Rod Rhoades keeping the lights on in Wrangell

With over two decades of experience handling the electrical infrastructure for Alyeska Pipeline Services, Rod Rhoades said his new job as superintendent of electrical utilities is challenging and invigorating.

"There's nothing boring about the job. My days go by quick and it's easy to mark accomplishments," he said.

Rhoades was hired by the city about a month ago, starting his first day of work on Dec. 10. He grew up in Southeast Alaska, on Zarembo Island, Woronofski, and later Whale Pass. For a good portion of his adult life, however, he and his family have lived in Valdez, working for Alyeska. Coming back to Southeast Alaska has been a longstanding goal of his, though, and he said he is happy to be back.

"I had hopes that I would get back to Southeast Alaska at some point," Rhoades said. "A number of years ago Tyler Robinson told me about a job that was opening up with then Thomas Bay Power Authority, and that wasn't good timing for me and my family so we didn't take that job. But then when this job opened up I applied and here I am."

As the superintendent of electrical utilities at Wrangell Municipal Light and Power, Rhoades's job is, essentially, to keep the electricity flowing to peoples' homes. When working with Alyeska he said that he spent a lot of his time refurbishing, replacing, and upgrading electrical infrastructure. Alongside his years of experience, he said that he is bringing a three-tiered philosophy that he feels are important for any job: Safety, reliability, and maintenance.

"Safety of the personnel, safety of the public, that just can't be overstated," Rhoades said. "The second thing is reliability. We as the public don't realize how much we depend on electricity until we don't have it, then it's 'oh my gosh, the world's caving in.' So I feel a real sense of duty to provide the highest reliability that I can possibly muster. Then the third thing is maintenance ... You can put off maintenance, but it's like getting out of dying. You're not going to get out of dying, you know? You can kick the can down the road but at some point you're going to have to do the maintenance to maintain the assets of infrastructure you're responsible for."

As far as the job itself is concerned, Rhoades said that he has been very impressed with his coworkers and the setup he has been given. There are challenges, he said, but they help make the days go by quickly. While he did not want to go into specifics, he said that he is looking to find ways to be proactive in finding potential problems in Wrangell's electrical system and correcting them. He also said he wants to try and find ways to increase the "wiggle room" between the city's electrical supply and demand. Besides that, he said that he has only good things to say about the people working with him, and that he is excited to get his family down from Valdez to join him.

"I'll feel more whole of a man, or a person, when my family gets down here with me. We do intend to move the whole family down here," Rhoades said.