Just to bring you up to speed with me and my company. I own a small electrical contracting company on the island of Kauai. I have been struggling financially for more than a year. Up until the end of last year I had three employees working. I have run out of work and now only myself is working. My men are all on temp layoff and just waiting for me to pick up some more work.
For the last month or so I have been so down thinking my company will go under. Well today I got a call form a person who works for smart meter utility company.
The island in Hawaiian Island chain called Kauai is where I live and have my business. I own a union company as I have been a union electrician since 1977 when I started my apprenticeship in Wyoming.
I have worked east to west coast and many places in between then to Hawaii in all of my 34 years in the trade. I most fondly remember my one year working in New York City on high rise buildings. I used to live in Livingston New Jersey in a newly renovated apartment that was part of a Russian Jewish emigrant family's home. These were the nicest people that took me into their home in an attached one bedroom apartment above the garage.
I would travel in my car to Patterson NJ train station and take the PATH train into the World Trade Center and change to the subway to my job site. The first job I worked on was on Wall Street. It was a high rise building for Barclays Bank. I was working out of Local 3 IBEW. When this job wound down I was referred to a high rise apartment building on the upper east side. I believe it was Petrocelli Electric that I worked for on this job.
My work in Manhattan lasted about a year and I decided to leave and travel to Hawaii for work. I heard that someone from my Local Union 322 in Casper, WY was working on Kauai. I called my union hall and got his address and sent him a letter. He answered right away and said to come on over there is work. So I headed to Hawaii in February 1987. I drove to my parents home in Wyoming and then traveled to Hawaii to sign their books and wait for work.
Now back to my original intent of this diary. The phone call was from someone from a smart meter company. He asked me if I was interested in a job managing a project that they may get installing smart meters and reading the meters on the island of Kauai for the utility company. They need a local contractor that is licensed and insured as they are from California. He said that the power company would change the meters and I would need about 10 meter readers for a year. So I would be managing the collection of data for a year with these ten people. I was pretty excited as this could possible save my company. There is a little controversy regarding these smart meters now but I do believe in the technology.
Any thoughts kosacks??