Help Wanted: Tower Climber

Monday, July 27, 2009
Topics: Economy, Environment
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With Ohio's latest unemployment rate topping 11 percent, most any job has lots of would-be takers. However, ideastream intern Ida Lieszkovszky recently stumbled upon an exception….tower climber. Tri County Tower based in North Jackson, Ohio, erects and maintains all kinds of towers all over the state and their "Help Wanted" sign is almost always out. As Lieszkovszky reports, it takes a special person to answer that ad.

At 40, Scot Loveland figures he’s had about 8 lives already. He’s worked as…

Loveland: “a Russian linguist for the army…intelligence analyst for the FBI…the worked in the private sector...decided to go back to school to become a teacher…rock climbing instructor…white water rafting videographer…AND…played Mr. Mom to a three year old.”

These days, he can be found hundreds of feet in the air, scaling wind turbines - towers used to generate wind power.

Loveland: I love a challenge.

Loveland heads up the renewable energy projects division at Tri-County Tower.  He and his crew do love challenges.

Today they’re going through replacing faulty bolts on a 100-foot wind turbine in Deerfield.

Loveland: They’re not that faulty

Loveland says this tower, which will generate power for a private home, is just a baby. But they’ve set up towers as tall as 14-hundred feet.

He says he never thought he’d end up here. Tower climber is not exactly a career you plan for. He’s taken big leaps before though. Back when he was working in the white collar business world, he decided to take a pay cut to become a social studies teacher.

Loveland: I’m one of those weirdos that money in’st the only answer. I’ve got to enjoy what I’m doing.

But when tough times hit the economy, his income dwindled even lower. Loveland lost his teaching job in Columbiana County and hit the road again in search of employment.

Loveland: One day out of the blue I was driving down Mahoning Avenue, where Tri County Tower is located and they had a sign hanging on the front wall that said “hiring tower hands” and I’m like ‘huh, that’d be interesting.’

Loveland says he was lucky Tri County Tower took a chance with him, as he had no experience in the industry. But company co-owner Doug Henry says finding employees is the hardest part.

Henry: In our industry everybody’s looking, I mean people are stealing employees off each other all the time…it’s tough.

It’s not hard to understand why these jobs are hard to keep filled, even in a recession.

Henry: spend a winter doing this and you won’t be a happy camper

Combine the harsh weather conditions with the fact that tower climbing is one of the most dangerous professions, the bigger question becomes why would anyone stick around in this field?

Loveland, who’s been tower climbing for 9 months now, says he enjoys the versatility of the job that ranges from climbing to bringing in new business.

Loveland: one day I’m at a cocktail reception with Lieutenant Governor Lee Fisher and the next day I’m spending 12 hours on a wind tower changing bolts out.

Loveland says he’s always been interested in renewable energy, but one of his greatest assets is that he has experience with…

Loveland: grant writing skills.

Henry: That’s why he’s here!

But Loveland says grant writing can be tedious work. He says there are plenty of grants available - Ohio was awarded $38 million in Federal funds for Renewable Energy Efforts earlier this summer, an amount that could double in the next 18 months ... or maybe not. Loveland says that government money can be hard to get.

Loveland: It’s a little bit like playing cards with your kid brother; they make up new rules all the time.

Loveland’s favorite word for it is:

Loveland: embryonic

Still, He says that with all the federal dollars pouring into the field, renewable jobs are bound to grow in Ohio - good news for Ohio’s massive displaced workforce because it often requires minimal retraining.

Tri County Tower just began really pursuing wind energy contracts this spring, and they’ve already installed six wind turbines. They expect to branch out into other aspects of renewable energy like solar power, and hopefully take on more employees.

More In This Series...

This feature is part of the series Help Wanted.