviously if there's spots that need trim, then we pull off of where we are in the rotation to go take care of areas that are of concern. But typically when we trim, we try to trim back at least 15ft, you know, like a 360 degree all the way around. And we're trying to go from the ground all the way to the sky so that we have 15ft clearance anywhere around our wires. You know, it's going to be 15ft the day that we trim. And then obviously the next growing season, the trees grow pretty quick. And within that five year, limit, when we come back to that same area, they're going to be probably, you know, within a couple of feet. And then we start the process all over the wire that goes from your house to the transformer pole. It actually has a low voltage wire. And it has a rubber coating on it that kind of insulates the wire. So, you know, tree branches can touch that, leaves can touch it, and it's not going to disrupt the service. When a large branch has grown over time, you could have a branch that starts out the size of your pinky. And within five years, it'll be like the size of your leg. And that's going to put a lot of pressure and tension on that wire. And then with wind, it's going to rub back and forth. Those are the ones that, you know, if it's going to cause a power disruption, we would rather deal with that. You know, during the daytime if you call in and say, hey, I think that, you know, it's going to cause a problem, we'll come out, take a look at it. If it is something that we can prevent an outage, then we'll definitely take care of it. If it's not a threat to the power line or losing power, then we just recommend that you get a tree company of your own.

Laura Seney
That makes sense. What should be in everyone's home emergency kit to prepare for a power outage?

Mike Whitaker
If it's in the winter time, definitely want to have, some blankets, maybe some sweatshirts, you know, and probably some water and some snacks. But, you know, we're pretty lucky. The society that we live in now or the world that we live in now, especially in Kosciusko, we don't go for a long time without power anymore. So it is a necessity. And it's treated, you know, like an emergency. People's power go out, we respond quickly and promptly, and we do what we can. The quickest amount of time to get people's power restored.

Laura Seney
How can people keep their homes warm when the power goes out?

Mike Whitaker
And we actually get people call in about this quite a bit. In the winter time, you don't want to leave your doors open to your house and then all the cold air in, and you can try and isolate in your rooms as well. You know, maybe everybody stay in one room. Obviously, if you had a wood burning fireplace, that would help too.

Laura Seney
That makes sense. What are the most common mistakes people make during outages, that you have seen?

Mike Whitaker
Yeah. So I think don't panic just because your power goes out, you know, you're probably going to be okay. Well, we hear a lot as people, they call in and say, we heard a loud bang. Our transformer blew up. Typically it's not a transformer blowing up. It's a fuze that's blowing that's designed to interrupt the power so that, basically the transformer does not blow up. And that's what the loud boom is that you're hearing. You know, a misconception is, well, I know electricity. You know, I like I said, I've been doing this and me 21 years and I'm still learning stuff about electricity. So don't ever have that misconception that I know what I'm doing. Don't ever, you know, think that electric lines on the ground just because you don't have power in your house, don't ever assume that the lines on the ground are dead. That's a big misconception. Used to hear that a lot with a car accident. When hit a pole, there would be unsafe lines, you know, four feet off the ground. Whoever it was would call somebody and they want to explain to you that they know, you know, about the power lines. They know that it's hot, but they don't know how close you can get to it. They don't know. They don't know the little minor stuff. In this industry, you only get one shot, right. There's no second chances. So always treat everything like it is energized and stay away from it.

Laura Seney
Yes, that is very good advice.

Mike Whitaker
Yeah. Also I would say on a this is kind of off topic, but I did mention car accidents. Just because the poles broke does not mean that that power is de-energized you hear stories, people have accidents. They get out of the car, they survived the crash and then walking back to the road. You know, it may be dark. They walk into the power line. You know, bad things happen. Obviously, we want to try and prevent that. So if you are in an accident, and your car does hit a pole, just we recommend that if you if it's possible, stay in the car. If it's safe, call 911. Let first responders get there and then they can come with the proper lights. You know, the proper training, and they can guide you from there. Usually when you call 911 for car accident, you hit a pole. They respond in 911. It's as quick as they can get there. Everybody wants to get out and kind of see what's going on. But it is safer to stay in the car, especially if you've hit an electric pole. Good words of wisdom there.

Laura Seney
That is very good advice, especially during the winter as the roads are icy and snowy and those winter car accidents can happen. What steps should homeowners take after a storm to check for electrical damage?

