your electrical connection - newton power station retirees · your electrical connection january,...

Your Electrical Connection

January, 2015

Volume 13, Issue 1

Inside this issue:

Roger’s World 2

The Master’s Hand 2

Welcome Gary Kling-ler

4

Thanks John & Fare-well

5

Shannon Baker Cele-brates 10 Years

6

Anniversaries Cele-brated

7

Anniversaries Cele-brated

8

Wellness Corner 9

Upcoming Events 9

February Anniver-saries & Birthdays

9

Safety Highlights 3

Clerical & Stores2014 Highlights

6

Just Keep MovingChallenge Update

4

Heart of a Hero 3

Number of Days Since Last...

First Aid 70

Recordable 209

Lost Time 543

* Numbers based on Janu-ary 21, 2015.

Safety Stats:

Newton Safety Kickoff…Twyla Harvey

NPS held their 2015 Safety Kickoff on Tuesday, January 20. Newton’s Plant Manager, Alan Bo-gardus, welcomed everyone and introduced ours guests: Mario Alonso, EVP Strategic Develop-ment, Jeff Coyle, VP Ops Support, Don Watson, Sr. Safety Director, and Dan Thompson, VP PlantOperations. Repairman, Fred Davies and Carl Will, Utilityman, then gave the Safety Moment; fol-lowed by Roger Bass, the plant Culture Champion, who presented the Inspired Energy Moment.We then played a Safety Trivia Game, hosted by Roger Bass and Paul Hardiek; teams were as fol-lows: Coal Yard—Buck Pickens and Mark Nix; Operations—Tony Ochs and Joe Walker; Storesand Clerical—Larry Quick and Anita Griffith; I & E—Mark Williams and Doc Holliday; and Mechani-cal Maintenance—Jake Tingley and Scott Cummins. Upon missing a question, you were eliminatedfrom the competition. The winning team was Mechanical Maintenance and their prize is going to bea lunch of their choosing. We then heard from Mario Alonso, Jeff Coyle and Dan Thompson.Kent Schafer, Newton’s Safety Specialist, then went over the 2014 Safety Stats. Paul Hardiek, Pro-duction Manager, then went over the 2014 Safety Committee and Plant Accomplishments.I (Twyla Harvey), Newton’s Wellness Champion, gave a summary of our accomplishments in 2014,some of our ideas for 2015, and an update on the Walking Competition, which will end January 31.Manager, Alan Bogardus, then gave us Newton’s safety expectations. There are several big thingsthat will be happening in 2015, and it’s important for all of us to stay focused on our work and safety.Kent Schafer then gave the 2015 Safety Goals and the meeting was wrapped up with Q & A.A delicious lunch of broasted chicken and beef brisket, together with sides and a variety of desserts,was enjoyed by all.

Your Electrical Connection Volume 13, Issue 1

Roger’s World...Roger Bass

We received the following thank you note from The Master’s Hands:

On behalf of The Master’s Hands, we would like to thank you foryour donation. We greatly appreciate it and will put it to good usedoing God’s work.

May God Bless!

Mark and Sherry Anderson

A big thank you for all that helped make this donation possible. When Itook the money to The Master’s Hands, the place was filled with peopleand a flurry of activity. Upon leaving, I wondered how many of thosepeople would have gone through the day with no laughter and no one tosay a kind word to them. What a wonderful place this is for people togather.

dering: could a lion tamer sue the circus if he got bit when hestuck his head in the lion’s mouth? Can the guy that juggleschain saws sue the chain saw manufacturer if he cuts off hishand? How about the people in Spain who run with thebulls? Could they sue the City of Pamplona if they got tram-pled by the bulls? You have probably heard the saying;when you play with fire, you are going to get burnt.These people take chances. Do they have to take chances?I would think not. They make the choice. That’s the goodthing about where we work. We don’t have to take chances.We have the opportunity to look at what we are going to dobefore we start a job. We think about “What could gowrong?” We make the job safe before we do it. If somethingchanges during the job, we stop. We rethink the job. If wesee someone else taking chances, we stop them and talkabout it. Each and every one of us has that power. Use thatpower.Till next time, please be safe.

