Energy utilities honor lineworkers for national appreciation day

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Energy utilities across South Dakota are celebrating the electrical lineworkers who ensure reliable electricity is delivered to homes and businesses across the state day in and day out.

On Monday, April 14, electric cooperatives and others celebrate these essential workers on National Lineworker Appreciation Day. The week finishes out with Gov. Larry Rhoden’s declaration of Friday, April 18, as Lineworker Appreciation Day in South Dakota.

Hundreds of South Dakotans are employed as electrical lineworkers at cooperatives, municipal utilities, and investor-owned utilities. Many of these workers are trained locally at Mitchell Technical College in Mitchell, S.D.

Lineworkers enter their profession for a variety of reasons.

“I want to work to make a difference, not just a dollar,” said Jayme Juhnke, a journeyman lineman at Southeastern Electric Cooperative’s office at Marion, S.D.

Lineworkers’ efforts are most noticeable when outages and storms disrupt the reliable delivery of power.

“You’re a first responder at the end of the day that no one really talks about,” said Ben Murphy, a Sioux Falls-based line crew foreman for Xcel Energy.

“It’s like a brotherhood, everybody’s working for the same thing,” said Bob Johnson, a lead journey lineworker for Sioux Valley Energy’s Brandon, S.D., service center.

Watch Juhnke, Johnson and Murphy talk about their work on the line here.

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