Thursday, August 11- The show is on the road! This week’s episode focuses on the Louisiana Gas Association’s Pipeline Safety Conference and the value it brings to the industry. This live show attempts to bring back the conference to those not able to attend.
Quick Links:
James Cross on Linkedin
Jim Schauer on Linkedin
Episode Transcript
[0:00] [music]
Jim Schauer: [0:24] Well, James, today is Day 2, but it’s actually Day 1, morning.
James Cross: [0:29] I don’t want to drink somebody else’s coffee. That’d be a terrible start to the morning.
Jim: [0:29] Who was that?
James: [0:35] I don’t know.
Jim: [0:35] That’s not good.
James: [0:37] We haven’t even had guests yet.
Jim: [0:39] Oh, what’s in there? Never mind. We’ll let that be. It’s Day 2. This is the first full day.
James: [0:47] We’re set up in a booth, you know.
Jim: [0:50] We’re set up in a booth for a little bit.
James: [0:52] We’re OK.
Jim: [0:52] Yeah.
James: [0:54] Maybe later we’ll move back out. We’re going to try to catch some folks, some of our vendor friends that are in here, bring them on today. I’m just going to play it by ear and see who comes by, like we always do.
Jim: [1:06] I’m going to say, even already this morning, there has been a lot of interaction at the booth. A lot of people asking questions, people that have sought us out.
James: [1:16] A bevy.
Jim: [1:17] Is it a bevy? I was going to use that term, but I didn’t want to.
James: [1:20] There’s been a lot of interesting…We talked about it in the hall sometimes, especially when there was downtime, we are both twitched. Actually, it happens as we speak. The people are walking now. There’s a lot going on. The show’s going on. People tend to migrate over and watch. Why would you want to watch it?
Jim: [1:41] It’s a fun little part. The backs are lit up. When you walk by the exhibit hall, people see us right away. We have a beautiful‑branded booth. It’s fun having people just hang by and congregate right out here in the aisles.
James: [1:55] There are people eating breakfast right here.
Jim: [1:57] It’s early. It’s not even eight o’clock yet.
James: [1:58] Full day today. Big event tonight.
Jim: [2:06] Bourbon Street Balcony event tomorrow. Another full day for…
James: [2:09] Then, another full day.
Jim: [2:10] for me, on Thursday. I give a presentation from 2:00 to 3:00 on Thursday. I’m going full that day. Which is good, though.
James: [2:17] We’ve got some good sessions today. I’m going to try to catch that. It comes [inaudible] this morning.
Jim: [2:21] Our friend Liam Miller is giving one at 10:00 AM this morning. I’m excited for that. I’m going to go hackle him.
James: [2:27] Tons of good content. I’m already seeing some new people, some new faces showed up today, some people that weren’t been able to make it last night. We got some live recording to do here.
Jim: [2:40] We do.
James: [2:40] I think I’m going to grab Monique from PODS. That should be cool.
Jim: [2:45] That’ll be great. That’ll be really good.
James: [2:49] We’ll see.
Jim: [2:51] Let me ask you a question.
James: [2:52] All right.
Jim: [2:52] Last night, after the end, you and I got a chance to sit down and just decompress a little bit. What did you think of the charbroiled oysters?
James: [3:00] Wow, that was good. I’m always a fan here.
Jim: [3:03] OK. All right
James: [3:04] My first LGA event, but it’s not my first.
Jim: [3:06] No, not your first. You spent a lot of time here. In your past life, you?
James: [3:11] I’m going to find my place too. That’s my goal.
Jim: [3:14] You’re Slidell, he was telling me about a place here. Slidell
James: [3:16] I can ask somebody. They’ll text me back like that. Overall, first day, I’m really impressed with the attendance.
Jim: [3:24] That’s great. It’s fantastic. Over 600 attendees, not including the vendors is what I heard
James: [3:30] I’m excited to see how many people walk up and register as well. I think we’ll see an uptake to that. I’ve been surprised we are going to see 700 to 800 people here in total.
