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Your Electrical Connection

March, 2016

Volume 14, Issue 3

Inside this issue:

Celebrity Bartenders(continued)

2

2016 Safety Kick-Off 5

Saying Farewell toJimmy Taylor

7

Wellness Corner 8

Upcoming Events 8

April Birthdays 8

Roger’s World 3

Anniversaries Celebrated 6

PRIDE 4

Safety Highlights 3

Number of Days Since Last...

First Aid 34

Recordable 77

Lost Time 91

Numbers based on March15,2016, includes plant andcontractors.

Safety Stats:

Celebrity Bartenders…Vita Kistner

Friday, February 26 proved to be a very fun and memorable evening. The “Celebrity” BartenderNight fundraiser was held at the Ambraw River Eagles Club in Newton. The fundraiser was heldto benefit the Jasper County Boys and Girls Park and the new concession stand. The eveningstarted at 7:00 p.m. with five shifts of “celebrity” bartenders. Working the 8:00 – 9:00 shift wereour very own celebrities, Alan Bogardus, Roger Bass and Skip Moore. Kenny Johnson was go-ing to be the fourth bartender; however he was called into work that night. All tips given, beforeand during the event, went to the Boys and Girls Park. Prior to the start of the Dynegy shift, theemployees here at the plant had donated $975.00. Being somewhat competitive, I went into thatnight hoping that not only would a lot of money be raised for the park, but also that we wouldbeat all the other teams of bartenders. Many ideas were thrown around about how the guysshould dress for their shift. I think the final outcome was perfect. Skip dressed up as ColonelSanders, Roger dressed up as a chicken and Alan….well, I’ll give Alan the benefit of the doubtand say that he dressed up as the Manager of the Kentucky Fried Chicken. There was anotheroutfit brought to the Eagles for Alan to wear, but I’m not sure enough money could have beenraised for him to wear a unitard. Google “unitard” if you don’t know what that is. I do have tosay, I believe Skip looked more like the Colonel than any of the “imposters” that appear on theKFC commercials you see on TV.The 8:00 – 9:00 shift was the busiest of the night. There was a very good showing from theNewton Power Station. Curt Collins volunteered to have his head shaved if $100 could be raisedon the spot. We all know Curt had gone without a haircut for fourteen months, so this was a bigdeal. One donor immediately slapped down a hundred dollar bill on the bar but encouraged oth-ers to keep donating. In a matter of five minutes, $300 dollars was raised for the shaving. Oneof Curt’s friends, Tony Zuber, began to shave Curt’s head, but as it turned out, the razor wasn’tthe sharpest. Local hairdresser, Trisha Veach happened to be at the event, and left to get herprofessional clippers and finished the job of shaving.Someone, who will remain nameless (Ron Combs), thought it would be a good idea for money tobe donated in order for Josh Fehrenbacher to have his goatee shaved. It didn’t take long for$100 to be raised for this either. I’m not sure who enjoyed this more…Ron or Josh’s wife.In the end, with the money raised prior to the event and also during Dynegy’s shift, a total of$2,443.00 was raised, making Dynegy the winning team!!! The fundraising total was $5,250.00.I received several text messages and Facebook messages saying that the Dynegy crew was thehighlight of the night and a class act. I received one message that said we are all blessed withan amazing work family and it was wonderful to see us all supporting each other and the commu-nity. I couldn’t agree more. We always step up and support the community and it’s obvious howmuch that means to the community. Thank you to all those who supported this good cause anda special thanks to Alan, Roger, Skip, Curt and Josh. You all were very good sports!

Your Electrical Connection Volume 14, Issue 3

Celebrity Bartenders (continued)

Curt’s hair was worth$300.00; thanks for sacrific-ing for the good of thecommunity!

Going, going and gone. Looks great, Curt; way totake one for the team!

I believe it was a fellow Machin-ist that mentioned makingmoney off of Josh Fehren-bacher having his beardshaved off.

Now that is real teamwork! Looking good, Josh; thanks forbeing such a good sport!

L-R: Colonel Sanders,aka, Skip Moore, and thechicken, Roger Bass.

L-R: NPS Bartenders—SkipMoore, Alan Bogardus andRoger Bass.


Roger’s World...Roger Bass

The safety slogan for March is “Don’t Be Safety Blinded, BeSafety Minded!” This motto is especially useful while driving,but also when walking and working in the plant. There aretimes when we become complacent to a hazard; and, be-come blinded to the hazards that are associated to it. Weneed to continue to raise our personal awareness of the situ-ation and hazards around us so we can make mindful deci-sions to keep us safe in everything that we do here at theplant as well as at home. Whether that is LOTO, chemicalprotection, fire extinguisher and hose locations, personalbody positioning, tooling, driving, etc., mindful awareness ofhazards needs to become a habit for all of us to ensure thatwe have our heads in the game prior to potentially making asafety blinded decision that could cause us to have a nearmiss or worse. Making that mindful decision is somethingthat we all must continue to work on; at least, I know I haveto.As of March 15, we have had 3 first aids at Newton whichincludes 2 plant first aids and 1 contractor first aid. Theplant is looking at a potential maintenance outage on Unit 2next week. In order to make it a successful outage, we need