I heard on the radio that two ex-professional wrestlerswere suing the wrestling association that they worked for.They claim that their bosses were “selling violence whileignoring concussions. They also said that “under the dis-guise of providing entertainment, for decades, they havesubjected its wrestlers to extreme physical brutality that itknew, or should have known, causes long term irreversi-ble bodily damage, including brain damage.” (I shortenedthe last sentence due to lawyer language that I don’t un-derstand.)Back in the early sixties, I enjoyed watching wrestling ontelevision. It was on late at night out of Indianapolis.Some of the big names back then were Wilbur Snyder(The World’s Most Scientific Wrestler), and “The World’sMost Dangerous Wrestler” otherwise known as Dick theBruiser. Dick looked like Curly’s (Three Stooges) eviltwin. I always figured it was staged, but it was fun towatch. There were always good guys and villains. Veryseldom would the final match with the big name wrestlersbe over by the time the show was over. You would be lefthanging.I got the chance to go to a wrestling match back then. Iwas lucky and had a ring side seat. The last match fea-tured Dick the Bruiser. I don’t remember who he wrestledthat night, but it was obvious that Dick would win. At onepoint in the match, Dick’s opponent must have made amove that he wasn’t supposed to do. Dick proceeded tostart thumping on him for real. The referee even had asurprised look on his face.After hearing about the wrestler’s lawsuit, I started won-

The Master’s Hands...Twyla Harvey

Mark Anderson, myself and Sherry Anderson


Congratulations to all our employees for finishing 2014 with anOUTSTANDING safety performance. The station had 3 firstaids, 1 recordable (hearing threshold shift), and 0 lost time acci-dents for 2014. The January safety slogan is “Open the Doorto Safety; Awareness is the Key”.How do you think we did as a team in 2014 for the Safety Com-mittee Goals? Did you do your part or just let someone else doit? It is a fair challenge for each of us to ask ourselves, andthen we can leverage and improve even more in 2015.

· Housekeeping –

· Job Briefs –

· Communication –I personally look forward to getting the Unit 1 air heater basketsand seals replaced to help reduce the amount of dusting in theplant. Be sure to create WO’s when you identify leaks for theupcoming Unit 1 spring outage. It is easy to complain aboutdust, but we can’t fix it if leaks are not identified. I think, in gen-eral, the plant has less trash and miscellaneous items layingaround. We do still battle the dust and coal leaks. Job briefshave improved and always participation and ongoing reevalua-tion of the work steps will make them better. I feel communica-tion has significantly improved based on 59 safety committeecompleted action items around the plant. Some of the majoraccomplishments from our team in 2014 were:

· Purchased new Fork Truck with hydraulic forks and ratedfor mill rolls- Rick Wolford and Carl Will sponsored.

· Provided access for coal tripper cars hide-out coal areas(caused a fire) - Carl Will, Buck Pickens, and Rick Wolfordsponsored.

Safety Highlights...Paul Hardiek

· Purchased pneumatic lift for Coal Yard Mechanics forvehicles- Dan Ritz & Paul Hardiek sponsored.

· Purchased power broom, enclosure, & heaters forsnow removal with bobcat- Glen Frohning sponsored.

· Purchased new turbine deck floor cleaner- John Coo-ley sponsored and Ross purchased.

· Completed lake pump dock and priming system forfire protection- Dave Heath sponsored and Hal wasproject lead.

· Purchased scissor lift for fly ash hopper room- KerryFehrenbacher sponsored and Ross purchased.

· Hydrogen fill panel venting- Jim Marshall sponsoredand Keith Millspaugh was project lead.

· Performing quarterly drills- Jim Marshall sponsoredand has the project lead.

· Sealed up the Unit 2 turbine bay roll-up door- DougFrohning sponsored and Keith Millspaugh completed.

The Newton Safety Kick-Off is scheduled for January 20,2015. We plan to have a nice meal and energize the plantfor a SAFE 2015. Don’t Forget, Dan Thompson has chal-lenged each station from slips this winter not resulting in arecordable or lost time injury with another meal and all thefixings. So far, so good. Keep up your awareness.Before each work task, think about it. Then, do it………………..Safely.Until next month, have a safe day, each day!

Heart of a Hero...Jenny Frichtl RN

Mark your calendars for February 10, 2015. The next blood drive will beheld in the EDC Assembly Room from 1-5 PM. The goal is 17 units.Please try to help us reach this goal. Have the Heart of a Hero and helpsomeone in need. There will be homemade snacks for those who give,or attempt to give, and your name will be placed in a drawing to win oneof 2 boxes of chocolates to keep for yourself or give to your sweetie forValentine’s Day. Hope to see you there!


Gary Klingler started at NPS on Monday, January 19, as anUtilityman 1st 6 Months.Prior to coming to NPS, Gary was a Welding Tech for Caterpillarin Decatur for 3 years. Prior to working for CAT, he was a part-time welding instructor at Lakeland College for 2 years and alsoworked at K & P Welding in Watson.Gary is married; and, his wife is Renee (Deimel) Klingler.Renee grew up just South of the plant dam. She is a pharma-cist at Sarah Bush Hospital in Mattoon.In Gary’s spare time he enjoys doing anything outdoors; heloves to hunt, fish, ride 4 wheelers, work on old classic cars. Hecurrently is working on a 1971 and a 1972 Chevelle.When I asked him what his 3 day impression was of Newton, hesaid the people were real nice and very friendly and the foodwas great. He said he looked forward to meeting more of hisfellow employees. He also said he really loved the fact that ittakes him 18 minutes to drive to work instead of a hour and ahalf.Welcome to Newton, Gary; it’s a pleasure to have you here andit’s nice to always see a smile on your face.

