Local News

Facility will generate electricity, melt snow

EIGHTEEN MEMBERS OF Local 169 (Detroit) are among the building trade workers constructing a $240 million combined cycle plant in Holland, Mich., a community of 28,000 in the state’s western Lower Peninsula. The new plant, situated on about 26 acres, will replace and double the output of the aging James DeYoung coal-fired facility, which was completed in 1939.

JIM DELSORDO has followed his passion for big game hunting across North America and as far away as South Africa. The Local 13 (Philadelphia) retiree and former lodge president is pictured with a gemsbok taken in South Africa in 2007. He has also hunted in Newfoundland, Canada (caribou); Wyoming (mule deer and antelope); and North Carolina (whitetail). During other trips to South Africa, he has taken a fallow deer and a kudu.

Volunteers donate skills to heritage society

VOLUNTEERS FROM LODGE 359 (Burnaby, British Columbia) have been connecting with history and the work of past generations of boilermakers by restoring steam-powered equipment at the Western Vancouver Island Industrial Heritage Society at Port Alberni.

Local 1 • Chicago

JOHN F. RIEL, BM-ST of Local 1, Chicago, reports presentation of membership pins to the following:

Gift cites Boilermakers’ chemical wash and re-tube work

A JOB WELL done is often its own reward. But when members of Local 13 (Philadelphia) completed outage work at the NextEra Energy power plant in Marcus Hook, Pa., recently, contractors Delta Products Group and Thermal Solutions happily showed their appreciation with a contribution of $2,500 toward the local’s scholarship fund.

L-456 member sells, donates tool buckets

ABOUT THREE YEARS ago, Local 456 member Gikus Bigelow decided to make a tool bucket for himself that was lightweight, tall enough to sit on comfortably and fitted with a sturdy rope handle for hoisting. When he brought the bucket to work it was an immediate hit with his fellow Boilermakers.

“Everybody wanted one,” Bigelow says. He began making buckets as fast as he could. “I sold 230 of them on one job,” he recalls.

FOUR BOILERMAKERS FROM Local 85 (Toledo, Ohio) took part in the 2015 Wounded Warriors Run in Rossford, Ohio, August 23. The 5K event raises awareness and funds for the Wounded Warriors project.

Local 85 served as a general sponsor of the run, which drew over 175 participants.

“These events represent what the IBB is truly about — Brotherhood!” said BM-ST Tim Timmons. “We stand hand-in-hand with those men and women who have sacrificed so much for our freedom.”

Local 1 — Chicago

JOHN F. RIEL, BM-ST of Local 1, Chicago, reports presentation of membership pins to the following:

• 70 YEARS — Daniel Raggio;
• 45 YEARS — John Beckwith, Sr., Charles Lyles, Merrill Lynn; and
• 25 YEARS — Thomas Feeney, William Lambert, Arnold Lisk, Jeff Newton.

Local 40 — Elizabethtown, Ky.

MIKE AUTRY, BM-ST of Local 40, Elizabethtown, Ky., reports presentation of membership pins to the following:

L-105’s McWhorter scores on “redemption” hunt

NICK MCWHORTER, a member of Local 105 in Piketon, Ohio, was ecstatic when he learned he had been picked for a Brotherhood Outdoors hunting trip (televised this past spring). Hunting and fishing are a cherished tradition in the McWhorter family. The McWhorters also cherish their craft as construction Boilermakers: Nick’s father, John, and brother, Matthew, are also members.

Lodge names new training center for late BM-ST

THREE SONS AND THE WIFE OF THE LATE GEORGE PINKERMAN, a former BM-ST of L-667 (Charleston, W.Va.), stand in front of a plaque dedicating the lodge’s new training center in his name April 15. Left to right are Brian, Brenda, Chad and J.T. Brian and Chad are L-667 members. George Pinkerman, who served as BM-ST from 1999-2011, passed away April 5, less than two weeks before the dedication was to take place.