COLLEGE STATION, Texas — When you think of linemen, you typically think of the ones with large builds that are among the less-celebrated people on a football team.
However, a different type of linemen are being recognized on April 18, also known to some as National Linemen Appreciation Day.
It's a day meant to show appreciation for the utility linemen that navigate and maintain important parts of our infrastructure so that our homes have electricity and heating and air conditioning.
College Station Utilities Energy Coordinator Patrick McIntyre explained what the city was doing for their linemen.
"April 18th is always national linemen appreciation day," he explained. "Today we had a chili cook off, we had some folks from the office who were guest judges so we gave out first through third for the chili cook off. We had a good time, lots of camaraderie celebrating national linemen appreciation."
Electric linemen at College Station Utilities work with voltages as high as 138,000 volts. This is a stark difference compared to the standard 120 volts of electricity that run through our homes.
"Well line personnel work on overhead, underground, they run trouble calls, they're the back bone of the organization," said McIntyre. "They're the guys that go out to trouble calls late at night rain bad weather winter summer any time we need work done."
According to the Bureau of Labor statistics, being a lineman is one of the most dangerous jobs to have and these brave men and women do it every day.
"It can be (dangerous) at times. I think the main thing is following safety protocol procedures. It doesn't have to be dangerous but it can be for sure," said lineman Frederick Ates.
Linemen are also a part of the first responder community, being the people the city can depend on in an emergency.
"Well we prepare for the worst and hope for the best, and inevitably we're out in all kinds of conditions you know just trying to get the lights back on," said McIntyre.
Today is a day we should take a step back and appreciate all the work they do for our cities.
"The main thing residents can do to make our lives easier is keep the transformers clear. That's the main thing we run into fences bushes anything like that but other than that we just go about our business and we just work with what we can," said Ates.