After nearly 37 years, Don Bos retires from Steele-Waseca Cooperative Electric
Line Foreman Don Bos retired from Steele-Waseca Cooperative Electric Wednesday, Jan. 15, after starting full-time with the cooperative June 1, 1988. However, his start wasn’t as a lineworker.
“I started out at Steele-Waseca as a satellite installer for two years as the cooperative had decided to offer this to their membership,” stated Don. He explained how he worked with Jake Jacobson as installers and repairmen of the equipment for members.
“This lasted about two years and then the market changed to smaller dishes and markets for the TV industry,” wrote Don. He said the co-op offered him and Jake positions in the Operations Division. “When the satellite division closed, Doug Hughes asked if I was interested in being a truck driver groundman,” stated Don. Doug explained a lot of the linemen had met him and thought he would fit in as a good worker.
“I started out driving trucks and shoveling dirt,” said Don. “Doug approached me and asked if I would be interested in doing line school, and get my journeyman certification.” Don explained it was a four-year program, and he was the first to go through the program at the cooperative. “This also all happened the year of the great ice storm of ’91 and it made me think twice,” stated Don. “I am glad I stayed with the program and had a great career at the cooperative.” 28080
As for the 1991 Halloween storm, Don recalled, “The ’91 ice storm was an eye-opening experience for me, that was the most overtime I’ve ever had to do. The work seemed to be overwhelming. Then the cooperative found all these cooperatives to send help down.” That experience working with other line crews was memorable for Don, “…made friends for life and we were all working to get as many members back on as possible and as safely as we could.”
As for other memorable storms during his career, “I have been lucky enough to return the favor of helping other cooperatives in storms and they are all memorable for me,” wrote Don. “From the weather we had to deal with to the members who brought us food and refreshments. Lots of thanks from members and ‘glad you are here to help.’ Finding out about how our cooperative and other cooperatives do things made you appreciate what we have and bring back ideas of what we could be different to improve at the company. I am glad to be at a cooperative our size and in the community it gave me a chance to learn and meet more of our members.”
When asked on how the equipment has changed during his career, Don wrote, “When I started the company had two bucket trucks and two digger trucks for the line crew, two service trucks if you were assigned to one of them you knew you were going to climb poles that day. Now we have five buckets and two diggers, two service vehicles for substations and metering duties. This makes our job safer and more efficient on storms and our daily work. All of our work has changed with new technologies, meters to fusing and substations all have to be programmed and updated. When I started this was all manually done on the control panels. Now the computer is needed for all of this to be done.”
With line technician responsibilities, comes the need to work when outages occur and the need to be away from the family even with something scheduled. “It was a challenge being on call and missing family activities, hockey games, birthday parties, anniversaries, and soccer games,” stated Don. “One good thing about the linemen is we all try to help each other out when these activities would come up. I have a wonderful wife who would take over and have a plan to get everyone to their spots.” Don said with four children and six grandchildren, he’ll now have more time to be with them and enjoy their activities.
As for his ambitions during retirement, “We plan on camping more and have the grandkids join more,” stated Don. “I enjoy golfing, traveling, woodworking and the occasional brewery trips. Lots of friends and relatives who we can visit. Maybe get some warmer winters someplace.”
When asked about what he’ll think about or appreciate during his years with Steele-Waseca, Don wrote, “I will have to say that everyday I went to work I knew I was going to learn something new, everyday brought new challenges.” He shared how the older linemen would give him something different or challenging. “Then things got interesting when they retired and you had to lean back to what they had taught you,” stated Don. “The cooperative has been real good at sending you to school to learn and stay up with the new technology that is going on in the electric field. All of the crews and linemen I have worked with will have a memory that will stay with me. I hope I have given them some of the knowledge that I had learned.”
Steele-Waseca and its members have benefited because when he started, the co-op believed Don was a “good worker.” He utilized his opportunity to have a memorable career at Steele-Waseca. The co-op appreciates his years of service and wishes him a safe and enjoyable retirement.
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