Mike Whitaker
So when the power comes back on, there could be an issue. You know, if your lights are kind of going dim and bright, dim and bright, you would look for that. That could signify that maybe something got broke at your house that, you know, somebody didn't see. Or it could be that your power blinked, came back on. And you're going to think that you have normal power. The member's going to think they have normal power. And then maybe when the dryer kicks on and if it's an electric dryer or an electric stove, it's not going to work properly. They may only have power and half of their house. That could be something outside happened. It could be at the transformer, could be from the service line, from the transformer to the house. You could be only running on partial power. So those are things to look for. If your lights are dimming and bright, you definitely want to call in about that. Get somebody out there to try and prevent, you know, future damage. If there was something that was going to damage anything in your home, you know, if it's just out of an ordinary call in. That's what we always tell everybody. Don't just assume that, oh, it'll be okay.

Laura Seney
That's good advice. How can families with medical devices or refrigerated medications prepare for an outage?

Mike Whitaker
So, you know, preparing for an outage? Unfortunately, there are just certain areas, you know, if they have lots of trees, they have lots of squirrels, they have lots of wildlife, birds. You know, the power is going to go out, probably more so than if you lived out in the middle of a 100 acre field that had no trees. No, there's the it's just a less probability that the power is going to go out there. So if you live in one of those areas, if you are on an emergency medical device, I would recommend to try and have a battery backup. A lot of people are on oxygen, so they'll have a battery backup for their oxygen. If it goes beyond that, they'll try and have a battery backup. If not, then you need to have an emergency action plan. As far as like where you're going to go or you know, and who's going to get you there. You know, we do that in the business world. You have an emergency action plan for all the employees. I think that's good to do at your own home as well. What are we going to do in this situation? Because we have this in front of us that we need to deal with. What was the other part of the question? Oh, medicine.

Laura Seney
Yeah. Refrigerated medicine.

Mike Whitaker
Just I would recommend, if you were really worried about it and it was an extended outage, you could always get ice. You know, put it in a cooler, get your medicine in there. Or if it's in the refrigerator, just, you know, kind of bunch it together with other cold stuff. And if you had to get it out, take it and then put it right back in and you should be okay for several hours on that, depending on the recommendation on the medicine, obviously. Probably something they would want to look into on how long their medicine would last at a certain temperature.

Laura Seney
Yeah, I think it's always good for people to think through some of these like emergency situations. And hey, if this happens, this is what we would do or need to do. And then what is the process you and your team go through to fix the power outage, once you're notified that there is a power outage?

Mike Whitaker
There's always a lineman on call twenty-four seven. The outage management system that we have, it notifies a call center that we have that call center. Then we'll dispatch that out to the lineman who's on call, and they will, let him know that he has 500 people out and it's in this area. So he pulls up his mapping system. He looks to where he needs to go. He looks where the source is coming from, like where the electricity is coming from. He will usually start at the source and the he will drive his way out. So you could drive 3 or 4 miles and not find anything. So you're suspicious. Like what caused the power to go out? This is a lot of people. So he may have to, you know, drive it again and it may be something very small that he didn't see the first time because you're kind of looking for the big picture. Like, is it a big tree? Is it you know, the wire down is at a car accident. So once the lineman finds the problem, if he needs to call in help, then he's going to call people according to how many people he needs. He may need other trucks. He may need a pole. He may need equipment. He may need wire. He's going to call them. They're going to respond. They have to come to the shop, get all of the hardware, you know, all the supplies that are needed, and then they're going to drive out to the place where the lineman is, and then they're going to start doing work. So it's possible to temporary, the line temporary the pole so that we can get the power restored. That's what we're going to do. And then the lineman will work that wire hot. But if it's just too mangled up and it's not safe for them to do that, or too much work, you know, where the wires completely laying on the ground. And there's just a lot of work. They're going to do that while it's de-energized. So sometimes people think, oh, my power's out. They just got to come out and turn the switch on. There is a lot more to it than just turning a switch on. So half of the battle of getting people's power back on is getting the right tools and equipment out there. If the lineman on call doesn't have it, so you're waiting for people to respond. And then generally once the workers get there, once they show up, it really goes pretty quick. The guys do a great job of always, you know, working together, get everybody's power back on as quick as possible. And, you know, and the main thing is, is they have to do it safely. That's the most important thing. Know not to take shortcuts and always be mindful that this career, we always have to be teaching the younger generation, because if we're not teaching the younger generation, it's going to die out. So that's important. You need to take time to do that while being efficient, you know, at the same time. Those are the things that we try to do to respond to an outage.

Laura Seney
That makes sense. What do you wish people knew about power outages? And you probably have covered some of this already, but is there anything that you haven't mentioned that you wish people knew?

