SDMEA Hometown Power – McLaughlin

By Chris Hill, SDMEA Director of Municipal Electric Services

HOMETOWN - McLaughlin

In the last edition of Hometown Power, I mentioned that the SDMEA conference is partially about building relationships. Meeting Lornie Hach at the conference inspired me to travel to McLaughlin to interview him and learn more about the history of his hometown.

The SDML Workers’ Compensation Fund recognized the City of McLaughlin for 25 years of membership.

City of McLaughlin bucket truck. I have talked to him twice and enjoy listening to his stories and hearing about his past experiences. I also had the chance to meet and visit with the rest of the employees at the City of McLaughlin. Lornie’s coworkers, Francis Jamerson (City employee for one year), Kory Bauder (City employee for 19 years), Jeff Schmeichel (City employee for two years), were all just as invested into the City of McLaughlin and they all seem

The employee office/break room in cell 1 of the old city Jail. The Jail closed in 1984.

The City of McLaughlin and Lornie Hach received the 2013 Water/Wastewater System of the Year award.

electrical department. Lornie took over in 1989 as the Electrical Superintendent and agreed to complete the merchants course. Contractors from Bismark helped teach Lornie how to replace primary underground cables. After three years, Lornie was comfortable enough to work on the cables by himself. Lornie was grandfathered in as a Journeyman after 10 years and was tested by fellow Superintendent Brad Lawrence.

to be on the same page about how their duties will be completed. Jeff and Francis are also both working on their Journeyman license which is a great blessing for any community going forward. All four of the maintenance employees are also volunteer firefighters. Also, all of the employees are from McLaughlin!

Left to right: Kory Bauder, Jeff Schmeichel, Lornie Hach, Lori Hach, The City of McLaughlin Electrical Department Mary Jamerson, and Francis Jamerson. has no major projects going on right now but does have a 5-year plan to change out transformers, fusing, primary underground, etc. They also have looked into some AMI and have looked into testing some of the poles they have in town as well. McLaughlin has been fortunate to have employees like Lornie and Kory to be so dedicated to make their Electrical Department successful and is fortunate to have Jeff and Francis to continue to make their HOMETOWN great!

McLaughlin was the first municipality to be 100% underground in 1969. There are a few overhead secondary services. Lornie has been employed with the city since March of 1979. At that time, he read meters for the

Questions? Comments?

Email: Chris@sdmunicipalleague.org Call: 605-770-6299.