Wisconsin Utility Makes Award to ARES/RACES Groups
 At the ceremonial check presentation January 21:
(L-R) Robert F. Bischke, W9AYH, We Energies IT principal engineer and Wisconsin
Army National Guard State Signal Officer; Dean Schultzbank, K8QPP, We Energies
principal account manager; Patti McNew, KC9AFX, WEC foundation specialist; Stan
Kaplan, WB9RQR, ARRL Wisconsin SEC; Charles Cole, We Energies senior vice president-distribution
operations (holding check); and Eugene McNew, WB9PRG, We Energies customer
service technician.
|
NEWINGTON, CT, Jan 29, 2003--We Energies, a Wisconsin gas and electric
utility, has given ARES/RACES
organizations in 17
Wisconsin counties $39,000 to enhance their emergency communication
capabilities. A ceremonial check presentation was held January 21.
"We are excited about this timely award,
which will bring needed equipment to several of our counties," said Wisconsin Section Emergency Coordinator Dr
Stan Kaplan, WB9RQR, who also serves as RACES Chief Radio Officer in the Badger
State. "One difficulty we have been having is to build an effective
statewide packet network for use during emergencies, and the grant will help
this immeasurably as well as helping with other emergency networks. We thank We
Energies for their forethought and generosity."
Kaplan says he hopes the idea will "snowball"
and inspire other companies to follow suit.
Last November, PA Consulting Group--the
energy industry's largest management consulting firm--honored We Energies by
presenting the ReliabilityOne Award for superior electric system reliability in
the Midwest during 2001.
"In planning how we wanted to celebrate this
award, including what we could give to our employees as recognition, we decided
that we could put these dollars to better use," said Charles Cole, We senior
vice president of distribution operations. "We are proud that we were able to
take this award, take it one step further, and share it with a worthwhile
organization such as ARES."
The We grant
will be funneled to EC Resources Ltd, a 501(c)3 group established 10 years ago
by East Central Wisconsin District Emergency Coordinator Bill Niemuth, KB9ENO,
to fund Outagamie County ARES. Kaplan said EC Resources will accept the money
from We, solicit written requests from each county's EC for equipment and
disburse the funds to buy the gear they most need.
Counties picked
to receive funds were those with at least 5000 We customers, and 17 of
Wisconsin's 72 counties met that criterion. We then apportioned the funds
according to the number of customers it serves in each of the 17 counties. The
top grant of $9000 went to Milwaukee County, while Waukesha County got $6000
and Racine County $3000. ARES/RACES organizations in 14 other counties got $1500
each. The others are Calumet, Dodge, Fond du Lac, Jefferson,
Kenosha, Outagamie, Ozaukee, Shawano, Sheboygan, Vilas, Walworth, Washington,
Waupaca and Winnebago counties. The ARES organization in We-served Dickinson County, Michigan, also will receive a $1500 grant.
Kaplan says ECs in the affected counties will
receive information and instructions soon.
Page last modified: 02:03 PM, 29 Jan 2003 ET
Page author: awextra@arrl.org
Copyright © 2003, American Radio Relay League, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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