Page 6 - TEnnessee

Damage Prevention MVP
The Utility Association of Gibson County
By Jason Fryer,
Damage Prevention Liaison Tennessee811
In my nearly seven years of writing an article for the Tennessee 811 magazine, I’ve never featured any type of association or group as
our Damage Prevention MVP. I have featured many people who work for great companies, who make it a priority to put safety first, who promote and educate using the 811 message, and then practice or encourage others to practice safe digging methods. My article has evolved as it started as a “Contractor Spotlight” with the first issue featuring Revell Construction in the first quarter of 2018. Then it changed to the current Damage Prevention MVP in the first quarter of 2020, when I featured everyone’s favorite “show and tell”
gas person, Mr. Cliff Swoape. I was recently doing some brainstorming
of who I would feature this quarter, and after talking with my coworker Dean Anderson, it hit me. I wanted to feature a group that has successfully orchestrated an annual safety day in West Tennessee for the last 4 years.
This group is called the Utility Association of Gibson County (UAGC). In other parts of the state, a group like this may be called a Utility Coordinating Committee (UCC) or a
Damage Prevention Committee (DPC). The UAGC is the only such group in West Tennessee. I reached out to one of my customers at Gibson County Utility District (GCUD), Sammy Locke. Sammy is the Distribution Operations Manager. I conferred with Sammy regarding the group’s history and founding. Sammy along with the support of management at GCUD, including General Manager Allyson Horner, were instrumental in getting this group going.
Back before the group was founded in 2018, there were several fiber projects going on in Gibson County. I was
asked to attend a meeting between two utilities and discuss the dig law and safe digging practices. After that meeting, word got out that a utility association was needed where we could come together and discuss important topics. In the early days, the group started meeting monthly at different local restaurants or a local utility office. We would talk about upcoming projects, damages to underground utilities, damage prevention, and anything regarding utility operations. After we met a few times, we realized monthly was too often to meet, so Sammy and the group changed the meeting to every other month.
Fast forward to 2021, and the UAGC decided it was time to have a safety day. There was some creative marketing, and the idea was named “811 in the
731”. There would be free 811 t-shirts
to the first 100 people in attendance, vendors set up with promotional items, the safety demonstration event, and thousands of dollars of door prizes given away after the event.
The first year there was a simulated
gas line strike that involved the gas operator, its locator, and emergency responders. Yours truly was the MC (Master of Ceremonies) for the event. We had around 225 people attend the 1st Annual 811 in the 731. It was such
a hit that we decided to keep it going. Every year we have done the event in conjunction with the Gibson County Fair (special thanks to the Gibson County Fairground for allowing us the space to do our safety day). In 2022, we had the electric trailer demonstration and had a little over 300 folks in attendance. Last year in 2023, we did a water demonstration along with a water leak repair contest and we had 300 people in attendance. This year we had another gas line demonstration where
a homeowner chose not to call 811 before putting in a mailbox. Even with
4 • Tennessee 811
2024, Issue 4