Jim: [3:40] I think that’s why…
James: [3:40] They’re respectable.
Jim: [3:41] I don’t know if I told you, but in the past, we used to do it with the LGA and I sit on some committees used to do 192 Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and then Wednesday afternoon, switch it over to 195, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.
[3:54] You had people leaving and coming midweek, and now it’s all intertwined, which is great. The 192 and 195 natural gas and oil pipelines get to talk and collaborate. It’s a busy week.
James: [4:06] Sometimes you think they’re so different, but when you boil it all down, it ends up, what do we have? We have projects.
James: [4:13] We have, you know, that need to be managed. We have people we need to lead. We have innovation technologies coming out that demand. If we can learn from each other, let’s get all good.
Jim: [4:24] That’s what this is about.
James: [4:25] Absolutely. Jim, we got a full date?
Jim: [4:28] I’m ready. Are you ready?
James: [4:29] I’m ready.
Jim: [4:31] Let’s do it, brother.
James: [4:32] We’ll do that.
Jim: [4:35] We are back James. We had an incredible Louisiana lunch.
James: [4:41] We did. Charbroiled oysters.
James Bugg: [4:44] We had that. And then we had some Gator wedge salad. It was good.
Jim: [4:50] We had the wedge salad. I did the gumbo, the seafood gumbo. I said when in NOLA do as NOLAians.
James: [4:56] They’re trying these oysters though and bread.
Jim: [4:59] We ran…
James Bugg: [4:59] They were good.
Jim: [5:00] Even the butter
James: [5:02] We did two loaves of bread.
Jim: [5:04] I mean, we kept getting more bread, more bread, more bread and they looked at James, they said, are you watching your carbs?
[5:09] I said, no, don’t worry about him. He’s OK.
James Bugg: [5:11] We’ve got our calculator out. Calculating. We are carved up and ready to go.
James: [5:13] Just jumped in. No, we didn’t do anything. We just start talking about food.
Jim: [5:18] We did, but that’s OK. We ran into Tim on the escalator and I said, last time we saw Tim. He was with Jack Cordy from LSCs at EWN tailgate week. Is that right? That’s right. OK, I had to get in my head. We’ve had so many events lately, but it was good to see you, Tim. Welcome to the show.
James Bugg: [5:42] Tim, introduce yourself.
Tim Beck: [5:45] Tim Beck, with Rainmaker Sales. We’re a distributor of George Fisher. We have all the equipment and stuff for poly fusion, and then we’re also a distributor for McElroy, so butt fusion, socket, all that good stuff. We can provide all that equipment for you.
James: [6:03] Very good. We’re at LGA this week.
Tim: [6:09] Yep. LGA.
James: [6:10] We’re at the Pipeline Safety Conference. Is this a conference, itself, that is near and dear to your heart, or a new one for you? What’s this worth?
Tim: [6:20] Actually, I came when I was at Sun Belt Marketing before I came to…Remember, we’re just trying to build relationships with Atlas and Center Point, and some of the other companies, and let them know that we’re out there and we can supply them with equipment, and of course, we can do some repair. We’re a full repair service center for McElroy and for George Fisher, so we can repair equipment and help them with that.
Jim: [6:48] Maintain it.
Tim: [6:49] Yes, maintain it.
Jim: [6:50] Repair it, all the above. Interesting, that’s good to know.
Tim: [6:52] Yep.
Jim: [6:53] Let’s see, this is a Tracer connection too because that piece falls into the whole Tracer world.
James: [6:58] Where are you out of, Tim?
Tim: [7:01] We’re out of Shawnee. Shawnee, Oklahoma.
Jim: [7:03] Oh, boy. Randall Rogers is out of there, isn’t he?
Tim: [7:07] Yeah, Randall Rogers, and we’re also the Kerotest distributor, so if you need a poly valve or anything from Kerotest, we can supply that too.
Jim: [7:15] We’ve heard of him.
Tim: [7:16] Everybody knows Randall Rogers.
Jim: [7:19] Everybody does. He’s infamous.
