Et cetera : First Light: Meet the man who brings power to area's newest rural residents

Sam Garwood works at residences and with REC computers to design service for new customers.

REC histroy: Sam Garwood, center with former REC linemen.

Editor's Note: Vinton Today is helping the East Central Iowa REC celebrate its 75th year. We occasionally feature a story about the REC and its history. Today's story focuses on the man who works with customers who request new or upgraded service: Sam Garwood.

For hundreds of people—including this author—living in a new house in rural Benton County began with a visit from Sam Garwood.

Garwood is an engineering design technician for ECI REC. A large part of his job is helping people plan and set up their new electrical service. He guesses that he has helped connect 1,000 homes to ECI REC power. 

“They [co-op members] tell me what they want to do, and it’s up to me to figure out how to do it,” said Garwood. “We try to find what fits best for each co-op member.”

Garwood is the son of the late Macy Garwood, who served as the Benton County Electric Cooperative Association (ECA) general manager from 1965 to 1985. But according to Garwood, he first joined the ECA because of his mom.

It was the spring of 1975, and Garwood had returned to Vinton in a late March ice storm. “The second day of that ice storm was the worst they had ever seen,” Garwood recalled.

His father and the rest of the ECA staff were busy trying to repair broken poles and downed lines. His mom suggested that Garwood help out.

He had been doing some work for his brother, an electrician, but had never done any high-voltage work.

Garwood realized that his mom’s words were more of an order than a suggestion; soon he was working alongside the men who would become his future colleagues. “Like in other big storms, they had all hands on deck,” recalled Garwood of that storm in 1975.

Dozens of customers filled the office to ask what the ECA would do to restore the electricity. In those days, fewer people had their own back-up generators and farmers were concerned about the loss of livestock.

Garwood earned enough respect from his days as a temporary helper to inspire his line superintendent, Don Smith, to offer him a job. But there was a problem: Garwood’s dad was the boss, and the ECA had a strict policy forbidding nepotism. Macy told Smith that he would have to go speak to the Board about making an exception to that policy. He did. “Thanks to Don I have this job,” said Garwood.

For 20 years, Garwood was a lineman; he still occasionally does that work for ECI REC. But since 1995, his primary job has been helping customers plan and design new electrical service.

According to Garwood, technology, geography, and other factors help determine the options each customer has. He told me how he visits the new service sites with customers to discuss the options and the related expenses with them.

He then reminded me that he was the technician who made plans with me for my electric service. In his work on my property, he recalled, a neighbor asked him to move a planned pole about 100 feet to the north, away from his yard. Garwood made it happen.

Remembering that day in August of 2004, when I stood in what is now my driveway, I told Garwood how I watched ECI REC crews quickly dig the deep hole on the sandy hill before installing the power line and the security light. When I came back after dark and turned on that light for the first time, I walked away from the light to see how far I could walk and still see my shadow. It was nearly 300 feet from the pole to the gravel road, but I could still see my shadow when I reached the road. I told him that what I saw inspired me to write about that night.

Garwood smiled. That’s what he likes best about his job, he said.

“It’s pretty neat to go out there and help to satisfy the customer’s needs. I see their happiness and count myself lucky to be a part of it.”

Building a new home or installing a new farm building is often a challenging process, but Garwood tries to make the installation of the proper electrical service to those buildings as painless as possible. “I thrill at having happy people enjoying their new homes,” he said. “We really do care about making a customer’s experience with us a good one.”