POWERGRAMS

24 YEARGAN TOOK THEM, PASSED THEM DOWN by Chuck Chandler The days are long past when an Alabama Power employee might talk to someone who helped build the company's first dams, the massive brick and concrete structures that were being constructed a century ago to bring electrical power statewide. Roger Yeargan counts such an opportunity among the highlights of his 40-year career, which afforded him the chance to help rebuild the company's second hydro generating facility. Yeargan retired in April after 10 years as "river manager" of the Lower Coosa Region. It was there where he met John Hollis, who was Mitchell Dam superintendent from 1925-1959 and was 100 years old when he died in 1994. Hollis would often stop by Lay Dam to chat, regaling Yeargan with memories of the dams rising along the Coosa River in the early years of the Roaring '20s. Like Hollis, Yeargan began his career at Mitchell, helping in the redevelopment of the dam in 1985. "Just talking to those old guys who built the dams was special," said Yeargan. "Hollis would do the diving inspections of the dams himself. He called Birmingham at one point and said he could assemble Unit 4, that he knew how to do it himself without hiring contractors." After graduating from Chilton County High School in 1977, then from Auburn University in 1981 with a degree in science and electrical engineering, Yeargan was hired as a junior engineer in the old Construction Department at Mitchell Dam. "The project was in the early stages and they put me with Rodney Morgan, who had a mechanical engineering degree from Mississippi State," Yeargan said. "We walked up on the hill above the dam and he said, 'Do you know how to build a dam?' I said 'I haven't a clue; they didn't teach us that at Auburn.' He said they didn't teach it in Starkville either." It was Yeargan's first realization that book learning would often fall short of what he would need to know as an Alabama Power employee, and one reason it would be important to listen to and learn from old- timers who might have had little formal education. He would continue to rely on veteran co-workers in a career that – while mostly centered around the Coosa – would touch on most of the company's generation plants in Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Mississippi. He would spend several months in 1984 at Farley Nuclear Plant during refueling of Unit 2. After five years helping build the new Mitchell powerhouse, Yeargan moved to the General Services Complex in Calera, where he helped set up eight rows of solar panels on a 2-acre plot. A small house was built with a 12-kilovolt DC to AC converter. The house was linked to a GSC shop transformer and tied into the grid. "Everyone talks about solar power now but Alabama Power Company did a trial solar project in 1986," Yeargan said. "That little solar plant was studied for two to three years until the panels started failing and it was dismantled. We donated some of the 3-by-4-foot panels to schools to aid teaching in their classes." Yeargan was transferred to Greene County Steam Plant, where he aided a combustion control upgrade of Unit 2, working four 10-hour shifts while living in a camper on the grounds. During the project, a co-worker alerted Yeargan to the superintendent job opening at Mitchell Dam. He applied and was awarded the job in 1986. "I was blessed going back to Mitchell," he said. "I'd helped build it. I knew the wiring, I knew the way it was set up. But I was just 27 years old. Most of the Hydro employees had worked their way up through the ranks but Robert Todd wanted to diversify management and I was one of the first engineers to take a superintendent role." From 1987 through 1992, Yeargan resided in the Superintendent's House, which was the last of the structures remaining from the once- Lessons Learned Yeargan led the Lay Dam staff from 2012 to 2022. Photos by Phil Free

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