Georgia Magazine - May 2018 - 14

NEWS FROM GEORGIA'S ELECTRIC CO-OPS COMPILED BY AMY SCHNEIDER

COURTESY COBB EMC

COURTESY GRADY EMC

* A place at the table: Matthew James
of Matthew's Woodworks in Grady
County was able to
showcase his handcrafted works-including his specialty:
Native Americanstyle flutes-at the
Whigham Community Club's 58th
annual Rattlesnake
Roundup on Jan. 27,
thanks to a sponsored booth from
Grady Electric Membership Corp. (EMC) in Cairo. The EMC
invited artisans in its service territory to
submit their work for consideration, and
one lucky winner earned the right to be
showcased at the annual festival.
* New CEO: Peter Heintzelman took the
reins as the new
president and CEO of
Marietta-based Cobb
EMC on March 19,
replacing the retiring
W.T. "Chip" Nelson.
Heintzelman has an
extensive background in corporate operations, business
strategy and finance in the energy, services and manufacturing sectors. Most
recently, he served as interim group CEO
of innovative energy-storage technology
and manufacturing company Alevo.
* Scholarship funds: Nearly 400 people
attended the annual youth awards
banquet held by Jasper-based Amicalola
EMC on March 15. The co-op distributed
$130,000 in scholarships to 133 juniors
and seniors from eight area high schools
at the event, at which it also announced
the four students who will represent
Amicalola EMC on the Washington Youth
Tour leadership trip this summer.
* Story time: Southern Rivers Energy
in Barnesville was one of the electric
cooperatives participating in Reading
Awareness Month activities in March-
and took it a step further by introducing youngsters to the work of linemen.
Continued
14

New roles for co-op poles

hat happens to an
electric utility pole
when it is retired from
use? Sometimes it finds a
creative second career, as
Coastal Electric Cooperative in Midway and Carroll Electric Membership
Corp. (EMC) in Carrollton
recently demonstrated.
When Coastal Electric
converted the Fancy Hall
area in Bryan County from
overhead to underground
electric lines, a local resident saw an opportunity.
Mickey Sands had always
wanted to create an osprey habitat and asked the
co-op if he could have the
retired pole from his yard
to use for that purpose.
A Coastal Electric crew
reset the pole in March
while working in the area,
and Sands attached a platform where he hopes ospreys will build a nest.
But this was not the
last of Coastal Electric's
good deeds for ospreys.
On April 5, a 65-foottall electric pole that had Mickey Sands' dream of creating an osprey habitat came
lain at Coastal Electric's true when Coastal Electric Cooperative donated and
pole yard for at least 20 installed an old electric pole for that purpose.
years was loaded onto a
trailer and driven more than an hour the substitute.
away to Whitemarsh Island, where a
Besides serving as osprey habicounty contractor servicing a street tats, retired electric poles also can be
light had destroyed an osprey pair's used for educational purposes.
nest atop a light pole.
Carroll EMC donated an old pole
Homeowner Dr. Jerry Williams, to Buchanan Elementary School in Buthe Department of Natural Resourc- chanan in February. Principal Ethelyn
es and a local animal-rights group Johnson contacted the cooperative to
reached out to Coastal Electric, and request the use of an old pole to cretime was of the essence: The birds still ate a weather station for students.
were in the area, and Williams wanted
The teachers allowed the students
to provide them with a new nesting to go outside and watch as Carroll
platform before they moved on.
EMC linemen attached the weather
Coastal Electric's three-man crew station at the top and then installed
donated the time to deliver and install the pole on the school campus.
the pole on Williams' property, about
Valarie Davis' fifth-grade science
350 feet from the pair's original nest. classes will use it to gather weather
The hope is that the birds will accept data throughout the year.
MICKEY SANDS

Short takes

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Georgia Magazine - May 2018