Rasputin_Vol
"Slava Ukraina"
- Joined
- Aug 14, 2007
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So, I've been here for about a week and a half, and from at least 7-10 people, the same story I hear is (along with what I have observed first hand) is that management in the local utility (that serves power to Western KY/Paducah area) has failed miserably. The local utility made at severalcritical errors...
1. Not maintaining their right of ways in terms of tree trimming and maintenance
2. Allowing the telephone and cable companies to drill in the poles of their existing poles and there fore weaken them to the point that several/most of the poles that fell in this region failed right at the point where the communications companies attached to the existing poles
3. Not repairing old/weather beaten poles when the time was appropriate (operate to failure mode)
If anybody else or any other company would have run a business like this that affected so many people for several weeks (there are still sections of W. Ky that are gradually getting power restored 3 weeks after the ice storms), somebody would have been fired! But no, we reward bad management and have pity on the people of this area and send in FEMA support and relief. Granted, I'm not saying that support and relief efforts were not necessary... because they were. But there should be somebody held accountable. But nobody in the local utility management will be, though. They are victims... even though routine cutting of trees that are in the transmission lines' right of ways is a part of basic maintenace and maitaining and repairing poles is part of that, also. But just like every other aspect of American society and Amercian business thinking/philosophy, maintenace is a cost that EVERY company seems to want to cut spending in. Just like the wife or daughter that doesn't want to spend money on changing the oil and getting the tires rotated, the same is true of these managers. Maintenace is not sexy.
But what these guys have found out is that maintenance is vital, and it will catch up with you sooner or later.
Did not any of you wonder why the ice storms a few weeks back seemed to imapct a certain concentration/area of people in W. Kentucky a little bit harder that other areas in the area? This is why.
And your tax dollars will pay for it. And the managers responsible for neglecting their maintenace routines and right of ways will still have jobs and be rewarded.
Suckers...
1. Not maintaining their right of ways in terms of tree trimming and maintenance
2. Allowing the telephone and cable companies to drill in the poles of their existing poles and there fore weaken them to the point that several/most of the poles that fell in this region failed right at the point where the communications companies attached to the existing poles
3. Not repairing old/weather beaten poles when the time was appropriate (operate to failure mode)
If anybody else or any other company would have run a business like this that affected so many people for several weeks (there are still sections of W. Ky that are gradually getting power restored 3 weeks after the ice storms), somebody would have been fired! But no, we reward bad management and have pity on the people of this area and send in FEMA support and relief. Granted, I'm not saying that support and relief efforts were not necessary... because they were. But there should be somebody held accountable. But nobody in the local utility management will be, though. They are victims... even though routine cutting of trees that are in the transmission lines' right of ways is a part of basic maintenace and maitaining and repairing poles is part of that, also. But just like every other aspect of American society and Amercian business thinking/philosophy, maintenace is a cost that EVERY company seems to want to cut spending in. Just like the wife or daughter that doesn't want to spend money on changing the oil and getting the tires rotated, the same is true of these managers. Maintenace is not sexy.
But what these guys have found out is that maintenance is vital, and it will catch up with you sooner or later.
Did not any of you wonder why the ice storms a few weeks back seemed to imapct a certain concentration/area of people in W. Kentucky a little bit harder that other areas in the area? This is why.
And your tax dollars will pay for it. And the managers responsible for neglecting their maintenace routines and right of ways will still have jobs and be rewarded.
Suckers...
