Pioneers of RG&E: April 2017

A Newsletter for Retirees * Also posted at www.pioneersofrge.com

March Storm:
I could not get separate RG&E numbers, but I know the majority of the damage was in Rochester. Here is an excerpt of a note to the employees from the executives regarding the storm:
"From Buffalo to Rochester, wind gusts that peaked at more than 80 miles per hour damaged buildings, uprooted trees, and knocked out power to more than 215,000 of our customers. The strong winds and falling trees brought down more than 6,000 lines along streets and in backyards. We called upon nearly 2,500 workers who came to help from our own state, states throughout the Northeast, three Canadian provinces, and from as far away as Virginia. They worked for nearly a week with our own crews in snow and cold to replace more than 900 broken poles."
I worked a little bit as a crew guide with some follow up after most of the damage had been cleaned up. Below is a picture of a lineman from Michels putting up a service just after dark.
It was a massive, chaotic but successful effort (as most storms are) due to the hard work of many employees and even more contractors. Trying to mobilize that many people in that quick of a timeline is not an easy task. Given the amount of broken poles and services down, it is great that they got folks up as fast as they did. Though there is room for improvement and always lessons learned, I think they did a great job. Thank an RG&E employee the next time you see one, they still love their work and they work hard for their customers.

Florida Pioneers Picnic Follow-Up
We had a very nice day and many smiling faces on the retirees and their guest at this year's Florida picnic.
Different people informed everyone of the most recent deaths of retirees.
Everyone had good memories of the deceased to share.
Work stories were also entertaining from everyone.
We have booked Seminole park Shelter 5 on March 5, 2018 (Monday).
Everyone that attended this year, voted to continue the picnics.
Thank you to everyone that supported this event.
-John Klein

Retirements:
I am too late for the parties for Sue Amico and Dave Stone - but they are retiring or have already.
Rick Petrocci's party is coming up:

Save the Date:
The annual Rochester picnic will be Thursday, August 3, 2017.
I'll send a separate note with details soon. I'm working on getting the latest list of retiree information from RG&E first, though this may need to become an email thing or word or mouth invite. Rumor has it that HR is not handing out much for information these days.

RG&E Public Affairs asked me to pass along this information:
The AVANGRID Foundation and RG&E are sponsoring Lifespan’s May information and inspiration workshops, please click HERE.

Pretty neat: click on the link to see the:
1979 RG&E Pioneers Picnic Magazine

Deaths

The names should be clickable to their obituary link:
Lee Houser
Rosemarie A. Albright (her husband worked at RG&E)
Harold Weather
Walter L. Frisbee
Shirley B. Miller
Madelyn (Holla) Read
Anthony J. DeFeo
Dewey E. Horning (Ginna)
Herbert H. McKinley
Roger Harnaart
Milford 'Rob' Robinson
Ronald R. Kaiser

Robert A. Lane
John C. Breitung

If you know of folks that should be getting this newsletter - have them check their spam or junk folders. I have come across a few that we send to, request that I put their email in, but they never open them, so I assume they are caught up in spam.