Trainer Spotlight

Jim Verga is with Eastcom Associates, a utility products distributor.  Like so many, Jim unintentionally made his way to the industry.  After earning an associate degree in agriculture and working 20 years in artificial insemination of cows, Jim’s brother talked him into a career change.  Since 1999, the people have kept Jim in the industry.  He enjoys helping operators overcome the many obstacles and understands their frustration.  Jim believes that from a locator’s point of view, tracer wire needs to be used with all plastic mains and services.  He believes this should have been the case 40 years ago, but as an industry that buries its assets, he believes we dropped the ball.  When asked to provide a fun industry story, Jim replied that guardrails make good grounding points; so, when a customer told him it didn’t work at their system, after asking a few questions Jim discovered that this particular guardrail had wooden posts! Ah ha!