Matt Price AUB's Newest Journeyman Lineman
Media Contact:
Wayne Scarbrough
(423) 745-4501 ext. 6002
wscarbrough@aub.org
May 6, 2019
ATHENS, Tenn. – Matt Price is Athens Utilities Board’s (AUB) newest journeyman lineman and the utility’s most recent employee to receive an advanced certification within his field of work.
Price began his career with AUB as an apprentice lineman in 2015 and has since been through the process to earn his journeyman lineman certification.
Before starting the journey to become a lineman, Price held linework positions with a contracting group and Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) after graduating high school in 2009.
“After I graduated high school in ’09, I went ahead and entered linemen school and paid for it out-of-pocket to have a better chance of getting an apprentice position when one opened up,” Price said.
Price attended linemen school in Trenton, Ga., with his eye on the prize—working in McMinn County at AUB.
“I wanted to be a lineman in my community, but I ended up graduating from the program in 15 weeks and working with a contracting company while I waited on AUB. I spent time traveling through Kentucky and Alabama before working at TVA in linework.
“I looked online all of the time at the open positions at AUB and finally had a chance to apply for an apprentice position,” Price stated.
As an apprentice, Price had the opportunity to travel with fellow AUB linemen to neighboring states in times of disaster through the American Public Power Association’s mutual aid relief efforts.
“The communities really changed me when we worked to get them up and running after the hurricanes. The people had homes that were destroyed and they were offering to cook us dinner. We appreciated that so much,” Price said.
With his early graduation from linemen school and his experience in the field, Price was able to complete his lineman certification in approximately 4.5 years. The training to become a lineman is at times difficult because of the serious nature of the work.
“The five-year program includes intense field training, ample classroom work with detailed courses in line-worker safety, pole framing, distribution transformers and advanced mathematical electric system calculations,” stated Kevin Goins, AUB’s operations director and linemen crew supervisor.
“Matt came to us with lots of unique experience. He spent some time building transmission lines for TVA, which is a challenging job. Transmission lines are much like distribution lines, except they are much higher in the air and much heavier. Another major difference is we do most of our distribution work energized, where most transmission line work is done de-energized.
“Matt has made the shift quite easily and is very dependable. He is most often found smiling and joking with his co-workers. He is a faithful member of the safety committee where he does his best to serve all of us here at AUB. We are a better organization because we have Matt Price on our team,” Goins said.
Price particularly enjoys working with the other power crew members and felt heavily supported during the last few years as an apprentice.
“The foremen and managers were very helpful to me. They are well-trained in linework and are really book smart. I appreciated their help.
“My family has really supported me, even through all of my traveling. My dad did all of my yardwork when I was gone for weeks at a time,” Price stated.
Price resides in McMinn County and enjoys working outdoors with hands-on projects.
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