L-R: Director of Administrative Services Kathy Reece receives her 20-year Service Award from UCEMC General Manager Jennifer Brogdon.
Kathy began her career at UCEMC as a Customer Services Representative in 2001, became an accountant in 2005, and was appointed Director of Administrative Services in January 2021. Congratulations, Kathy!
L-R: Dave Allmon, Engineer; Tommy Pitman, Carthage District Manager; Digger Poindexter, UCEMC Board; Moose Tyree, UCEMC Board President; Jennifer Brogdon, UCEMC General Manager; Back Row L-R: Michael Petty, Mid-State Construction; John Potts, Gordonsville Mayor; Jeff Mason, Smith County Mayor; Anthony Apple, Smith County Chamber of Commerce.
A groundbreaking ceremony last week at Upper Cumberland Electric Membership Corporation kicked off the complete refurbishing of the 42-year-old South Carthage District office building.. With the size of equipment evolving and technology changing rapidly, the outdated facility no longer meets the needs of a modern UCEMC. The office will still be open for members to conduct UCEMC business throughout the remodeling process.
Total project costs are estimated at around $9.3 million. Construction and remodeling will not result in rate increases to members.
New Technology Hub
The plans to refurbish the facility will include a new technical operations center. The area will serve as a multi-directional fiber hub for UCEMC’s territory with interconnections to surrounding electric co-ops.
“We already have an interconnection with Tri-County EMC and are making plans with Middle Tennessee EMC about an interconnection,” says Joe Skelton, UCEMC Operations Manager. “Most Tennessee co-ops are interconnecting and providing a co-op fiber grid that will serve the Tennessee Valley well for any changes that may come.”
UCEMC is close to completing an approximately $2 million Fiber Optic Ring project. Once completed, a physical “ring” or circle of fiber will connect district offices and substations for the power grid’s visibility and control. Skelton says the new technology will improve response during outages.
“Our goal is to provide reliable power as technology moves toward remote control, which increases our speed of response and reliability,” Skelton says. “We need an infrastructure to support that. This fiber optic ring path to our district offices and substations provides that secure infrastructure. Suppose any point of that circle goes out. In that case, we still have connectivity to each office or substation from the other part of the circle.”
Longer Poles, Longer Trucks
The increased demand for space on poles to accommodate new technologies means that utility poles must be taller (longer) to handle the extra load of fiber and telecommunications equipment. When the Carthage District office truck garages were designed in 1978, utility poles only held electric and telephone lines and were approximately 35 to 40-feet long. Today’s poles can be up to 50 feet to keep those additional wires high off the ground. That means longer trucks are needed to haul those poles to the worksite. “The equipment, trucks, and even the poles have grown with the times; the building housing them has not,” Carthage District Manager Tommy Pitman explains. “The new trucks have less than one-inch clearance from the garage door. We’ve had to knock out part of the dock in the old truck bay to get these new vehicles inside.”
Six Years of Planning
UCEMC has studied options for the Carthage District office since 2015. The board of directors reviewed various alternatives. They included a total relocation to a new site, remodeling the customer service and engineering areas vs. rebuilding, and hybrid options of separating customer service and engineering into a different facility.
UCEMC General Manager/CEO Jennifer Brogdon says the board concluded that the most effective solution was to move forward immediately with a refurbishing plan.
“We’ll be remodeling the existing warehouse for operations’ storage needs and will construct an additional warehouse and pole yard to meet modern specifications,” says Brogdon. “We believe it will enhance members’ experience with us as they visit to sign up for service or to pay their bill. Re-working the existing customer service and engineering areas will provide our members with a spacious and convenient place to conduct business.”
The project’s estimated completion date is late October 2022.
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One description is that it looked like a war zone in some Upper Cumberland areas last week. Once the snow and ice melted, those of us who aren’t lineworkers ventured out of our homes and looked around. If you live in town, you might not have seen that much damage from the storm at first glance. But other areas told a different story. Bowing street lights, hundreds of limbs littering the ground like matchsticks, some of them blocking utility access roads. Snapped power poles were abundant in some places…
General Accounting Department
Livingston CSRs L-R Casey Smith,
Stephanie Paul, Kathy Smith
Customer Accounting
Department
Zachary Pennington, the award-winning videographer and Jackson County High School Senior, demonstrates his drone camera.
If you were to ask Jackson County High School student Zachary Pennington about his award-winning video, he would have to ask you, “Which one?”