Mike Whitaker
So it would be the funniest thing. It'll be, you know, three in the morning, you get a phone call that you have, you know, in addition that out of power. And so you go to the place where the power's out and there's, you know, maybe 50 people on this addition. You have to drive through the addition and you have to find, you know, what caused the power to go out, but where the power is being fed from could be a mile away from this addition. So when you're driving through the addition, people will be outside with their flashlights, like waving you down. Did you know that our power's out? And I always wanted to respond and say, oh, I was just in the area driving around. You know, I'm in a big white truck with my yellow flashers on. And it was just that's my sense of humor. But I know that they're out there because they're concerned that their power's out. But just because your power's out does not mean that the problem is right there at your house. So when the lineman, when he drives by, they may think, oh, no, he doesn't know that my power's out. He's in the area at three in the morning with his bright lights on because the power's out. He has to make sure that it's safe to turn the power back on, to make sure that there's not a tree that came down and tore wires down, that there's not a car accident, that there's not a hazardous situation that's going to harm somebody. If he does turn the power back on. So then he has to drive to where the source is so he can turn the power back on. So a lot of times people are like, where's he going? My power's out right here. We know that. We just have, you know, procedures and protocols that we have to go through to make it safe.

Laura Seney
That's good to know. And that makes sense.

Mike Whitaker
Yeah. Just be patient. Like I said, 3 or 4 in the morning, we're out there because we know the power's out. Not just because we're out there to drive around.

Laura Seney
Yeah, basically, don't panic and just be patient and you guys will get it back on.

Mike Whitaker
Yeah.

Laura Seney
How can homeowners reduce their electric bill without sacrificing their comfort during the winter?

Mike Whitaker
So if you have a programable, thermostat that helps. You can program it to be a lower temperature during the day when you're at work. And then maybe like an hour before you get home, you can program it to turn, you know, back up so that it'll be warm when you get home. And then at nighttime, a lot of people turn it down at night because they would rather sleep with it a little bit cooler because you're, you know, in your bed with blankets. Unless you're a hot sleeper, then you'd you're kind of programed to be hotter. You could do that. You have LED lights. And that is an option that you can go to our website. And you can actually look up your usage with the new advanced meters that we have. And you can kind of look at what your peak times are. So usually it's going to be, you know, morning time when everybody's getting up and then it's really going to be afternoon time when everybody gets home. But you can look at that. And if you were really concerned about, you know, saving a few dollars here or there, you could look into that and be like less, you know, as a family, commit to working to work on this. We're going to try and consume less electricity from, you know, five in the afternoon until 8:00 at night. It's during the day when nobody's home. Nobody's really using it. You can do that. You know, some people believe in unplugging your you know, if you had a blender on the counter, your coffee maker, they call that vampire kilowatts or vampire usage. It's just the electricity traveling through that appliance that doesn't need to. So you can unplug that. But if you tried all that, then you can get back on, you know, and see if your usage has went down at all. So there are ways to do it. You can actually buy a little monitor that will plug into an outlet, and then you plug each device into it. So if you had a certain device that you were suspicious of, I think this may be costing, you know, a little bit more electricity than the normal one, you can plug it into that device compared to your other one, and it'll tell you if it's not working correctly.

Laura Seney
That is helpful. And so you mentioned this a little bit, but do you consider smart thermostats and other tech similar to that worth investing in for winter savings?

Mike Whitaker
Yeah, I think, you know, the smart thermostats are definitely worth it. And you can nowadays, especially since we provide fiber to the home. Or if you're not one of our members, as long as you have good internet service, you can do all that from your phone. Now, like my dad, he lives in Florida. He lives out in the middle of nowhere here. He can get on his phone and he can control his thermostat and see what's going on. See the temperature in his house. So when he's ready to come home, he'll go down for a week or, you know, a couple days, and then he comes back. But he can control all of that from his phone, which is really nice. Now, I think that technology's great. You know, really anything that you can invest in that's going to save you money, it's kind of like back to the extension cord. Are you willing to spend a little bit of money to save money? And there has to be a line there that you're committed on. I'm not going to spend more than this because I'm only going to save this much. You know, it all depends on how aggressive people want to be. You can research all kinds of stuff that, you know, it's promises to save you this amount of electricity. That's kind of up to the member.

Laura Seney
That makes sense. Everyone has to find the right balance for them. How is technology improving power grid resilience against winter storms and other hazards that you've seen develop in the last few years?

Mike Whitaker
Technology has really taken off here, probably the last ten years, and it continues to just improve. The largest thing that we've done has been our outage management system. And the old days, if your power went out, the only way we knew was if you called him, if you lived on a line that had 30 people on it and you were the only person that called in, I would just assume that you were the only person that was out of power. I would show up to your house, look to see, oh, there's no reason why he should be without power. And then I would have to work my way to your neighbor, see if they had power, I would have to do that all the way back to the source. And then that's how I would determine that that whole line was out, that I would make repairs, do whatever I needed to do and get the power back on. Now, with our outage management system, I get the message from our call center and it says, you have 30 people out on this line, and I pull it up on my map. It shows me right where it's fed from. So I know exactly where I'm going now, instead of having to remember all this addresses here and drive there and then try and find it, I have basically a digital map that tells me exactly where I'm going. I show up, I check to make sure that yes, the power is off. I drive out the line where it tells me the line is off, and then look for whatever caused the power to go out. Make the repair, and I go back and turn the power on. So that really saves a lot of time there.

