Fort Valley Utility Crews Prepping for Winter Weather

FORT VALLEY, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Utility crews in Fort Valley are preparing to work a little extra because of the winter weather.

Storm prep for Dan Thompson is tedious, but he says it’s exciting.

He’s the general manager for the Fort Valley Utility Commission.

“We’ve been actually watching this storm system since late Sunday night, and the material we have on the shelf deals with our infrastructure with electric, gas, water, waste water, and fiber for our community,” Thompson said.

Stocked shelves filled with just about everything the commission needs to make sure residents stay and warm with frigid temperatures in middle Georgia.

“We have a mortgaged inventory that’s already on the shelf for storm situations that is specifically for that and it’s ready to go at any given time in this situation that we’re dealing with now,” Thompson said.

The Fort Valley Utility Commission serves a unique role for its citizens.

“Fort Valley Utility Commission is a stand alone agency if you will in the community. We still work pretty closely with the city of Fort Valley,” Thompson said.

Crews have trucks like these waiting to get to emergencies in an instant.

“Vehicles are all fueled, stocked up 24/7 any given moment day or night ready to go,” Thompson said.

The pressure of being one of one, leaves a lot of responsibility on Thompson and his crew, but he thinks he’s ready for it.

“We’re local we have all of our utilities in house, and we can respond within a moments notice,” Thompson said.

“We believe our citizens our citizens the best service possible and we’re very proud of it,” he said.

Thompson said they’ll be on the look out for fallen utility poles throughout the city.

He says if anyone has a power outage in their area, the utility commission can be contacted 24/7.