Welcome Gary Klingler...Twyla Harvey

Just Keep Moving Challenge Update...Julie Matson

We are just 11 days from finishing the “Just Keep Moving”contest. The results through December 19 (week 7) are asfollows:Team #1 = 86,419Team #2 = 80,222Team #3 = 56,721Team #4 = 73,429Team #5 = 62,310Team #6 = 55,056Team #7 = 47,384

The numbers listed are team averages. The top threeindividual leaders through December 19 are: John In-gram, Phil Haussy and Phil Mayer.With vacations, holidays and illnesses, it has been a bitof a challenge to give more current updates. With justa few days left, let’s finish this strong!


On January 8, NPS wished John Cooley well with a cake and coffee. Paul Hardiek presented John with some gift cards, cashand a picture collage that reflected his time at Newton.

John started at NPS on March 1, 2013, as Managing Director. He began his Union Electric/Ameren/Dynegy career as an Elec-trical Engineer at the Venice Power Station. He also worked at Rush Island Power Plant, the UE GOB in St. Louis and rightbefore coming to Newton he was at the Collinsville office as the Manager of the Performance and Combustion Engineeringfleet for AER. John is now the Managing Director of the Baldwin Power Plant.

In John’s spare time, he loves to be outdoors; he rides a sport motorcycle, loves to ride 4 wheelers, fish, do home projects andis very involved with his church.

John and his wife, Melody, live in Barnhart, MO and have three children; Libby (31), Sam (20) and Ben (19).

NPS employees appreciate all you did for us at Newton, John, and we wish you the best of luck at Baldwin.

Thanks John and Farewell...Twyla Harvey


With the transition to Dynegy taking place in December of 2013,2014 was a year of many changes and new processes. Thiswas especially true for the Storeroom and Clerical groups. WithDynegy, each plant is responsible for processing vendor invoic-es for their station. The Stores group became responsible forNewton invoices. After training in February, they played “catchup” on invoices which hadn’t been processed during the turno-ver. They have managed the abundance of invoices we receiveat the plant. At the end of January, we will be trained again onan updated process for invoices using LiveLink. Anotherchange for the Storeroom was a weekly inventory. There areonly two week’s out of the year (Christmas and New Year’s) inwhich inventory isn’t required to be performed. The Storeroomgroup has done a great job with both the invoice and inventoryprocesses.

Clerical and Stores 2014 Highlights...Vita Kistner

The major change within Clerical had to do with payroll.With the change to Dynegy, we were no longer usingTRIS for entering time. ADP (Automatic Data Processing)is the program which Dynegy uses. There were someissues with time clocks and entering time into ADP, sountil those are worked out, Bargaining Unit time is enteredinto an Excel spreadsheet daily from the time cards.Once the file has been sent to Houston for processing, itis sent back to Clerical for a final check. This is a verytime consuming task and I’m sure everyone can agree, ithas to be done correctly or paychecks can be affected,which no one wants.I want to thank both the Storeroom and Clerical groups fortheir commitment to these new processes. They haveboth done a great job on learning and performing thechanges in systems.

Shannon Baker Celebrates 10 Years at NPS...Twyla Harvey

Shannon Baker celebrated his 10 year plant anniversary with alunch on January 15.

Shannon started at NPS on January 3, 2005, as a CertifiedWelder Repairman and remains that today.

Shannon has 2 daughters: Mackenzie (19), a student at EIU,and Michaela (14), a student at Newton High School.

In his spare time, Shannon enjoys hunting, fishing and spend-ing time with his daughters.

Congratulations Shannon; it’s great having you here at NewtonPower Station.

L-R: Rick Wolford, Maintenance Manager, con-gratulating Shannon.

L-R: Alan Talbert, I&E Tech, and Skip Moore, CertifiedWelder Repairman, enjoy lunch.


Anniversaries Celebrated...Twyla Harvey

Mark Oliver celebrated his 35 years of service at Newton Power Station on Friday, December 19, with apple pies and cook-ies.Mark started at Newton Power Station on December 12, 1979, as an Utilityman 1st 6 Months and on January 6, 1980, hebecame a Process Operator Helper (POH) in the scrubber. Mark worked his way up to a Process Operator 2 (PO2) beforetransferring back to plant Operations. On April 15, 2002, he became an Unit Operator (UO) and remains that to date.Mark and his wife, Susan, live in Effingham and have been married 21 years. In his spare time, Mark enjoys riding his Har-ley, watching movies and traveling with Susan.Congratulations on your 35 years of service, Mark. It is truly a pleasure working with you!

