Property owners encouraged to have their dock hook-ups installed and inspected by a union contractor
Lake of the Ozarks – Responding to the recent electrocution deaths at Lake of the Ozarks, IBEW Local 257 in Jefferson City is reaching out to the community with a commercial encouraging property owners to have their dock electrical hook-ups installed and inspected by union contractors.
The commercial, which began airing this week, includes a link (http://www.connectmidmissouri.com/community/content.aspx?id=779491#.ua2pnbryuso) to a list of union contractors serving the Lake of the Ozarks area.
Don Bruemmer, business manager for Local 257, said the commercial, paid for by the IBEW Local 257 Local Labor Management Cooperative Committee (LMCC), will air through September, or the end of the boating season.
“IBEW Local 257 wants everybody to be safe,” Bruemmer said. “This commercial is about qualified electricians in the IBEW who work for licensed, certified contractors that will stand behind their installation. It’s something that our local union and contractors wanted to do.”
IBEW Local 257 covers central Missouri including Moberly, Columbia, the University of Missouri, the Calloway nuclear plant, Jefferson City, the Lake of the Ozarks, the AmerenUE dam, Rolla and Salem.
A TRIPLE TRAGEDY
The deaths occurred just days apart.
Two children from Ashland, MO were electrocuted while swimming at Gravois Arm of the lake on the Fourth of July. Authorities identified the children as 13-year-old Alexandra Anderson and her 8-year-old brother Brayden.
Just three days later, Jennifer L. Lankford, 26, of Hazelwood was killed when she touched a dock that apparently had faulty wiring at Dry Branch Cove in Morgan County.
The Missouri Highway Patrol, which investigated the deaths, encourages dock owners to recheck the wiring on their docks every year to make sure the wiring is installed correctly and that the ground fault interrupter (GFI) is working properly.
“We request that they have a licensed electrician or someone that really knows electricity double check the wiring on the docks to ensure everyone’s safety,” Sgt. Paul Reinsch of the Missouri State Highway Patrol said.
“We just want to make sure that all the docks are safe,” Reinsch said. “Whatever they have to do to make sure they’re safe, that’s what we would recommend.”
Reinsch said anyone who feels electricity while in the water should swim to another dock.
REACHING OUT
Following the deaths, Bruemmer reached out to AmerenUE and local fire departments offering to help set up licensing or safety codes in the lake area.
“I told them I was willing to help the communities and the lake area set up a licensing law and to address electrical installations. My contractors are willing to install the electrical installations correctly right now,” Bruemmer said.
The challenge, he said, is that multiple jurisdictions make up the lake area, making for a lack of uniform regulations governing docks.
Ameren issues dock permits to new dock owners and worked with fire districts to tighten regulations for new docks in 2006, Jeff Green, Ameren’s shoreline supervisor at the lake told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, but not all fire districts do inspections. Only about half of the docks along the main channel of the Lake of the Ozarks are in fire districts that require inspections.
“Nobody has to be licensed,” Bruemmer said. “Ameren finally put out a printout of how they wanted them wired from 2006 on. From 2006 prior the electrical installations were a free for all with no inspections and no enforcement.”
‘THIS IS ABOUT SAFETY’
The commercial is a way to reach out to property owners directly, with a simple message – there is a difference between someone who installs wiring and a trained union electrician who installs it correctly. The difference comes down to safety.
“This is about safety,” Bruemmer said. “We care about the people at the lake and communities that we have geographical jurisdiction over.
“Every one of our journeymen goes through 1,000 hours in-school training over a five year period, and 8,000 hours on the job training over that same period. That’s what it takes for our apprentices to become journeymen. And our journeymen go through updated code changes and any other electrical installations that have been revised constantly throughout their careers.”
Licensed union electrical contractors serving the Lake of the Ozarks area:
Advanced Electrical Systems
Bill Urban
P.O. Box 644
Salem, MO 65560
Phone: 573-729-2595
B&B Electric, LLC
Tim Backus
10272 Maries Road 333
Vienna, MO 65582
Phone: 573-694-3124
Coastal Electric
Dennis Palmer
P.O. Box 7629
Columbia, MO 65205
Phone: 573-875-2200
Inline Electric
Dennis Strickland
P.O. Box 104597
Jefferson City, MO 65101
Phone: 573-659-4344
Jeffries Electrical Services
Darryl Jeffries
5452 County Road 480
Tebbets, MO 65080
Phone: 573-676-5100
Kaiser Electric
Jason Russell
1517 Copper Road
Holt’s Summit, MO 65043
Phone: 573-462-0206
Meyer Electric
Paul Meyer
P.O. Box 1013
Jefferson City, MO 65102
Phone: 573-893-2335
NEMO Electric
Bob Long
1500 Highway DD
Moberly, MO 65270
Phone: 660-263-3777
RA Howerton Electrical Contracting
Doug Howerton
720 Heisinger Road
Jefferson City, MO 65109
Phone: 573-573-636-5046
Rehagen Electrical Contracting
Jonette Rehagen
5815 State Route B
Jefferson City, MO 65101
Phone: 573-893-3155
Sapp Construction, Inc.
Dennis Sapp
402B Morgan Drive
Ashland, MO 65010
Phone: 573-489-3991
Schneider Electric
Jim Loehner
414 W. Dunklin
Jefferson City, MO 65109
Phone: 573-636-4101
Stokes Electric
Carl Stokes
226 Madison
Jefferson City, MO 65101
Phone: 573-636-2167
Triple E Electric
Larry Pierce
700 W. Worstell
Columbia, MO 65202
Phone: 573-815-9579
- Share this story:
-
-
-
-
-
-
-