Local 533 plumbers donate skills, time to restore homeowner’s water service

By CARL GREEN
Correspondent

Brighton, IL – Diane Brandt hadn’t been able to get the water flowing for about three months into her small, tidy house in Brighton, the village north of Alton where Macoupin County meets Jersey County.

She didn’t have money for a big plumbing project, either, so she called on the United Way for help. That led to a crew of union plumbers coming out on a sunny Saturday morning, March 16, to make a new connection.

The plumbers were from Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 533, based in East Alton. The crew is employed by Inspector Plumber, which serves the entire Metro-East area.

Nick Dodson, one of the Metro-East Labor liaisons for United Way, worked with Local 533 Business Manager Herb Frohock and Scott Smith of Inspector Plumber to put together the equipment and crew for a job, including Local 533’s Jake Dressler, Christian Kanon, Kurt Ansell and Joseph Smith.

VOLUNTEERED THEIR TIME
Frohock said it was a pleasure to get to do a volunteer job.

“We get to do it occasionally but we’d like to do more,” he said. “Nick got hold of me and I sent an e-mail to the contractors association to see if anybody would be interested in helping to get something together. Scott got it set up and got these guys to volunteer to help, so it worked out good.”

Smith said the crew didn’t hesitate to take on the job, which included a trench and a new water line.

“We were just trying to do something good for somebody – trying to help somebody out,” Smith said. “They all volunteered their time off to take care of us and help out.”