KPUD customers will now be seeing a new set of faces coming out of Klickitat PUD vehicles. KPUD has hired a trimming crew that will provide year-round services to Klickitat county residences. Hiring of the new crew was completed on August 16, 2005 and consists of three positions: Crew Foreman, Journeyman, and Groundman. This crew will be stationed out of White Salmon most of the year, but will be working throughout the county.
The tree-trimming crew’s first line of business will be completing the call-ins or “hot spotting” areas first. They will then begin working on problem trees they notice along the way.
A Look at the Crew
The crew’s foreman, Dale Stelter, is from Snohomish, WA. He was hired by KPUD in July and performed other duties while waiting for the rest of his crew to be hired so their work could begin. He was previously a tree trimmer with Kemp West before taking the foreman position at KPUD. He was with Kemp West for 10 years, and has been a tree trimmer for the past 20.
The crew’s journeyman tree trimmer, Jeff Speelman, came to KPUD from Camas, WA. Jeff was previously employed with Tree Inc. for 2 ½ years.
John Tallman, the crew’s groundman, is a native to the Goldendale area and was hired in August, completing the new tree trimming crew. John has fallen timber for 24 years and was previously employed by Log Processors.
Contact Us
Call Klickitat PUD at 509-773-5891 or 1-800-548-8357 if you have trees that are getting dangerously close to power lines, to help us alleviate any possible power outage areas. Cutting branches within 10 feet of an overhead line 600 volts or above is prohibited by state law unless you are a qualified line clearance tree trimmer and is NOT for do-it-yourselfers. The PUD crews are trained to work safely around live power lines and know how to preserve the health and beauty of your trees.
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Last updated: 04/2009
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