How many of you have a cell phone? How many of you needa cell phone? What if I asked these same questions twentyfive years ago? I am guessing that twenty five years ago theanswers would be different.There are over 285 million cell phones in use today in theUnited States. The population of the United States is about320 million. That means about 90% of the people in the U.S.have a cell phone. I checked some statistics about the popu-lation of the United States by age. Looking at those figures,there are about 32 million children in the United States underthe age of eight. Using those numbers, there are enoughphones in use in the United States for every person eightyears of age and older.Let’s take a little test:1. You oversleep and have to rush to go to work. You haveleft the house and are several blocks away when you realizeyou forgot your cell phone. Do you...

a. Not worry about it and continue to work.b. Turn around and go home to get it even if it

means you will be late for work.c. Continue to work the whole time thinking you

should turn around and get it.d. Get to work and spend the whole day thinking

about your phone being home alone. 2. The battery on your cell phone is getting low and you findyour charger does not work or you do not have a charger withyou. Do you...

a. Just turn your cell phone off and wait until youcan put it on a charger.

b. Ask friends or coworkers if they have acharger you can borrow.

c. Rush to the nearest store and buy a chargereven though you have several at home.

d. Never have this problem because you keepseveral chargers at home, in the car and atwork just in case this happens.

3. You are at a meeting and the speaker asks everyone toplease turn their cell phones off. Do you...

a. Turn your phone off like the speaker said andnot think about it.

b. Leave your cell phone on, but put it on vibrate.c. Silence your phone but check it every couple

of minutes because you never know whensomeone may text you with the joke of theday or some funny picture.

d. Leave your phone on with the ringer on be-cause you are more important than anythingyou will get out of this meeting.

Depending on your answer, you may have Nomophobia.That’s right you have a fear of not having your phone withyou and having it turned on. Nomo stands for no mobile.Who would have thought that you could not survive for afew hours without constant communication with the outsideworld? I am lucky I don’t have this problem. I can go acouple of days and not even realize my phone is turned off.Till next time, please be safe.

Safety Highlights...Chris Rauch

to remove our safety blinders and ensure we are safetyminded in the work that we will be doing. Continue tolook for safety hazards when walking down jobs or walkingdown LOTO tags. Please continue to look out for eachother in case someone does become distracted or absent-minded, as we all experience this at one time or another.Let us not get so focused on the task at hand that we losefocus of the safety hazards that we might be putting our-selves or someone else into.


I know where a lot of employees’ minds go when we bringup PRIDE. They go back to the Ameren PRIDE group thatcelebrated individual diversity. Dynegy PRIDE is a princi-pal foundation to improve our company. It is ProducingResults through Innovation by Dynegy Employees and it isour chance to make a difference in our plant. PRIDE is ourstatement to Wall Street that we will continually try to im-prove our operation and be a leading independent powerproducer in the US.

With Jim Marshall moving to Production Manager, it wastime for someone else to lead PRIDE at Newton. I volun-teered hoping to keep Newton on the path to being thebest plant in the Dynegy fleet. I am starting the process bytalking to the operating shifts, coal yard and maintenance

PRIDE...Jim Grunloh

groups to introduce PRIDE and request improvement ide-as. We will then develop a PRIDE team that will furtherdevelop ideas from the workgroups. PRIDE is our oppor-tunity to improve our station utilizing our knowledge of ourjob and our plant.We have several existing PRIDE initiatives that are provid-ing savings for the plant. They include:

Circulating Water Oxamine Treatment2014 Property Tax Refund2A Conveyor Roller ReplacementActivated Carbon Injection ReductionAsh SalesCoal Yard Fiber Optic Communication reliability

We are also looking at several new items that can contrib-ute to the savings. This is just an initial list and hopefully itwill grow as more employees get involved.

Biodiesel for unit start-upsLower minimum loadUnit operating efficienciesCycle isolation study (valve leaks)

If you would like to be a part of the PRIDE team, let yoursupervisor know. It will be a rewarding experience that willgive you exposure to other workgroups in the plant, a bet-ter understanding of the station and maybe a couple of freemeals.

PRIDE is Inspired Thinking in action.PRIDE is about being the best at what we do.PRIDE is making continuous improvement part of our culture.PRIDE is showing the financial community that Dynegy is driving to-

wards success.PRIDE is tapping the creative energy of our people.PRIDE is recognizing people’s contributions.PRIDE is treating each dollar as valuable and controllable.


2016 Safety Kick-off...Twyla Harvey

Newton Power Station held their 2016 Safety Kick-Off on Thursday, February 18. Presenters at the Kick-Off were Kent Schaf-er, Sr. Safety Specialist, Alan Bogardus, Newton Plant Manager, Roger Bass, Instrument and Electrical Supervisor and Cul-ture Champion, Dan Thompson, VP CoalCo & IPH, Bob Kipp, VP & General Manager of Plant Operations, myself, Twyla Har-vey, Payroll Clerk and Wellness Champion, David Heath, Environment and Chemistry Manager, and Shannon Brown, VPAsset Management, wrapped up the Kick-Off with a question and answer session before we enjoyed a delicious lunch.

