The OPD5 line crew in Mesquite hosted about 20 employees from local landscaping companies at an informal luncheon held on Thursday, May 22, in the district’s Mesquite warehouse. The purpose of the gathering was to provide a safety resource for the landscapers when their work takes them in the vicinity of OPD5 power lines.
“We just wanted to give a point of contact if they are ever hired to trim trees, or something, that are close to power lines,” said OPD5 Virgin Valley Line Foreman Omar Vallejo. “All they have to do is give us a call, and we will send someone right out to their worksite to help. And it doesn’t cost them anything. We just want them to be safe.”
As the landscape workers were treated to a lunch of pizza and sodas, Vallejo and Lead Lineman Steve Barlow presented a few basic tree-trimming safety guidelines to the group. They suggested that a good general rule is for trimming crews always to maintain a 10-foot minimum distance from any power line. If work is needed within that threshold, qualified line-clearance personnel should be called in from OPD5 to help with that portion of the job, they said.
“If you give us a call in that situation, we can have someone out to help you within a few minutes,” Vallejo added.
Another important piece of safety advice the Vallejo and Barlow shared was that landscapers should always assume that power lines in their work area are energized. If they are ever unsure, they should stop work and call OPD5. In addition, trees should never be trimmed near damaged power lines or lines that are on the ground.
Vallejo and Barlow opened the time to their guests for questions. They fielded several queries from the attendees about what should be done in various safety scenarios that the landscapers might commonly encounter in the field.
“This was a great opportunity for us to open a dialog with these guys,” said OPD5 Line Operations Manager Kyle Leavitt. “The key message here is that we aren’t trying to enforce anything on them or cause them delays or trouble. Rather, we are just willing to do whatever is needed to keep them safe around our power lines. That message of safety extends out to all of the general public as well. Safety is our top priority at OPD5.”