From June 16–21,five members of the Village Public Works crew were in the Southwest, volunteering their labor with “Light Up Navajo” — an ongoing effort to connect residents of the Navajo Nation to the electrical grid for the first time. (Submitted photo)
Dispatches from Navajo Nation
- Published: September 8, 2024
The high desert of the American Southwest can be punishing. Winds whip, and the sun bakes the red-rock landscape into an arid landscape of brush and dust.
It’s a tough place to work, but earlier this summer, that’s where a team of five Yellow Springs Public Works crew members landed for a week of high-elevation work. Their mission: “Light Up Navajo,” an ongoing volunteer effort between municipalities throughout the country aiming to connect reservation homes to the electrical grid for the first time.
Established in 2018 with coordination from the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority and members of the American Public Power Association, Light Up Navajo has, over the last decade, electrified nearly 7,000 homes within the Navajo Reservation.
In late June, a crew from Yellow Springs added four new homes to that growing list.
(Submitted photo)
“This trip was a real eye-opener,” Ben Sparks, YS Superintendent of Electric and Water Distribution, told Village Council members at the group’s Monday, Aug. 19, regular meeting. “It’s amazing what we, here in Yellow Springs, take for granted.”
Sparks gave an example: During the second day on the job, somewhere far beyond the outskirts of Fort Defiance, Arizona, Sparks and the four other Village crew members were working on connecting a family’s trailer to the grid. Three generations — eight total family members — lived there.
It was a grueling, 15-hour day of setting utility poles and running distribution and service lines, but later, with the flick of a breaker, the trailer finally went online: It had power.
“The home had a ceiling fan that had never been used,” Sparks recounted. “When I told one of the kids to flip the switch and it came on, the kids all screamed. Mom and Dad were happier than ever, and Grandma — well, Grandma just started crying.”
“That was one of the most moving moments of the whole trip,” Sparks added.
Working by his side for the week were Village Public Works foreman Tanner Bussey, lineman Lane Dykeman, apprentice lineman Alex Kraus and groundman Lucas Valley. Yellow Springs was among 41 municipalities from 16 states that participated in this year’s Light Up Navajo effort. The organization’s goal for 2024 has been to electrify around 300 homes over the course of 13 weeks this summer.
Village crew members — superintendent Ben Sparks, foreman Tanner Bussey, lineman Lane Dykeman, apprentice lineman Alex Kraus and groundman Lucas Valley — spent a week earlier this summer electrifying homes on the Navajo reservation. (Submitted photo)
This purported goal aims to mitigate the living situation of the over 14,000 residences on the Navajo reservation that continue to live without power. Approximately 75% of all U.S. households without power live on that reservation — that is, the 27,000-square-mile region that spans part of Utah, New Mexico and Arizona.
Despite these intimidating figures, the Village crew was steadfast in its work. Climbing poles in 100-degree weather, tethered against the desert winds and clothed in neon long-sleeves, the five-man crew managed to set 12 utility poles and run around 3,000 combined feet of distribution and service lines, Sparks told the News.
“The last house we went to was without water and electricity for 32 years,” Sparks said. “They were very kind and hospitable toward us.”
Sparks said this family not only taught him and his crew members some words in the indigenous Navajo language, but also made them tanaashgiizh — blue corn mashed into pancake-like patties.
“We learned how important their culture is to them,” Sparks said. “So while some of these folks have lived for so long without power, they didn’t want to leave their land. For some, they were living with their parents and children on their great-grandfather’s land. They would live however they could, just to keep their family connections and traditions intact.”
It’s possible Yellow Springs may have gained its own tradition from the June trip to Navajo Nation: Village Manager Johnnie Burns told Village Council last week that he wants to send a second crew of Public Works employees out to the Southwest again in 2025.
According to Burns, the Village only spent $7,801.95 of the $20,000 that had been budgeted for the 2024 trip. Light Up Navajo and American Municipal Power covered the rest in lodging, plane tickets, car rentals and the costs of shipping tools and equipment.
“And they’ve agreed to cover that cost again,” Burns said with a smile.
At the forthcoming Village Council meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 3 — a day later than normal, owing to the Labor Day holiday — Council members will review a resolution to authorize the funds to finance a public works crew to return to Navajo Nation in July 2025.
“It’s just amazing how much we, in Yellow Springs, can take for granted,” Sparks said. “From flipping a switch and our lights coming on, turning a tap and getting clean water. This trip helped me see from other perspectives — to be willing to offer a helping hand not only when we’re asked, but when we see a need.”
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