The guys worked a full day Saturday, heading out as soon as they finished 6:30 breakfast and worked until 6 to complete the installation of all primary, neutral and triplex wires. They still need to complete the service drop to the meter boxes and then to the homes of each of the village residents that are a part of this project, but are working ahead of schedule.
Project
Indiana Board Chair and Tipmont REMC CEO Ron Holcomb presented a “co-op utility
sustainability 101” class to six directors from 13 communities in the local
cooperative association, in addition to others from the area who were
interested in learning about cooperatives. Plans are also being discussed for
additional in-depth classes.
Saturday was
sunny with temperatures in the mid- to high 80s with high humidity.
Task-oriented
by nature, lineworkers are driven to accomplish what they have before them – no
matter how big the job seems. The Project Indiana line team is no different.
Friday they
strung another 10 spans of secondary triplex, seven spans of primary line and neural,
connected multiple houses and wired many more homes. And, to no one’s surprise,
there’s buzz about possibly finishing this monumental task ahead of schedule.
Project
Indiana Board Chair and Tipmont REMC CEO Ron Holcomb will present to the local
electric cooperative’s board of directors Saturday morning.
Joe Banfield, Indiana Electric Cooperatives, and his “assistants” ready line for installation.
The project
team made steady progress again Thursday. A total of 36 homes are now wired and
secondary line has been pulled for most of the homes. Another pole is being set
Friday.
Thursday’s
weather started off in the 70s and was breezy and partly cloudy, then after
another light rain it stayed overcast and got pretty humid.
Brent Buckles,
Northeastern REMC, shared some gifts with the local school children. Brent’s
wife is a teacher at a Fort Wayne Montessori school and her students sent some
gifts for the San Jacinto school children. Brent took a few photos of the
students to share with the American students, and then showed the photos to the
San Jacinto students. Many residents of the village have never seen themselves
in photographs.
Village residents and Project Indiana team members work together to roll a new spool of secondary line into place.
One of the
project team members summed up Wednesday’s work with a simple, “we kicked a##!”
The project team
is obviously happy with the progress they’ve made and they’re eager to get back
at it each day. Wednesday they wired the inside of 15 more homes, for a total
of 21.
Wednesday
they also pulled 34 spans of secondary line, which will run from the transformers
to the homes. Because the load is small, only five transformers are necessary
to power 92 homes. The heavier, coated service lines will run below the primary
lines along the main road running through San Jacinto.
Two spans of
secondary line had to be pulled in to the steep hills above the village. At the
top, both spans took right angle turns to the left. One crossed a gully, the
other a shallow ravine planted with corn that included some outcrops of rocks.
The temperatures
Wednesday were in the low 80s, but the humidity was very high. It varied from
overcast, light rain, to partly cloudy.
Thursday
morning, they were planning to make the 30-minute drive from the hotel to the
village about 7 a.m. The village residents were setting one more pole the
project team felt was needed between the very first pole off the power supply
and the second.
Today, the
Project Indiana team began pulling and putting up line. Starting from the pole
at the Church in the center of the San Jacinto project, two crews worked in
opposite directions, pulling six spans each, 13 total, and installing primary
line.
They also
installed three transformers with ropes and pulleys by tying the end to the
front of a pickup truck and then backing it up to hoist the transformer.
The team completed
the inside wiring on six homes.
It was partly
cloudy and in the 80s with high humidity and brief rain showers peppering the
day.
This area is
on Mountain Time, or two hours behind most of Indiana. This leaves the project
team anxious to get to the project site while the sun is up but the
temperatures are lower. The plan for Wednesday is to start around 6:30 a.m.
The project team attended a town hall meeting with the village residents so they could officially meet one another and everyone could learn a little more about the work planned for the next couple of weeks.
After a good
night’s rest at Hacienda Tijax, the Project Indiana team loaded back up for the
rest of the trip up the mountain. After a couple-hour drive, they arrived at
their home for the next two weeks: Hotel Villa Santa Elena.
And, then
the team headed to a stop near the project site to visit a small hydroelectric
generating facility on a stream that’s not far above the area’s natural
attraction: a wide picturesque waterfall.
After lunch,
they finished the trip to San Jacinto. The first order of business was to check
through the supplies stored in a small warehouse near the village Church and to
organize the tools and hardware.
The project
team attended a town hall meeting with the village residents so they could
officially meet one another and everyone could learn a little more about the work
planned for the next couple of weeks.
In addition bringing
electricity to the village, the project team will be wiring the inside of
homes. In exchange for this, those who receive inside wiring have committed to
purchase a small wood stove with a chimney to adequately vent the smoke outside
of the home. This small step will greatly improve the overall health and
eyesight of the village residents.
Following
the meeting, the Project Indiana team inspected the poles that were set before
their arrival and set the pole anchors the villagers had dug.
Tuesday, March 26, marks the first full day on the project site and line stringing will begin.
A cellular phone signal is not available at the project site. A signal is available at the hotel in the evenings, but an internet connection is not.
The first day was a full one. The Project Indiana crew
gathered at the Indianapolis International Airport at 4:30 a.m. for its 6 a.m.
flight to Atlanta, followed by a flight to Guatemala City.
After eating lunch, the project team and their luggage was loaded onto three pickup trucks, an SUV and a van for the trek part of the way up the mountain. They stopped for the night at Hacienda Tijax in Rio Dulce. The small cabins that make up this hotel complex are connected by boardwalks and suspension bridges. After eating dinner, some of the project team swam in the lakeside pool.
The project team will travel the remainder of the way up the
mountain on Monday.
Utility poles weigh somewhere around 700 lbs. each. Our
electric lineworkers generally use heavy equipment to dig the holes for and
move the poles to an upright position that allows for wire to be strung over
crossarms and deliver electricity to power our homes.
Our team of Project Indiana lineworkers is traveling to Guatemala
today to start the process of stringing that wire and make all of the important
connections that will ultimately power about 110 homes in San Jacinto. But, the
residents of this village have been working incredibly hard to prepare for
their arrival.
When Project Indiana offered to help electrify San
Jacinto, the villagers committed to set approximately 70 poles before our project
team arrives. That’s a momentous task for any line crew, but the team of
villagers has done it without the heavy equipment we have the use of here in
the states. They’ve done it all by hand. Their dreams run that deep.
They dream about what they can do and how they can improve the quality of life for their children – all with the aid of modern conveniences a simple flow of electric current can power. And, our lineworkers are helping turn those dreams into plans.
