Gary Robison
Sam Houston EC Line Technician, Operations Department

Gary Robison grabs a cup of coffe, says hello to a couple fellow line technicians and heads to the warehouse for his supplies and materials. He has seven scheduled service calls for the day. A new service connect, a nightlight installation and the connection of a meter loop, to name a few. Gary climbs into the cab of his truck and utilizes the GPS system on his laptop to map the route to his fi rst call of the day. Then, along with about 50 other line technicians, he fi les out of the truck yard, just one of 70 vehicles in the Sam Houston fleet

Mike Dominy
Sam Houston EC Maintenance Supervisor, Operations Department

Maintenance Supervisor Mike Dominey heads to the Co-op's Woodville branch office, where he’ll spend the better part of the morning performing various maintenance duties on bucket trucks. Mike’s crew maintains every piece of equipment that has a motor— from vehicles to generators to tools. They are also in charge of deploying and setting up the mobile substation for system repair and maintenance.

Doug Kouba
Sam Houston EC Engineer

Engineer Doug Kouba sits down with Construction Manager Bill Townley to review plans for a substation upgrade in Security, near Conroe. Recent population growth in the area requires the existing substation’s capabilities be expanded.They review details of costs, timing, design and construction. The upgrade will increase the substation’s load capacity and enable the Co-op to better isolate faults on the line.

Shannon Hipps
Sam Houston EC GIS Technician

Shannon Hipps' shadow is getting long as he hikes along in a rural part of Trinity County. With his notebook computer in hand and Global Positioning antenna on his back, he collects pole coordinates. As he enters data, satellites orbiting the earth determine the exact location of each utility pole. The map Shannon is creating covers the Co-op’s entire 4,000-square-mile distribution system. That’s nearly 200,000 poles and 6,000 miles of line (and the numbers continue to grow). Knowing the exact location of poles enables Sam Houston EC to quickly locate problem sources and determine repair needs.

Mickey Cude and John Williams
Sam Houston EC Line Technicians

A thunderstorm and high winds have made their way through Angelina County. Members are calling to report power loss. The Co-op’s automated Outage Management System identifies problem sources. Line Technician Mickey Cude
answers his ringing phone with a groggy voice. Sam Houston EC Dispatch Supervisor Bob Wilson is on the other end. Within a matter of minutes, Cude and his partner, John Williams, are heading to the fi eld to restore power.

Johnny Kelley
Sam Houston EC Underground Foreman

Underground foreman Johnny Kelley and his crew are running about 800 feet of line for new service in San Jacinto County. A trenching machine makes the digging go fast. The crew installs conduit and connects service on site. In the long run, the new service will be most reliable for the Petersons, new homeowners and Co-op members. After all, the underground lines are safe from the havoc storms and trees can cause.