Badger Meter is MLGW’s water meter manufacturer. Representatives from the company will be working in pairs to test water meters throughout Shelby County over the next year. Badger Meter employees can be identified by their Badger Meter ID and uniform. Their trucks will have the Badger Meter logo displayed. They will not be interrupting water service to customers.
Hard at
work in the hot summer sun, a group of Memphis teenagers repaired, scraped and
painted a home in Orange Mound. The badly-in-need-of-repair home on Buntyn was
shaping up. That was confirmed by MLGW safety inspector Chris Harrison, Corporate
Safety, who gave the home’s electrics, meter and weatherhead a passing grade.
Welcome home!
The Christian teen service project is called Workcamp. They scraped and painted a total of 11 homes in 2021. Representing six Memphis Churches of Christ, Workcamp has been around since 1989 and has painted 868 homes since then.
This year, 160 teens and adults are working throughout the city for neighborhoods in need, painting mostly homes in Orange Mound. Homes of course are painted for free. Helping the teens were adults Barry Fowler, Cordova Community Church, who was doing carpentry while a teen helped and learned some carpentry from him, as well. Crew leader/supervisor Perrin Rowsey, Highland Church of Christ, was up on a ladder slapping on paint while the other teens were all around the house – even up on the roof – doing a masterful, professional job with improvements. The house was looking good!
Harrison was there to help the group get the home inspected. MLGW has been partnering with Workcamp for years helping out and making sure the homes are safe and pass inspection, so the homes can be livable and secure again. MLGW employees such as former safety supervisor Garland Crawford, retired, and Mark Ward, Corporate Safety, have been part of this years-long assistance.
Workcamp director is Buster Clemens from Highland Church of Christ. He praised his young volunteers for their hard work and dedication. “Our goal and purpose is to serve the community,” Buster says. “Being Christlike and a light for our community is what these young Christian volunteers are dedicated to. They are serving God by serving people, and we want them to have ownership and be proud of the good work they are doing for others.”
The six churches involved in Workcamp are White Station, Highland, Sycamore View, Missouri Street, Oliver Creek Churches of Christ, and Trenton Crossing Church of Christ in Clarksville, TN. This year’s Workcamp theme is, “Love your Hive” with projects in Orange Mound, Soulsville and North Memphis. Workcamp partnered with Bee901 for the theme, and several restaurants provided dinner each night for the young volunteers. On Workcamp’s website (memphisworkcamp.org) is a call to action and a short history as follows:
“Memphis Workcamp began in 1989 when Germantown youth minister Mark McVey brought the idea from Oklahoma City. Mark McVey, Charlie Hester (Goodman Oaks), Farland Clark (White Station), and John Pitman (Union Avenue) did most of the work that first year. The Coleman Avenue Church served as the home base, and the Church of Christ at White Station hosted the evening assemblies. The first year saw 125 workers paint 25 houses. Workcamp was moved to Highland Church of Christ in 1990 and remained there until 2006. Workcamp has been hosted by the Church of Christ at White Station since 2007.
“For thirty-three years now, teenagers and adults have come together every summer to paint and restore 868 houses in Memphis, Tennessee. Our hope and prayer is that as the community sees Memphis Workcamp crews in action, they will see what the love and joy of being a Christian means.” Workcamp breaks down racial barriers and let’s teenagers put their faith into action. And it’s a great hands-on learning experience and a weeklong adventure with a lifelong impact!
Judging from the young volunteers, their enjoyment and hands-on involvement was evident that Wednesday in Orange Mound, it will be a service project they’ll never forget. Another Workcamp crew was working just down the street on Buntyn working just as hard in the heat. Two young crews doing great work in the neighborhood, putting their faith into action and helping folks in need. It’s an inspiring example for all of us.
Over the next few months - and the next four years - you may see employees of Osmose inspecting the utility poles on or near your property. Osmose pole inspection programs allow us to better manage the critical factors that determine pole strength over pole lifetime.
The inspection and treatment of wood poles includes but is not limited to primary poles, lift poles and street light poles located on the MLGW electric distribution system.
Proper maintenance of wood poles, which includes inspection and application of remedial treatments, helps add many years of safe, reliable service life to our electric distribution system, thereby reducing premature or emergency pole replacements.
Memphis is located in the Level 4 Deterioration Zone, which is the second
highest zone in the United States. To help extend the life of the pole
post inspections, Osmose remedial preservative treatments help maintain the
durability of our system by preventing strength loss caused by wood-destroying
fungi and insects. Combined with the remaining original preservative,
remedial treatments can provide an effective defense against a wide variety of
wood-destroying organisms, thus extending the useful service life many years beyond
what is typically expected.
These pole inspections help MLGW better determine which poles will unexpectedly fail in the field, so by this determination we can change out the pole prior to failure to help mitigate unexpected customer outages.
MLGW Hero: Bobby Brown
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