Tim: [7:22] He’s got lots of stories. [laughs]
Jim: [7:24] Oh, he’s got tons of stories. We had him on.
James: [7:24] We had him on last time.
Tim: [7:26] Did you?
Jim: [7:26] Yeah, out in the main hall.
James: [7:27] Yeah that was one of the best interviews that we had.
Jim: [7:30] Very emotional. He started to bring up Danny Nichols, and Randall got a little choked up, and rightfully so.
James: [7:37] We all did.
Jim: [7:37] Yeah, we did. Absolutely.
Tim: [7:40] He’s a good guy.
James: [7:40] Well Tim, thanks for coming on.
Tim: [7:43] You bet.
James: [7:43] Hope you have a good rest of the show.
Jim: [7:45] Easy‑peasy.
Tim: [7:47] That’s right.
Jim: [7:47] Thank you for joining us. We appreciate it.
[7:51] 2022, we will speak of it again, won’t we? When we saw Nathan ‑‑ or as we like to say, Nate ‑‑ Sills walking down the aisle, James and I both said, “We need you on the podcast.”
James: [8:02] Nate said, “Sure.”
Nathan Sills: [8:03] I said, “Let’s do it.”
James: [8:04] Everyone wore blue today, and he chose to stand out.
Jim: [8:08] Red.
Nathan: [8:09] That’s right.
Jim: [8:09] Now tomorrow, when everybody wears red, what are you going to wear?
Nathan: [8:12] Blue.
Jim: [8:12] Blue.
James: [8:13] Trendsetter sets the tone. Nathan, please introduce yourself to the audience.
Nathan: [8:19] Hey, I’m Nathan Sills. I work at Magnolia River, Vice President of strategic accounts and work all in the gas industry. Just love it and love you guys. You guys do a great job.
James: [8:32] Would you consider our podcast a strategic account?
Nathan: [8:35] I would say that, yes. In a perfect world, yes it would be a strategic account, especially if it’s filmed under me.
James: [8:43] It is our strategic account. I’ll tell you that.
Jim: [8:47] It is. There is a strategy behind this. There really is.
Nathan: [8:51] I agree. You’re all doing good.
James: [8:53] I have a special question for you. Just kidding. Is there anything going on over there at Magnolia we need to know about? What’s new, my friend?
Nathan: [9:06] We’re just enjoying the growth that we’re having right now. Despite all the limitations that we get with supply constraints, and all those other things, we’re doing a lot of things with our technology.
[9:22] One of the big things that we’re doing right now that is really exciting for me is a digital leak inspection.
Jim: [9:29] Digital Leak Inspection. Unwrap that for us. What does that mean?
Nathan: [9:33] We use our flow GIS software to track our group that does leak inspections that we breadcrumb, we mark all the leaks with GPS.
[9:43] Task all the follow‑ups that go along with that. When we’re done with the leak inspection, we deliver it to the client. They’re able to follow up, manage all their leak process as well.
[9:57] Just as part of the process, it’s what we do.
James: [9:59] It’s got to be huge coming into and sat in a session this morning about section 114, and the changes coming down with that. That’s got to be a good setup.
Nathan: [10:09] If you’re going to do it the right way, you got to be able to prove that you did it. Then you go back, and as you work through those things, you do a third of the system, and business district every year, you build a map. If you don’t have a GIS map, in three years you’re going to have one.
James: [10:28] You all know whether you all have been here before I ask the question.
Nathan: [10:40] Pour it to us twice.
Jim: [10:41] Allegedly.
Nathan: [10:42] Allegedly, we are not here. Come on.
James: [10:44] I know. It’s my first time here that I’ve been asking people there. Not New Orleans tips. I’ve been to New Orleans plenty of times. I’m just saying any tips for this conference, anything about this that makes it special.
Nathan: [10:58] Yeah, it’s been different in the past but this year there’s a lot of people here.
Jim: [11:04] There are.
Nathan: [11:05] It hadn’t happened in a while. I would say stay out of the casino. They should wear a gun and a mask over there. Just be with your people. Make sure you got a good group around. Go eat some good food, redfish, all that good stuff, gumbo, if you like it. Go for it.
