BAY CITY, MI - Virgil “Bud” LaPlant thought he was getting ready to retire last week after working over 20 years with Bay City Electric Light and Power - but mother nature threw him a bit of a curveball.
On Thursday, June 16, a severe thunderstorm swept through Bay City causing widespread power outages. That day also just happened to be the exact day that BCELP operations superintendent LaPlant’s planned on retiring from working 22 years with the department. Instead of enjoying his party, he went out in the field to help restore power to his community alongside his coworkers.
“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” he said. “It’s what I love to do.”
The storm hit the area around 4:30 a.m. and calls about electrical issues started coming in minutes later. Strong winds snapped trees and threw them into powerlines, bringing down electricity in Bay City and the surrounding townships and leaving hazardous downed lines and debris scattered throughout the area.
LaPlant said that he slept through the storm but when he woke up to get ready to head in for his last day, he noticed a series of text messages saying that Bay City got hit by a storm.
“I came into work hoping that it was something that we could wrap up relatively quick and easy,” he said. “It didn’t take very long to find out that it was going to be a few days’ storm.”
BCELP determined that at approximately 7:50 a.m. roughly 3,500 of its customers were without power. BCELP crews as well from other organizations that were providing mutual aid worked together over the next few days, ultimately restoring power to customers by the end of the day Saturday.
LaPlant’s retirement party and the barbequed rib lunch that was planned on Thursday simply had to wait. While some people would be dismayed at the situation, LaPlant embraced the challenge.
“If you had asked me today if I would choose to sit down with everybody and had a retirement party or go out and sweat it out with the guys in the field, I’d pick the field every time,” he added. “And all of the people here are like that.”
Ultimately, LaPlant stayed on an extra week to make sure everything was all said and done before finally getting to officially retire on Thursday, June 23.
LaPlant said that he started with BCELP in 2000 after working with the city in the trash and wastewater departments beforehand. He started with the electric department as an apprentice after seeing a posting for the position while working at the wastewater plant. Since he had some similar experience working with phone lines, he got the job and eventually became the operations superintendent where he oversaw field operations as well as working on things such as projects, builds, and, of course, storms.
Those 22 years are something that LaPlant cherishes as a “labor of love”, especially when it came to working with the people that he did at BCELP.
“These guys here are fantastic - this power company is just amazing,” he said. “It is what we make of it, you know what I mean. We have built it, we have made it what it is today. We’re very, very proud of it, very very dedicated.”
“They have a love for this power company and they have a drive to do this every day for our customers,” he added. “We respect our customers and we’re proud of our company, we’re proud of our system.”
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