Climbing To Safety

More than 100 linemen and organizers from 21 electric co-ops around Kentucky gathered at Inter-County Energy Cooperative’s training grounds in Danville this summer for the 10th Kentucky Lineman’s Rodeo. They don’t ride horses or rope calves, but they compete in a friendly way to sharpen their line and pole maintenance skills. But the top priority is safety—skipping a safety step wipes out even the fastest time. In this photo, Ricky Lane of Inter-County Energy Co-op is getting ready to restore power to a transformer as part of the “Lightning Arrestor Replacement” event, which calls for making the work location safe before proceeding with planned work. Other events called for rescuing a mannequin hanging from the top of a pole, changing out a crossarm, and scampering up a pole holding an egg in a bucket then back down with the egg in the mouth (you don’t want to lose at that one).