Trucks and trees

Each year, Owen Electric employees get a day away from their regular schedule to contribute to a community service project or initiative. This group spent an afternoon planting trees at the Grant County Public Library. They are, from left, Jude Canchola, Jennifer Gravitt, Whitney Duvall, Wes Petzinger, and Mike Stafford. Photo: Camille McClanahan

Branching out

Williamstown

You might call Owen Electric the Johnny Appleseed of Kentucky’s electric cooperatives. Mike Stafford, manager of business and government relations for Owen Electric, and his colleagues at the cooperative learned that the Grant County Public Library needed trees. They turned the need into action as part of the co-op’s Community Service Initiative.

“It’s very important to us to be involved in our community,” Stafford says, “and this was something practical we could implement.” So one Thursday morning this summer, co-op employees reported to the library and planted several persimmon and serviceberry trees.

“This project benefited a facility that serves the county as a whole and the 7,000 Owen Electric members in Grant County,” Stafford says. “It was a very basic but cool way for our cooperative to be involved in the community.”

Touch A Truck

SHELBYVILLE

The large trucks with buckets that extend into the sky are one of the first things most people notice about their electric cooperative. That is especially true for children, who are often enamored with the oversized vehicles.

Shelby Energy Cooperative recently gave children a chance to explore those trucks up close during their “Touch A Truck” event at Clear Creek Park in Shelbyville. Children could go inside the trucks and see the controls and also touch the vehicles. Line technicians Rick Shaw, Gary Warford, and Mike Mason, with Manager of Engineering Paul Shovlin, were there to answer questions and tell the kids about the trucks and their jobs.

“Many day cares and preschools in Shelby County brought their students out to learn about the trucks and the jobs that require their use,” says Debra J. Martin, president and CEO of Shelby Energy Cooperative. “Being a part of this fun event gave us the opportunity to connect with the children in our community.”