Miscellaneous

Is OCEC in the fiber optic business?  OCEC is not in the business of providing retail fiber services to the Methow Valley.  But it does help facilitate fiber build out in the area by allowing use of its poles for fiber cable. Local internet providers pay for use of these poles and any work that OCEC does to facilitate the fiber build out is performed at cost.

OCEC does own the large fiber cable between Twisp and Winthrop but it leases out the fibers to a local internet service provider. This fiber cable provides a major path to internet capability to the Winthrop area.

What are the rectangular poles I see, and why do we need them?  You might notice a different type of power pole on the East County RD, some are rectangular, instead of round.  These rectangular poles are glued laminated timber, or glulam,and are much stronger than the standard round pole eliminating the need for guy anchors.  When installing or upgrading sections of line, we are sometimes unable to obtain easements for new guy anchors; in this case, glulam poles are a viable solution.  These engineered poles are more expensive than the standard pole, both in purchase and installation costs and therefore are not part of our standard design.