NEPPA Says Goodbye to an Amazing Home

This past month we said good-bye to a six-year tradition at NEPPA. The Pascoag Apprentice Rodeo began in 2006, after the good people at the Pascoag Utility District offered us a newly built training room and outdoor training area at no cost. This became an amazing home. First under Ted Garille and as of late Mike Kirkwood, the staff of PUD became an undocumented resource of NEPPA.

During the year PUD assisted us with setting poles and any other needs we had. But in June they became the ultimate hosts. Their folks helped us set up, judge and even feed all of the participants and observers at the Rodeo. Many thanks to Bill Guertin who took great pride in the event every year and went above and beyond to make sure the event was successful. Bill, unfortunately, could not make it this year due to military service.

For those of you who have attended or participated, you are aware of some of the new tradition’s started at Pascoag, such as Chris Piccardi’s Chili. You can’t have a barbeque without chili and Chris never disappoints. This year was a challenge as he was on a family vacation in Las Vegas and misplaced his driver’s license, so getting back was a Herculean feat.

We were able to obtain a letter from Senator Whitehouse of Rhode Island recognizing and thanking our friends at Pascoag for their outstanding support and I encourage members to reach out and thank our gracious hosts.

A standard has been set and I look forward to seeing how Steve Socoby (who runs our New England apprentice program) and the crew of Littleton Electric Light and Water Departments respond. Our modern training center with all of the bells and whistles will gives us many new capabilities. But, it won’t be home until we have our first rodeo and the community comes together to celebrate our hard working apprentices.

We begin our move over the next month. We will start erecting the pole yard at the end of the month and will host our first Littleton activity on August 8 by re-establishing our Foreman’s Roundtable. It has been over a year and this will be a good opportunity for foremen to discuss emerging issues, give feedback on last year’s storms and see the new facility. We will also be unveiling the new NEPPA Physical Performance Standards for Apprentices. We will take feedback at the meeting before formalizing the standards.

The rest of the month will be preparing for the Apprentice Program to begin its first sessions at the end of the month. We are continuing to seek material donations for the facility. I began outreach last month to NEPPA’s vendor members and you can see an updated list of needs and donations received on NEPPA’s website.

The NEPPA office space will begin construction in July and should be finished in time for our October office move. This continues to be a year of great change and I thank you all for your patience and understanding.