Operations Staff
Staking Department
Responsibilities
The Engineering Department handles a number of consumer matters. Included in those are line extensions for new homes and other installations requiring electric service, service upgrades or heavy-ups, overhead-to-underground conversions, and line relocations.
In addition, the engineering staff interacts directly with electricians to provide information regarding BARC requirements, such as service size and location, as well as answering questions on logistical issues.
The staff also works with developers and planners to design electrical layouts for new subdivisions and developments.
Staff:
Rick Armstrong, Supervisor, Field Engineering
Mike Burns, Staking Engineer
If you wish to contact BARC’s Engineering Department, please do so by calling 800-846-2272 between the hours of 8 to 9 AM or 3:30 to 4:30 PM.
Technical Services
Responsibilities
The Technical Services department was established at BARC in 1995 to deal with the increasing use of technology in the electric industry. Prior to that, BARC implemented Load Management and SCADA systems to support the growth of the co-op, plan for the future and help our members with the cost of electricity. Load Management is a system that can reduce load on BARC's system and that is reflected on our electrical suppliers system, meaning dollars back into the pockets of our members. Supervisory Control and Data Aquisition (SCADA) is a system that brings information from the field to the office to be used for engineering, future work plans and substation equipment control.
Since 1995, Technical Services responsibilities have been to utilize technologies that insure that our members needs can be met in the most efficient and cost effective ways. By 2002, BARC had fully deployed an Automated Meter Reading (AMR) system that gave us more efficient methods of billing, engineering and outage detection.
The Technical Services department has a variety of responsibilities that include commercial and residential metering, telecommunications, substation equipment, line equipment, meter readings for billing, meter testing, voltage issues, high bill issues, system sectionalizing, system reliability, SCADA, load management, and AMR.
Technology is the future, and BARC is committed to finding ways to use technology to better serve our member/owners.
Service Department
Responsibilities
The Service Department consists of four servicemen with over 80 total years of service that are dedicated to their jobs and try to provide the very best of service to the members of BARC at all times. This department has many responsibilities. Chances are good that if you have a problem between 8:00 and 4:00 one of these four will be the first to respond to your location to assess the situation and to try to get the problem solved in a timely manner. They are also responsible for meter reads, connects and disconnects, underground locates, and collections on past due accounts. The service territories are divided into three areas, the West, Middle, and East.
The West area is covered by Donnie Altizer. It runs from Johnsons Creek to Monterey, south to north, and from the West Virginia state line to the top of Warm Springs Mountain, west to east. Donnie lives in the Warm Springs area and has been employed with BARC since 1989.
The middle, or local area as we call it, covers from Nicelytown near Clifton Forge to the West Virginia line north of McDowell, south to north, and from Craigsville and Brattons Run to the top of Warm Springs Mountain, east to west. This area is covered by Dale Thompson, who lives on route 42 near Millboro. Dale has been with BARC since 1983.
The East area runs from the top of North Mountain near interstate 64 to the top of the Blue Ridge Mountain beyond Buena Vista, west to east, and from Steeles Tavern to Natural Bridge, north to south. The customer base in this area is enough to require two service men. John Mayberry, the Lead Serviceman, resides in the Millboro area and usually covers the area south of Lexington and out into Collierstown and surrounding areas. He has been with BARC since 1985.
Rodney Kennedy resides in the Estaline Valley area near Craigsville. His title is Serviceman Assistant. This means that he does everything a serviceman does except climb poles. Rodney, who has been with BARC since 1991, normally works the area north of Lexington and into Rockbridge Baths and surrounding areas.
The areas described above are not set in stone, as the service department works as a team. Anytime one may need help the others are there to assist him. These four people are very dedicated, providing good value and courteous service to BARC's members.
Overhead Crews
Responsibilities
BARC has two overhead crews that primarily handle building lines to residences and maintaining the existing lines and equipment. Members of these crews include a foreman, journeyman linemen, apprentice lineman, truck operators, and groundman operators. As the men in these crews are trained to handle any type of linework, they are often found helping install underground cable as well. These are also the men you see out at 2:00 A.M. restoring power during a thunderstorm, windstorm, or numerous other conditions. The construction crews, just the same as everyone at BARC, take pride in keeping the lights on, and when they do go out, they are always willing to go the extra mile to get them back on as quickly as possible.
Underground Crew
Responsibilities
The underground crew at BARC primarily deals with the buried cable throughout the system, and since nearly two thirds of BARC's new services going in are underground, this crew stays very busy. This crew consists of a foreman, journeyman lineman, apprentice lineman, and equipment operator. As the men in this crew are trained in several aspects of BARC's operations they participate in the on-call program and take pride in working to keep the lights on.
Reliability Crew
Responsibilities
The Reliability Crew began official operation in the spring of 2007. Phil Jarvis is the foreman of this crew and has been a journeyman lineman in the overhead and underground crews. He has been with BARC for over eleven years now. Moe Keyser is the operator/groundman, having been a groundman in the Right Of Way crew since he was hired in October of 1999.
The purpose of the Reliability Crew is to perform preventive maintenance on BARC’s distribution lines. This crew does a complete inspection of circuits coming from each Substation on BARC's system. They have discovered numerous potential outage-causing problems and corrected them before they could cause any damage. The crew has replaced broken cross arms, repaired broken wires, replaced cracked and broken insulators, and replaced broken porcelain switches. It is clear that this crew is helping to improve reliability of service to BARC customers.
A new bucket truck was purchased in early 2007 with this crew in mind. It is the first four wheel drive bucket BARC has owned in several years. Not only is it very handy for the reliability crew, it helps out in several other situations. This crew has assisted the line crews in hard to get to places and on numerous occasions have assisted the area servicemen in getting your lights back on faster because they could access the trouble better. With the bucket truck they can do most of their maintenance on energized lines so folks don’t experience an outage while they are making the repairs.
Right-of-Way Crew
Responsibilities
The Right-of-Way crew at BARC handles a variety of duties. They primarily handle any tree orders that come in to the Co-op, such as when consumers call in with a tree close to the line that they need cut, or when they have a tree growing up into the line and making contact with the live wire. This crew also cuts any new Right-of-Ways prior to the line crews coming out to build the line. It is often the case that after they finish the new Right-of-Way they stay and help the Overhead crew.
This crew is also very helpful as a catch all crew around the office when special projects come up, and they have served as everything from movers to carpenters. The crew is currently staffed by Terry Miller, Foreman; Blake Leech, Groundman; and Patrick Chaplin, Groundman.