Kent Schafer Alan Bogardus Roger Bass

Dan Thompson Bob Kipp Twyla Harvey

David Heath Shannon Brown


Anniversaries Celebrated...Twyla Harvey

Kelly Line and Jake Wernsing celebrated their 5 year anniversaries on Friday, March 11, with cake and cookies.

Both Kelly and Jake started at NPS on March 3, 2011, as Utilitymen, 1st 6 Months.

Kelly bid into Operations as an Operator Helper on May 15, 2011, On December 18, 2011, Kelly was the successful bidder ofa Relief Operator position. He remains that to date.

Kelly and his wife, Tammy, live in Effingham. Kelly has 3 sons….Derreck (26), Kody (16) and Kage (12).

In his spare time, Kelly likes to do woodworking, landscaping and watch his sons play football.

Jake bid into Operations as an Operator Helper on July 17, 2011. On June 1, 2013, Jake was the successful bidder of anAuxiliary Operator position and remains that to date.

Jake and his wife, Katie, live in T-Town and have 3 kids ….Terrin (20), Lauren (12) and Olivia (8).

In his spare time, Jake likes to watch sports and shoot guns.

Thank you Kelly and Jake for your 5 years of service!

L-R: Jake Wernsing beingcongratulated by his Supervi-sor, Nick Gipson.

L-R: Kelly Line being congratu-lated by his Supervisor, NickGipson.

Front Row L-R: Joe Walker and Kelly Line, Guest of Honor.Back Row L-R: Jake Wernsing, Guest of Honor, Randy Ebeling, Mark Oliver, BillTennyson, Gary Stanciu, and Supervisor of B Shift, Nick Gipson.


Jimmy Taylor—what a fascinating man! Six years ago I had the pleasure of featuring him in our Aprilnewsletter and that is when I learned all about his many interests…..astronomy, archaeology, photog-raphy, and mushroom hunting.

Jimmy started at NPS on February 5, 1980, as a Utilityman and soon after bid into Operations andstayed in OPS until the end of his career. His fellow C shift employees had planned his 35th anniver-sary celebration a year ago February; and, unfortunately, Jimmy didn’t get to celebrate that here atthe plant. The picture on the right was taken when he did celebrate his 30th plant anniversary.

Jimmy said he got his first camera when he was 5 years old and had been snapping pictures eversince. Jim’s dad also loved photography and when he passed away, Jimmy got all of his old cameraequipment. He took the pictures below.

Another passion was archaeology and his mom got him interested in hunting arrowheads. He had thousands of arrowheadsand had been collecting them for 25+ years.

One night he and his parents were driving back from Olney and he was laying in the back window when his mom told him towatch for a falling star and after that he was hooked. Below is a picture of him and his big telescope; he loved to look at galaxyclusters, comets, etc. Several fellow employees have taken their children out to Jimmy’s to star gaze.

Jimmy left behind a wonderful family….wife, Karen, of almost 32 years, son, Jeremy (Jennifer) Taylor of Mattoon, daughter,Elizabeth (Ryan) Will of Yale, and son, Allen, at home. He also had 3 grandchildren—Hazel, Emily and Lyle.

Jimmy was extremely intelligent, unbelievably witty and just a great guy to be around. At visitation, his wife, Karen, told me howmuch he appreciated everything and everyone here at the plant,. She said he couldn’t believe how good everyone was to himand his family during his illness.

His family have some tough times and days ahead of them, dealing with their huge loss; so, let’s continue to keep them in ourthoughts and prayers. And, when you are looking up at the stars on a crystal clear night, think of our good friend, Jimmy, andsmile.

Saying Farewell to Jimmy Taylor...Twyla Harvey


* Any omissions in this section are entirely unintentional.

4/2 Kieth Trimble4/3 Mark Oliver4/7 Roger Bass4/20 Rob Monroe4/23 Dean Edrington4/29 Phil Mayer4/30 Roland Chapman

Upcoming Events April Birthdays

March 17 Eat Your Greens Lunch And LearnMarch 25 Good FridayApril 7 Retirement Cake and Coffee for David HeathApril 12 Retirement Cake and Coffee for Ted Shaffer

Wellness Corner

Nutrients Are What Really Matter

In reality, nutrients matter far more than calories, and nowhere is this more true than in our culture today. When the focus is oncalories, everything is about numbers rather than nutrition— and you can easily end up missing out on key vitamins and miner-als. For example, a highly processed (but relatively nutrient-empty) Taquitos snack pack advertised as just 100 calories seemslike a real deal if you’re counting calories. But, in choosing the snack pack, you might pass on a calorically equivalent largeapple that rings in at roughly the same number of calories. The apple delivers vitamin C, folate, fiber, potassium, vitamin B6,thiamin, and riboflavin, while the chips deliver vegetable oils, preservatives, and starch. So the apple beats the Taquitos. Andincidentally, 100 calories of wild salmon beats the apple. And (although you may not like to hear this), 100 calories of organic,grass-fed liver beats the wild salmon.

Don’t Be Safety Blinded; Be Safety Minded!

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