Laura Seney
That's awesome. It's really cool to hear how much technology has developed and continues to develop to keep the power up for all of our members.

Mike Whitaker
It is probably, I think if you talked, you know, we've had a lot of people retiring here in the last several months, but when you talk to them, what's the biggest change? I would say they all say, you know the technology. And you know, when I first started there was no technology. It was a paper map. And like I said phone calls. I was lucky enough that when I started pulling calls a lineman that we had a pager. Do you know what a pager is?

Laura Seney
I do, yeah. I'm not quite, not quite that old.

Mike Whitaker
Yeah. So we would have a pager because back then, cell phone signal was not as reliable as a pager signal, and you would get the page that would be beep, beep, beep. And then you would find a number, and they would actually have the location of where the power was out. The bad thing about that is if you had 20 people out, you were going to get 20 pages. That said, all 20 people were out so that you knew, but before that, your home phone would ring and then you would say hello. They'd say, hey, we have power outage at this location. Address. The lineman would say, okay, I'm going to respond. If he left, then basically, you know, the husband or wife would have to answer the phone after they left. It'd be like, hello? And they'd be like, we have more outages. So then the spouse would have to write down everybody else's power that was out. So the lineman, he thinks, oh, I only have this one person out. Then he comes home and then his spouse has this long list of everybody else that was out of power. So they always said that, at the Christmas party, the spouses would get the Christmas bonus. And that was their reward for, you know, working for the company.

Laura Seney
Wow. So it really was a team effort.

Mike Whitaker
It was because, you know, they didn't get paid to do that. But we always joke, like, what would you have done if you were single? You know, you'd have to pay somebody to come to your house and take those phone calls. Yes. But.

Laura Seney
Wow.

Mike Whitaker
So, like technology change that. So I'm thankful for that. I'm sure my wife is thankful to.

Laura Seney
Yes I'm sure. Yeah. How interesting.

Mike Whitaker
Yeah, being married to a lineman is, you know, already stressful enough because they're getting called out at the worst times. It's storming. Car accident, ice storm. You know, whatever it is, we're going out there because it's not a normal situation. And that's what we have to respond to. And you're in a high risk industry. That's why safety is always preached so heavily. So, you know, spouses do worry about the linemen. And then on top of that, you know, they're getting woke up in the middle of the night as well. So the phone rings or whatever the spouse is going to wake up. And then they start, oh, you know, like what? What do you have to do? How much is it? And I think you just kind of learn that you minimize what you're going to say because you don't want them to worry. Then when you get home, you just. Yep. It was this. I got it taken care of. Or sometimes you have to make the phone call and say, I'm going to be out here a long time, so I'm okay, don't worry. But it's going to be several hours before I'm home. Depending on. Usually that's a car accident that, you know, you have to get several people to come in or it could be severe cold. You have a tree come down and just does a lot of damage, slows everything down because it's cold. You got to take warm up breaks.

Laura Seney
Yes. We are very grateful for our linemen who do a dangerous and often really difficult job.

Mike Whitaker
Yep. Absolutely. Are there any common myths about electric safety saving energy in the winter that we haven't already talked about that you run into? And is there anything else we didn't cover that you would think is important to mention?

Mike Whitaker
I mean, not offhand. I think you had a lot of good questions here. I hope that people get a lot out of it. And I always tell people, if you're not sure, you know, you can always call in, we do have a lot of people here that you can talk to if you have questions about anything. A lot of educated people that you know really know their stuff. I say, a lot of smart people, they love what they do. So when you call in to ask questions about that, you know, they kind of get excited because that's what they like to do. And, you know, if they don't know, they're going to find somebody that does and get you to the right person. But other than that, I mean, I don't really have anything to add.

Laura Seney
That's awesome. Yes. We're very grateful for our linemen and for our KREMC team and their vast amount of knowledge about these topics. Thank you for joining us today and talking to us about electric safety during the winter, and I hope you have a good rest of your day.

Mike Whitaker
Yeah. Thank you so much.

Laura Seney
You have been listening to Live Wire, the official podcast of KREMC. To learn more about KREMC, visit our website KREMC.com or follow us on social media. Thanks for listening.