PLYMOUTH – Brian Francis decided to change course.

For some 20 years, Brian owned his own construction business, building custom homes in ski areas for people who lived out of state. It was good, even fine, and he enjoyed success with it. And yet.

“I got a little bit older and wanted something a little more fulfilling. I’ve lived here my whole life. I didn’t feel like I was helping my community out,” said Brian, who is raising his family in Plymouth.

While considering other employment options, including police work, Brian also talked to friends and people he knew who worked at the Co-op.

Brian Francis with NHEC Scholarship Certificate

They all thought line work would be a good fit, a good job.

“I’d be fulfilling my desire to help take care of my neighbors and friends in the community,” said Brian, whose two sons, Ryder, 15, and Brody, 11, now attend Plymouth Regional High School and Plymouth Elementary School.

Last August Brian, who had received a scholarship from the Co-op to help defray some of the line school costs, graduated. Timing was on his side: the Co-op was hiring and straightaway, he applied. An apprentice line worker since October, he’s not looking back.

“It feels good to be one of the guys out in a storm when the power goes out to get the lines back up and get the power back on,” he said.

Anyone in line work will tell you, it’s a lifestyle. “Our family is familiar with the concept of being on call or missing a birthday party,” Brian said, explaining that his wife, Ashley, is a nurse practitioner and she covers calls for Speare Memorial Hospital.

Brian Francis, Apprentice Lineworker

Working for himself, his schedule had flexibility and was not weather dependent. “I didn’t miss a single game or family events,” he said. “I knew what I was getting into with line work and we’re at peace with that. We’re all on board.”

Still, it didn’t make it any easier missing his sons’ end of the season hockey tournament in Marlboro, Mass. But like the rest of our crews, Brian was working the lines when the major snow, wind and rainstorm of March 23, hit New Hampshire and several districts throughout the Co-op’s service areas.

Six months in, he remembers a midnight outage call that happened during the first month of his apprenticeship following a day’s work that had ended around 8p.m. A broken pole was down in the woods. Howling wind and temperature nearing 20 degrees. He had three pole climbs that night, his hardhat with a headband light as his guide. The crew worked through the night setting a new pole, finishing up at dawn.

“I had kind of a moment walking through the woods in the dark, with the snow, and the wind and the cold. I had this moment of feeling okay with that,” he said.

Michelle at work in the Member Solutions call center.

Michelle Fairbrother is a people person. That’s one of the first things she would tell you. That’s a pretty good fit for someone who is part of the backbone of our Member Solutions team.

If you’ve ever called to discuss your electric service, there’s a good shot that on the other end, you may have gotten Michelle, who has worked at the Co-op for 28 years. Did she see that coming?

“Never. Hopeful but never,” said Michelle who has worked in previous shades of customer service in previous lives as a property manager who juggled some 600 condominiums for three associations in Lincoln, a gift shop manager and a bank teller.

She was drawn to the Co-op at a time when she was looking for a good opportunity. Known for its reputation for longevity, pay and benefits, Michelle took the advice of her four friends who worked here and applied for the opening. Her get it done attitude and her friend’s positive recommendations to Guy Ford, then the hiring manager, got her the offer. “And,” she said, “I walked in the door at the right time.”

Former President and CEO Fred Anderson presenting Michelle with the Carol A. Tracey award.

In 2005, her then supervisor Clint Hutchins, nominated her for the Carol A. Tracey award which she received, honoring her for “Excellence in Customer Service.”

All of her service work continues to inform her work today. “NHEC has given me the tools I need and the power to make  decisions on my own,” Michelle said.

She enjoys helping people. “I love it when a member calls and says ‘I asked for you’.”

Michelle and her husband Bruce, her high school sweetheart who were matched up later in life by his daughter, have a combined family of nine children, and one great granddaughter. “I’ve lost count of the grandchildren,” she laughed.

For all of her family and friends, Michelle said people might be surprised because she does a lot of things on her own. “I don’t wait for people,” said the breast cancer survivor.

Sometimes, she takes to the road on her 2005 Harley Heritage Soft Tail, which she had been eyeing during the last year of her treatment in 2018. “It was screaming, ‘Blub, blub, blub, BUY ME’.”

And so she did.

Michelle and her prized Harley taking to the road.