Employees Reflect on 35-Plus Years at Co-op

Bandera Electric Cooperative is a business built on service

BY DAN OKO

BANDERA ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE EMPLOYEES understand that keeping the lights on is a 24-hour commitment, and there is no substitute for BEC’s community roots. From office workers to technicians and linemen who risk their lives on the job, the strength of this unity is handed down from one generation to the next as veterans with decades of experience offer insights and hard-won wisdom to new BEC recruits.

System operations reliability inspector Mark Jebbia, pictured left, started at BEC in 1984, making roughly $4 an hour as a “service helper man,” extending lines to new members, setting up yard lights, and handling small repairs and odd jobs while learning a trade. He enjoyed his time on the service crew, visiting with people. He returned to service work after various roles with BEC, happy to bring the personal touch.

“We’ve always helped out people,” Jebbia says. He’s found critters in fuse boxes and even survived a close call with an explosive transformer. “Crews travel to a lot of small towns, so we like to lend a hand,” he says, “even if it’s just fixing a flat.”

Transmission and distribution line superintendent Mark Busby, pictured right, started at BEC in 1985. He worked his way up from tough outdoor entry positions, and eventually spent 20 productive years as a line foreman. When it comes to bad storms, hurricanes and disasters, it’s up to his department to track damage and handle calls for overhead distribution repairs—a job that Busby likens to cops and doctors. “We are on-call a week at a time,” he says, “and we have to respond 24 hours a day.” If other service areas or urban utilities have emergencies, sometimes BEC crews are sent to help, even as far away as Louisiana.

Mark Busby on a Comfort work crew in 2010.

“When a storm comes through, it’s very rewarding to provide mutual assistance,” he says. “We’ve had crowds come and cheer when their lights come on.”

Passing along skills and safety protocols are also crucial matters, even to this day.

Busby enjoys the roar of a different kind of crowd as a competitor in the Texas Lineman Rodeo and International Lineman's Rodeo, when he and his fellow BEC teammates take on other professionals. “We’ve got a few trophies,” he says.

Engineering and distribution coordinator Kathy Biermann, pictured right, started at BEC in 1984. She transferred to BEC’s home office in Bandera in 2008 during a company reorganization after working 24 years in the Comfort branch. During her time in Comfort, she enjoyed working as a co-op representative, taking member applications and handling collections, engineering and permits. “I’m able to help people because we handled all those different tasks in Comfort,” Biermann says – and she remains eager as ever to help new members find their way while working in Bandera.

“I still love being the first person a member talks to,” Biermann continues, “and to be able to take them all the way to establishing their electric service.”

Through the decades, she adds, almost every aspect of how the public meets BEC has changed, from the way new service applications are submitted to how meters are read. During her time in Comfort, she physically collected and collated meter reading cards for billing; technology continues to reshape the BEC experience. What has not changed, says Biermann, is the ongoing focus on what members want.

“We are a cooperative, so I always have to look out for our members,” she says. “Because when it comes to our company, our members are our owners.”