The JCHS senior has been producing videos since he was 13, starting with a historical documentary of Gainesboro, which amassed more than 15,000 views. Two years later, a mini-documentary about the “Abandonment of Gainesboro” garnered the “Best Film on a Budget” award at the Johns Hopkins University Film Festival.
His video for the JCHS Drama Club won a $10,000 prize for the school through the NBC Rise Grant program.
Zachary produced a video in the eighth grade that caught the eye of JCHS Basketball Coach Jim Brown, who kick-started the teenager’s interest in closed-circuit television.
“I found him his first week of high school and asked him to help with JCTV,” says Coach Brown. “I learned that he was not just talented. He was also dependable, trustworthy, and extremely well-mannered. He’s been the backbone of JCTV, and we’re blessed to have him at our school.”
On February 7, in a virtual ceremony, Governor Lee honored Zachary with the Governor’s Volunteer Star Award for a video he produced for the Chamber of Commerce.
As the awards and video production requests began to pour in, the teen did what any good business person does; started his own successful company, Pennington Productions. Those who have seen Zach’s work know that he possesses something that sets his videos apart from the rest.
“Like many other things, there is a science and an art to videography,” says Coach Brown. “Anyone can create videos if you have the equipment. However, the outstanding ones are also artists. Zach is an artist. This is what separates him from many others in the profession.”
This busy young man was also honored by Upper Cumberland EMC as a candidate in the 2020 Youth Summit due to his leadership ability, talent, and excellent grades. We caught up with Zachary between video shoots to learn more about this intelligent entrepreneur.
What sparked the interest in shooting video?
I would have to start with my interest in photography. When I started taking photos, I quickly found out you could tell a better story with video, especially when I became better at video editing. I preferred the challenge of making videos over just photos and still do.
Did you take courses in production to get started?
I’ve never taken any courses in video production, so I’m entirely self-taught. Even if I wanted to in school, they have never offered any classes like that. I’ve grown up in an age with information being accessible in the palm of my hand. I was always watching YouTube, simply learning about ways to make videos from creators online.
What kind of video and editing equipment do you have?
When I first started, I actually filmed my first wedding on an iPhone and edited it with an iPad. Over the years, I have picked up a lot of gear and have constantly been upgrading. I have everything I need to create a great video like cameras, lenses, drones, lights, microphones, stabilizers, stands, computers, etc. I’ve definitely invested a lot into my business. However, my gear’s growth has been organic. Over time, I would buy what would make my videos better or more efficient.
Tell us about the first video you made at age 13 and how that put you on this path:
The first big video I made was a video showing my hometown Gainesboro, Tennessee. To this day, music is a crucial influence in some of my personal creations. I created the video because I came across the song “Dirty Old Town” by Craig Cardiff. As I listened to the music, I would imagine the shots I wanted to get. Posting the video to Facebook and reaching over 15,000 views definitely inspired me to create more. Not to bring attention to me, but to bring attention to the beauty and incredible places I had around me. After that, I was asked to create a video for my football team — then my cousin’s wedding, and on it went. Since then, I have been the “video” guy in my community and am completely glad to be. Now I’m blessed to do video production as my full-time job.
Is there a famous cinematographer that you admire?
There are so many cinematographers out there; it would be hard to pick one. Everyone has so many unique styles and ways to tell a story. The people in the industry I look up to most would probably be the video creators I watch online. We can share our work and get instant feedback from those in the same community, which is very helpful.
How did you get involved with the Jackson County Chamber? After I created my mini-doc on the abandonment of Gainesboro in 2018, Jordan Hunter, President of the Chamber of Commerce, reached out and wanted to talk. When we got together, he explained he moved back here and was serious about getting the county up and alive again. We shared the same enthusiasm and talked about ways we could achieve that. Since then, we have been in contact, and I have been trying to help in ways I can by recording events, creating commercials for tourism, videos for grants, etc.
You’ve won the Governor’s Volunteer Star Award for 2021. Were you surprised by the recognition?
Yes, I was surprised. I think it just goes to show how you can be a volunteer in many different ways. Everyone brings something different to the table, and I just so happen to get an award for it. I’m honored to receive it.
When did you start your production company, and how do you balance the shooting schedule with your studies?
I shot my first wedding in October of 2016, but I would say professionally since June of 2019. Most of the time, shoots don’t interfere with class. I do have to admit, though, before the pandemic last year, I had a lot on my plate. I was juggling school with a part-time job, my business, broadcasting football, and basketball games, multiple extracurricular activities, plus editing videos every chance I got.
Tell us about your work for the sound and video department for JCTV.
