Davey Tree Flipbooks

6 THE DAVEY BULLETIN | July/August 2024 MISSION Thirty-eight employees from 11 Residential/Commercial services offices assisted the Portland, Maine office in the aftermath of an ice storm followed by a nor'easter a week later, which dropped a foot of snow this spring. The storm was declared a major disaster by the federal government due to the extensive damage it caused. Marty Folsom, sales arborist, Portland, Maine office, said the cleanup work took eight weeks and wrapped up in May. BACK-TO-BACK STORMS DAMAGE COASTAL MAINE "The damage was similar to the ice storm of 1998, although this year's storm was more localized along the coast and a little bit inland," Folsom said. "It was catastrophic." Blake Duval, foreman, Chippers, Inc., a Davey company, Meredith office, said he enjoyed helping and being able to show support. "Pulling employees together from other offices within the company to assist is a cool part of Davey," Duval said. "What's neat to me is we're all one team." Davey Resource Group's (DRG) Utility Asset Management services (UAM) teams have been working to complete a utility distribution equipment inventory on the U.S. Virgin Islands of St. Croix, St. John, and St. Thomas over the past year. "This inventory was needed due to hurricane damage many years ago. We worked in conjunction with Geographic Information System (GIS) utility management provider, Symbiosa, and software company, Milsoft Utility Solutions, to win this Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority (WAPA) project, with Federal Emergency Management Agency funds," said Tommy Maloney, project developer, UAM, DRG. The inventory is expected to wrap up this fall. Currently, data has been collected on around 38,000 poles; 2,000 underground features, including pad mounted transformers, junction boxes, and switch gears, as well as more than 700 manholes; and 81,000 electric meters. DRG CONDUCTS VIRGIN ISLANDS UTILITY INVENTORY Roland Pratt, account manager, UAM, DRG, said, "The goal is to collect an accurate assessment of WAPA's facilities, to help build and update their electric connectivity model and integrate that back into their engineering analysis and outage management systems." Maloney said the UAM teams did a great job of working with the public to gain needed access to properties. Driving on the left side of the road rather than on the right was a challenge, along tight roadways. "A huge success that has come out of this project is that UAM now has a storm contract in place," Maloney said. "We're looking forward to continuing to grow the relationships we've built on these islands." "We had trees on garages, houses, and across roads as a result of the storms," Marty Folsom said. Utility Asset Management services (UAM), Davey Resource Group (DRG) teams have been working to complete a pole, underground feature, and meter inventory in the U.S. Virgin Islands, including at the pictured Magens Bay, St. Thomas location. Tim Gaunt, account manager, leads the implementation team; and Carla Waldron, production manager, and the production team, provides back-office Geographic Information System (GIS) support. The on-site inventory teams include project manager John Morrow and his team of four GIS technicians; project manager William Junkins and his team of 10 GIS technicians, including field coordinator Louis Teal, GIS field technician; and the manhole team of four GIS technicians, led by Chase Abbott, GIS field technician.

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