B Shift: L-R: Gary Stanciu, Randy Ebeling, Guest of Honor, Mark Oliver,Jake Wernsing, Shift Supervisor, Jeff TeuerleBack Row: L-R: Bill Tennyson and Kelly Line

Mark Oliver being congratulated byShift Supervisor, Jeff Teuerle

Julian Gordon celebrated his 10 year anniversary on Friday, December19, 2014, with a cake and coffee with his 11-7 maintenance shift.Julian started at Hutsonville on November 29, 2004, and prior to comingto Newton Power Station on January 1, 2012, he was a Control RoomOperator at Hutsonville. He started at Newton as an Utilityman Thereaf-ter and on October 17, 2012, he was the successful bidder of a WelderRepairman Apprentice job. Julian topped out as Welder Repairman onApril 17, 2014.Julian and his wife, Mary, have been married 26 years and live South ofPalestine. Julian and Mary have 2 children; Bobby (24) and Kimmy (22),In Julian’s spare time he enjoys woodworking and spending time with hisfamily.Congratulations Julian on your 10 years of service.

L-R: Lance Farmer, Maintenance Su-pervisor, congratulating Julian Gordon


Anniversaries Celebrated...Twyla Harvey

Larry Quick and Anita Griffith celebrated their 35 and 15year anniversary on Wednesday, January 14, with a cakeand coffee.Larry started at Newton Power Station on January 17,1980, as an Utilityman 1st 6 Months. On January 21, 1980,Larry became a Janitor. On September 21, 1980, Larry bidand was awarded an Operator Helper job; on February 14,1982, he was bumped back to Janitor due to a lay-off. Lar-ry remained a Janitor until May 4, 1997, when he was thesuccessful bidder of a Stockman job. He remains a Stock-man today.Larry and his wife, Gwen, live in Newton and have beenmarried for 27 years. They have one son, Connor, who isalmost 20 and is in his second year at Lakeland College inMattoon, working on a degree in Broadcasting.In Larry’s spare time he enjoys playing golf and music.Congratulations, Larry, on your 35 years of service.

Anita started at Newton Power Station on January 17,2000, as a temporary Steno 1st 6 Months. On January 17,2002, she completed her step-ups and was a Steno andalso a permanent employee. Anita was laid off from May31, 2003, to October 13, 2003; upon being called back towork, she was made a Records Clerk and remains that to-day.Anita and her husband, Gary, live in rural Newton and havebeen married 19 years. They have four children: Cynthia15, Claire, soon to be 13, Veronica 10 and Ethan soon tobe 8. All four children go to school in Newton.In Anita’s spare time she enjoys spending time with herfamily.Congratulations, Anita, on your 15 years of service.

Anita Griffith being congratulated by hersupervisor, Vita Kistner

Larry Quick being congratulated by hissupervisor, Vita Kistner

L-R: Twyla Harvey, Julie Matson, Guest of Honor,Anita Griffith, Cindi Root, Supervisor, Vita Kistner,Guest of Honor, Larry Quick, and Mary Hightshoe.


* Any omissions in this section areentirely unintentional.

2/6 John Bower2/7 Phil Haussy2/8 Gerod Briggs2/9 Chris Hankins2/10 Doc Holliday2/12 Kirbee Monk2/15 Duane Menke2/15 John Uebinger2/18 Ron Holmes2/18 Scott Stewart2/20 Nick Gipson

Upcoming Events February Anniversaries & Birthdays

Feb. 10 Blood Drive 2/5 35 Yrs. Jim Taylor2/7 35 Yrs. Randy Johnson

Wellness Corner...Wellness Committee

OK….is salt bad for you? We have all heard that eating too many salty foods hurts your health and recently we have beenhearing that too little salt can boost your risk of heart disease and strokes. The study that says too little sodium increases yourrisk of heart disease and/or strokes, focused on people who get less than 1,500 mg a day. Most of us get much more thanthat; and, in turn, that can also lead to heart disease and strokes.Your muscles and nerves need some sodium in order to work well. The “sweet spot” is 2,300 mg a day; that only equals ateaspoon of salt. If you eat processed foods, it’s easy to get too much; in fact, 75% of the sodium that we consume in Americais in processed food.As with many things, salt is neither completely good nor bad; it’s the quantity that matters. Try tracking how much is sneakinginto your diet and you will realize that you need to rely more on herbs and spices than salt for flavor.Some surprising (at least to me) foods that have a high content of salt are:

2 slices of whole what bread—300 mg6 chicken nuggets—500 mg1 cup of chicken noodle soup—930 mg2 slices of pizza—1280 mg

Just be aware.

Open The Door To Safety; Awareness Is The Key

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