Grand Prize Winner Scores a Timely Gift at Annual Meeting
Story and photo by Craig Reed
The timing was perfect for Sis and Craig Heath, who won the grand prize—a Husqvarna riding mower—at this year’s Douglas Electric Cooperative Annual Meeting. Their older mower was having some issues, and their 8 acres of grass were quickly growing.
The Heaths’ grass problems were solved when Sis’ raffle number was drawn at the April 5 meeting, and they claimed their prize, courtesy of Jensen’s Tree Service of Winston.
“I’ve never won such a prize,” says Sis, a retiree who worked for 30 years as a kitchen manager for the Roseburg School District. “I was in shock. I didn’t believe it at first. This was absolutely perfect timing. We have a riding mower, but it needed to be fixed. Once we get it fixed, my husband and I can now mow at the same time.”
The mower was delivered to the Heath home in the Melrose area after the annual meeting, and Sis put it to work that afternoon. The Heaths have been Douglas Electric members on the same property for more than 50 years.
“It’s very generous of Jensen’s to donate the mower,” Sis says.
Jensen’s Tree Service and owners Eric and Sunday Jensen donated the mower to recognize and celebrate the 35 years Douglas Electric has contracted their business to clear brush, branches, and trees from rights of way. Eric says the company appreciates the many years of work for the co-op and wants to recognize DEC members for their cooperation when work is done on their properties.
The work focuses on clearing rights of way—15 feet on each side of distribution lines and 20 feet on each side of transmission lines. To further lessen the potential for wildfire, new Douglas Electric easements are 20 feet on each side for distribution and 25 feet on each side for transmission.
The goal is to rotate around the co-op’s power distribution system every 3 to 4 years. The tree service works year-round with 7 crews, totaling 23 employees, to maintain that schedule.
“The work Jensen’s does is very important,” says Don Utley, DEC general foreman and rights-of-way manager. “We couldn’t keep the rights of way cleared without their crews. The fire danger is incredibly reduced because of the work those crews do. A lot of our members don’t realize the fire danger. We have to educate them that we’re not out there to kill their trees, but to make it safer and to be able to restore power faster when there’s an outage.”
Douglas Electric’s General Manager Keith Brooks says the co-op doesn’t have tree crews of its own, so its relationship with Jensen’s Tree Service is greatly valued.
“The long history we have with Jensen’s helps us to be more efficient,” he says. “We don’t have to explain our goals and our wants and needs because Jensen’s has long been aware of them. They’re a local company that’s very familiar with our service territory.
“A lot of our members know them, so there’s good communication and coordination when Jensen’s is out there working,” he adds. “There’s plenty of goodwill that’s been built up, and we appreciate that.”