Newspaper Page Text
Page 14 — Wednesday, June 8, 2022, The True Citizen
Grit and Grace Boutique & Gifts, located at 111 W. 6th Street, will feature various gifts for women, District Attorney Jared Williams attended a gun violence event at the Waynesboro City Hall June 3.
men and children. Shop Owner Ashley Key of Evans, Georgia, said she hopes to open for busi
ness near the end of the month.
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Expecting weather-related power outages
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Member Services Manager
Randy Hill does not see cli
mate change increasing the
number of power outages.
Planters EMC serves 6,480
meters in Burke County’s
mostly rural areas. Jefferson
Energy Cooperative and Geor
gia Power also have meters
throughout the county. Planters
EMC does not serve in the city
limits of Waynesboro, Girard
and Sardis, only the outskirts.
They serve a lot of coun
tryside, averaging only five
meters per mile of ground.
Utility territories were formed
in 1973 to reduce duplication
of service, although since then,
some towns have grown into
the Planters EMC service area.
Hill has worked for Plant
ers EMC for more than three
decades. He said cars just don’t
pair up well with the more
than 47,000 poles the electric
company manages.
“Cars are magnets to poles,”
he said. “They will hit them
and it may cause one person
to be out or it may cause 100
people to be out of electricity.”
Tornadoes and hurricanes
also play havoc on power lines.
Although individual service
may falter from time-to-time,
since March, the company
reports five major outages, all
of which were weather related.
“That’s just what time of
year it is,” Hill said. “It’s go
ing to get worse, because June
and July are some of the worst
times, and then it starts taper
ing off. We expect things to
happen this time of year.”
Hill said he is not sure if
climate change is affecting the
number of outages. Weather is
never completely predictable.
It changes from one year to
the next.
“All I know is, weather con
ditions are going to change,” he
said. “Whether you can tie it to
climate change, I would not go
that far. Climate change is not
something that is keeping me
up at night.”
Most power lines hang at
least 30-feet off the ground.
Rain is not the biggest prob
lem; however, high winds and
lightening pose the biggest
threats. Flooding softens the
ground and can cause trees
to fall over, taking the lines
with them. Keeping the power
lines clear of trees requires that
Planters EMC spends roughly
$1.8 million to maintain the 25-
ft rights-of-way on each side as
part of a 4-year cycle rotation.
Maintenance includes trim
ming side-limbs, underbrush
ground clearing and spraying.
When an outage occurs,
Linemen (Line technicians)
are the only workers allowed to
repair power lines. One broken
pole can take a crew from 4 to
6 hours to replace it. Due to
terrain, linemen may have to
climb poles to repair power
lines, requiring extra time.
Bucket trucks cannot fly in
winds over 35 mph for the sake
of linemen safety. It takes 6 to
8 years of training to become
a Journeymen lineman.
Jones Avenue Reunion
The Jones Avenue Reunion took place during Memorial Day weekend. People attended the
event, returning to their childhood neighborhood for the first time in 60 years including Betty
Hatcher Munson and daughter Angela Munson, daughter and granddaughter of Reese Hatcher,
of whose suspicious death case was recently reopened by Sheriff Alfonzo Williams. Many of
the attendees showed up on motorcycles.
“This industry is very com
plex,” Hill said. “To keep pow
er on there are many spokes in
the wheel.”
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