Power linemen work in the extremes. Extreme danger. Extreme weather. Extreme importance. There are approximately 120,000 lineworkers across the nation keeping the electricity flowing. From emergencies and outages to maintenance and upgrades, our linemen are backbone of our energy grid. It’s the reason we dedicate a day to honoring linemen.
National Lineworker Appreciation Day started in 2013, when Congress designated April 18 as a day to thank power linemen for all the work they do to keep the lights on. Since then, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) has established the second Monday of April as National Lineworker Appreciation Day. This year, we will celebrate on April 13.
Lineworker jobs are consistently ranked as one of the most dangerous jobs. There’s not a lot of room for errors when working with electricity. Every day your linemen work with high-voltage power lines to ensure you have a source of electricity that is reliable, and most importantly, safe. Apprentice lineworkers must complete 8,000 hours of on-the-job training and three dozen tests over a four-year period to become journeymen linemen. To protect themselves, linemen wear flame-resistant pants and shirts, rubber gloves and sleeves, hard hats, and safety glasses when out in the field. Even with all the safety measures they take, accidents can still happen.
Each season brings its own hazards. Finding stable footings for the bucket trucks can be frustrating in snowy winters and muddy springs. The protective rubber gloves and sleeves are swelteringly hot in the summer and finger-numbingly cold in the winter. When safe, linemen are out in storms, enduring rain, wind, and snow, in order to restore power and keep the members sheltered from the chaos.
Electric cooperatives were built on the principle of neighbors helping neighbors. Northern Electric’s linemen embody that spirit every day. Your cooperative linemen are dedicated to serving the members. They put in long hours behind the scenes, building new infrastructure and proactively replacing aging systems. Your linemen complete their work with as little interruption to services as possible.
One day hardly feels like enough to express our gratitude.
Thank you to our linemen!
26+ years of service
- Jerry Weber
- Tyler Marken
21-25 years of service
- Sean Evans
16-20 years of service
- Ben Peterson
- Chris Piehl
11-15 years of service
- Lance Dennert
- Steve Beck
- Sean Schwartz
6-10 years of service
- Brian Hansen
- Kyle Miller
- Nick Dean
- Collin Gades
- William Torrence
1-5 years of service
- Riley Whitley
- Quinn Vinger
- Dylan Grimes
- Landon Johnson