This is led by Coach Jim Brown, who wanted to broadcast the high school sports games live. In the beginning, there were three other students involved, but over the years, it has dwindled to only Coach Brown and me. Live production was definitely new to me, so the Coach showed me the ropes freshman year, and I learned fast. Over the years, we have upgraded our gear and tried to make our broadcasts better. Sometimes, I would contribute some of my equipment. We would run four cameras live with commentators, graphics, instant replays, commercials, and much more. It has been fun to run and direct a small-scale sports network!
Check out Zach’s Demo Reel here:
Mia Whitaker, left, receives a certificate from Kathy Reese, honoring her ten years of service to UCEMC. Thank you, Mia, for the dedication and professionalism you have shown our members for a decade!
It’s a safe bet to say that no lineman in Livingston will climb a pole during a major outage with an empty stomach as long as Faye Shelton is around. Mrs. Shelton and her husband couldn’t stop thinking of crews working around the clock during the recent winter crisis, so they decided to do something to warm tummies and hearts during the storm. The couple braved the cold to bring Country Ham, sausage, and biscuits for the early crews – sandwiches, chips, and snacks for the late crews. They didn’t stop there.
Once the outage was behind us and every light was on, the Sheltons took up a collection at Sunday School to buy the ingredients for a home-cooked meal for the Livingston District last week. They felt that after all that stress of grabbing food to run out the door, that the guys and gals needed to sit down, relax and enjoy a real lunch complete with laughter and fellowship. There was some talk of the storm, but mostly the conversation centered around the delicious specialties that Mrs. Shelton cooked up with love – and from scratch – in her kitchen. Mr. and Mrs. Shelton, your thoughtfulness has made all the difference. Thank you for your kindness!
Crews from Tri-County Electric Membership Corporation, Ft. Loudoun Electric Cooperative, Blue Ridge Mountain Electric Membership Corporation, and Appalachian Electric Cooperative assisted the UCEMC crews restoration effort, which narrowed down to the scattered, more isolated areas later in the week. In the Livingston District, power restoration was hampered by the sheer number of fallen trees over power lines in more rural areas., blocking access roads, impeding pole installation, and line replacement. Diggers, bucket trucks, and crews faced more rugged terrain and extensive damage as restoration work reached into the scattered outages along hills and remote, unpaved roads…
Linette Flatt
Consumer Services Rep
Danielle Huffines
Consumer Services Rep
Emma Trainham
Payroll
Ashley Lane
Consumer Services Supervisor
Missy Manning
HR Clerk
Holly Wood
Consumer Services Supervisor
Tamitha Griffin
Consumer Services Rep
Michele Nixon
Dispatcher
Jessica Reed, CSR Cookeville &
James Dennis, Cookeville District Manager
On Sunday evening, every electric distribution company’s (and every line worker’s) worst nightmare began to unfold before our eyes, with significant ice accumulation building on UCEMC’s nearly 5,000 miles of line and other equipment. Ice is far more dreaded than snow because of its weight. Ice doesn’t “shed” itself off our equipment like snow does until it eventually thaws. This unusual ice storm had a disastrous effect on our system because the ice accumulations we received exceeded our design standard set by the Rural Utilities Services and the National Electrical Safety Code.
The ice indeed had its way when it came to our equipment. Poles, wires, and cross arms standards are designed to withstand medium load ratings for up to ¼ inch of ice. The extreme weather event that moved into our area on Monday layered on 1 ½ to 2 inches of freezing rain, ice, and snow, late Wednesday and Thursday resulting in more ice and another 4-6 inches of snow with five straight days of freezing temperatures. Cross arms, poles, and lines had far more stress on them than they were designed to withhold, causing them to weaken or break. As if that’s not enough trouble, trees and limbs began to fall on already weakened lines and lay them to the ground causing electrical faults. Even on well-maintained ROW, trees outside the 40-foot Right-of-Way clearance area uprooted and collapsed our infrastructure.
But, now, we are experiencing a thaw across the region that offers some relief. Repairs made now are more sustainable because a load of ice and snow on them is gone or lessening. Unfortunately, we can probably expect a few more days of tree limbs breaking and falling. The thaw will also produce wet soil, further weakening some tree’s roots, causing them to fall. But now, the news we’ve all been waiting for: more often than not, repairs made to the main lines will stick, and we will be able to restore other members served by feeder lines from there. If you are still experiencing an outage and you can see that all of your neighbors are on, please go to the REPORT OUTAGE tab, click on your district office, fill out the brief form, and send it in. It’s important that we know about every outage and what the problems might be at your home.