During the first week of May, Central Wisconsin Electric Cooperative linemen Jarret Brow and Alex Lutz traveled to the Chinle District in Arizona on the Navajo Nation to take part in the Light Up Navajo IV Project to bring electricity to members of the Navajo Nation.
For Brow, the fact that some people in America don’t have power helped draw him to volunteering for the project.
“It’s something to go to another country and help them, but in America you’d think everyone should have power if they want it,” Brow said. “So, waiting 30-some years or longer to get it, that’s something that’s unheard of in America. To do it in America kind of means more to me than elsewhere.”
Lutz said he volunteered for the experience.
“And to bring power to people who have never had it, that’s something that you don’t get to see very often, especially to build brand new power lines is very uncommon as well,” Lutz said.
Brow and Lutz were part of a pole setting crew while working on the project. This included setting poles and helping put wires on the poles.
Both said the experience was mostly what they expected.
“Before we even went they tell you you’re going to be hooking up new families, and we definitely got to do that,” Lutz said. “We hooked up three families while we were there. We got to see them get electricity for the first time, and just to see their faces and to see how excited they were was cool.”
Even though the experience was what they expected, Brow said he was surprised by how poor the communities were. Lutz added that he was surprised by how desolate the area was, and how spread out the residents were.
“There was one mother there that we hooked the power to, and she said that her kids can now do school in the wintertime because they get snowed in and can’t go to school,” Brow said. “Now they can Zoom, now that they have electricity. She was really thankful. She took our picture and said she’d hang it up in her house. Her kids were saying thank you. It was a pretty heartfelt experience.”
Lutz said he was surprised at how long the process takes for residents in the area to get their homes hooked up to electricity.
“They have to apply for it first,” Lutz said. “And then they have to get their house wired up. They have to get that inspected. And then they go on a waiting list until it’s their turn.”
Lutz said some residents have been waiting almost their whole life to receive electricity.
“The first guy we got power to, he said he put his application in in 2001,” Lutz said. “That was the same year I was born. That’s what I kind of think about. I’ve done a lot in my life so far, and just to be sitting around waiting for electricity is crazy to me.”
Brow added that for electricity to be brought to a resident’s home, new right-a-ways for the lines need to be created.
“For them to get the right-a-ways you have to go through the government,” Brow said. “It’s a whole process that takes years because if they find one little fossil or anything they think is sacred, then they’ll have to move everything and start over again. Like I said it takes years just to get the right-a-ways.”
Despite having to wait a long time to get electricity, both Brow and Lutz said the residents weren’t angry, and were very grateful when the electricity was hooked up.
“A lot of the homes that didn’t have electricity also didn’t have water,” Lutz said. “For them to get electricity is just huge. They can have a refrigerator. They can have air conditioning, fans, lights, everything that we take for granted.”
Brow added that the residents getting their homes hooked up to electricity can now get the internet and other utilities, such as running water.
While working on the project, Brow and Lutz said they were helping build a 12-mile line. That 12-mile line will service 13 customers. That gives you an idea of how spread out the residents are.
“We had poles all the way up to some people’s houses, but they don’t string anything until the whole line is done,” Brow said. “So, people, even though they can see the brand-new poles, there is no wire or anything. They set all the poles, then they string, and then they do everything. They have to wait until that whole thing is done before they can get power.”
The workday for Brow and Lutz consisted of meeting with the team at 7 a.m. each morning, and then traveling 90 minutes to the jobsite. They would work until 7 p.m., and then travel the 90 minutes back to their hotel.
Many assume that that part of the United States is hot all the time, but Lutz said the temperatures weren’t bad, with most days in the mid-70s.
“Some of the places we were working in was very flat, and the wind kept the temperature down,” Lutz said. “We had a rain storm move in and it actually got a little chillier. It was different. I for sure thought it was going to be hot when we got there.”
Brow said they were working in an area with higher elevation, about 7,000 feet, which helped keep the temperatures down.
Lutz added that the scenery was different every day.
“We’d be up in the mountains one day and out in the middle of the desert the next,” Lutz said. “It was pretty cool. You’d stop while you’re working and kind of look around. It was pretty cool to see a mountain in the background, seeing as far as you can see.”
Prior to making the trip, Brow and Lutz were informed about some of the different animals they could encounter. They said they were warned about packs of wild dogs, tarantula spiders, rattlesnakes, and lizards. They said they did see a lot of wild dogs, but none of the others, except Lutz saw a little lizard.
Both Brow and Lutz said the experience was very rewarding to help people better their lives by helping bring electricity to them.
“Having a kid of my own, it hits home a little bit harder,” Brow said. “It’s a real neat feeling.”
Lutz added, “It was very rewarding just to see how different of lives they live. You grow up around here and everybody has electricity, you don’t ever hear about anybody not having electricity. And it’s just a totally different lifestyle.”