Local Spotlight IUOE
Local Spotlight IUOE Volunteers Pitch in to Improve Lake Local union sportsmen raise funds, donate labor to help community THE VOLUNTEERS, close to twenty in all, gathered at Chief Cornstalk Wildlife Management Area to help the West Virginia Department of Natural Resources replace a damaged culvert along the lake. Now DNR maintenance crews will be able to drive their equipment to the dam side of the lake. “We were told this situation had become a real problem for Wildlife Management,” West Virginia AFL-CIO President Kenny Perdue said. “More than a dozen union members stepped forward to bring the needed equipment and provide the manpower to get the pipe properly replaced and repair the culvert.” Randy Moore, USW District 8 subdirector, said the Union Sportsman Alliance, a national group of union members dedicated to improving outdoor recreation areas, and the West Virginia AFL-CIO raised funds at the annual Union Sportsman Alliance dinner that were used to pay for the two 20-foot corrugated pipes. “We have a large number of union members who live in this area, so I contacted the folks at Chief Cornstalk to see what the Union Sportsman Alliance could do to help, and was told that the washed-out culvert was putting the whole lake in peril,” Moore said. “We put that on our list as the first thing we should do.” IUOE Local 132 provided an excavator from their training facility and hauled it to the site on one of their trucks. Chuck Parker, business manager for IUOE 132, said he and Training Director Allen Nelson were more than happy to help. Parker ran that excavator while Nelson navigated the semi-truck hauling the excavator along the narrow road leading to and from the lake. “We want to do whatever we can to protect the lake so that families can enjoy fishing and camping there for years to come,” Parker said. In addition to Perdue, Moore, Parker and Nelson, among the other volunteers who spent the day working on the project were WV AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Josh Sword and his son, Cohen, union members Charlie Lewis and Rick Lewis, along with DNR employees Heath Miles and Jeff Hansbarger. [left] IUOE Local 132 Business Manager Chuck Parker and Training Director Allen Nelson were part of the crew of union sportsmen who volunteered to imporove conditions at Cornstalk Lake. [photos] Union Sportsman Alliance [article] Stacey Ruckle, WV AFL-CIO 14 INTERNATIONAL OPERATING ENGINEER WINTER 2017 15
