OTEC using stronger poles to help with mitigating wildfires

By on Wednesday, May 24th, 2023 in Eastern/Southeast Oregon News More Top Stories

JOHN DAY – Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative’s Government Affairs Specialist Tucker Billman was on KJDY’s Coffee Time recently speaking to efforts the cooperative takes to mitigate wildfires. Billman noted that to help prevent broken poles the co-op has invested in stronger material:

“We’ve just upgraded our technology. We use different poles that are a little bit stronger in nature, called ductile iron poles. We’re always trying to harden our system and kind of make it more resilient to the potential weather risks that can start wildfires. And then of course, you know, make sure we can bring the lights back on as quickly as possible once we do have an incident out there.”

OTEC will be holding a district meeting in John Day at the Grant County Regional Airport on June 13th, beginning at 5 p.m.

Listen to the full Coffee Time podcast here: