In an ongoing effort, volunteers with the IBEW Electrical Workers Minority Caucus (EWMC) Greater St. Louis Chapter have been cleaning up neighborhoods devasted by the EF-3 tornado last month.  “It’s all hands on deck…” noted Jon Hendrix, vice president of the EWMC Greater St. Louis Chapter, as volunteers remove tree limbs and other storm debris. Learn more.

Meanwhile, the IBEW Local 1 Veterans Committee could be found brightening the O’Fallon, Mo. VFW Post 5077. “The post reached out to us for help, and we got together and got these new lamps and brightened up their world again,” said IBEW Business Representative Tim Cleveland said. “We are retrofitting all the old T-12 fixtures to new LED so they’re more autonomous. It’s veterans helping veterans. We constantly want to be helping our people who stood before us.” Cleveland, a Navy veteran, chairs the Local 1 Veteran’s Committee. VFW Post 5077’s Bill Harden said

“We’re thrilled to death,” Harden said, “it’s going to make a big difference. We have bingo here and sometimes the lights would flicker on and off, and a lot of our bingo players are older and complained about the lighting. We’ve been trying to upgrade things here and there, but we just couldn’t keep up.” IBEW Local 1 signatory contractors Bell Electrical Contractors, Hanenkamp Electric Company, TD4 Electrical and Liberty Electric, Inc. donated ladders for initiative. Learn more.

Among the most complex facilities our IBEW/NECA partners maintain are industrial, data centers, hospitals and utility infrastructure. And integral to the reliability of those facilities is the bus duct system as NECA contractor MidStates Energy details in its latest blog. “Bus ducts are enclosed metal raceways that contain copper or aluminum busbars designed to conduct large amounts of electricity. They are often used as an alternative to conventional cabling because of their high efficiency, modularity, and ease of installation. Over time, these systems can become compromised due to environmental conditions, wear and tear, vibration, or lack of maintenance.” Learn more about MidStates’ approach to diagnosing bus duct issues and ensuring they function optimally.