Jim: [11:23] All right, brother, as always our friends at Magnolia River, Nate, and I go way back. It’s good to have you on, brother.
Nathan: [11:31] Thank you.
Jim: [11:31] We’ll be back. James, as you can already tell, we’re having a bevy of an industry conversation. We’re bringing in pipelines. We’re bringing in fusion bonded epoxies. I’m excited.
James: [11:41] This is one of weird times, where we have three Jameses all in a row.
Tim: [11:46] James, James, and Jim, but officially James. Oh jeez, I did it…
Jim: [11:51] And a Justin. We’ve got Justin in the…
James: [11:53] you know, double printing.
Jim: [11:55] [laughs]
James: [12:04] We were recording.
[12:06] [laughing]
James: [12:06] He questions whether we plan all this.
Jim: [12:14] We don’t. We run right by the cuff.
James: [12:15] We just go with it. We are here with a rare occurrence of Jameses. What’s the plural of Jameses?
Jim: [12:23] James. I don’t know. It’s like kangaroo.
James Bugg: [12:29] I don’t know, whatever.
James: [12:30] Welcome to the show, James.
James Bugg: [12:31] Thank you, sir.
Jim: [12:33] James Bugg.
James Bugg: [12:35] Yes, sir.
James: [12:35] Just like it’s spelled.
Jim: [12:36] B‑U‑G‑G.
James Bugg: [12:38] If somebody yells out “James,” I probably don’t look. If someone yells out “Bugg,” I start looking around.
Jim: [12:44] You start to look at that?
James Bugg: [12:45] Yes, sir, I do.
James: [12:46] James, do us a favor if you don’t mind. Let our audience know the full introduction of James Bugg.
James Bugg: [12:54] I’ve been with SPOT Tracker LLC, based out of Hattiesburg, Mississippi. We started out in 2013, so we’ve been around for a while. We are a field‑level data collection platform.
[13:08] Basically, we’re a software that you’re going to use on pipeline projects to track any assets. That can be anything from a cap screw to a washer to nuts and bolts to a solar panel to a slug catcher. Anything you can imagine in a facility or a pipeline, we have the ability to track those particular assets.
[13:27] We also upload the MTRs to those particular assets so you have your mill test reports attached to every single asset you have. If you had a PHMSA audit, somebody walked up, you would have that information at your fingertips immediately.
[13:40] We also do, as far as inspection forms, we digitize an inspection form. What you’re used to seeing on a sheet of paper, we actually do what’s called mapping. We map it over, the inspector will fill it on an iPad, iPhone or an Android device.
[13:56] Then what the customer’s going to get in the end is that exact same form that they would have received originally, but much more legible. I would say from a legal standpoint, looking at something that’s very legible and not trying to decipher what someone meant…
Jim: [14:13] Yeah, definitely.
James Bugg: [14:14] Is a big deal. What we take from those inspection forms, we’re able to do the project progress. We can take your schedule and from your forms track whether it’s stringing, whether it’s ditching, whether you’re ahead, whether you’re behind, not to mention unit pay items.
[14:31] It’s just a full suite for an entire pipeline project, as well as just tracking any type of asset.
Jim: [14:39] That’s where our conversation started before 8:00 AM this morning with James seeking us out. A shout‑out to, is it Kelsey Hester?
James Bugg: [14:49] Yes, sir.
Jim: [14:49] All right, Kelsey, shout‑out to you for telling James…
James: [14:52] closet listener, apparently.
Jim: [14:54] Obviously.
Jim: [14:56] I actually tried to add her…
James: [14:58] Keep spreading the gospel.
Jim: [15:00] We came up and we started to connect the dots, where Tracer, our Energy Worldnet platform product, does a lot of those items above the ground, let’s just call it, on the equipment to be working on the things that you’re tracking.
[15:14] James came up and said, “Hey, I want to connect the dots because I understand that we do synergetic things in a little bit different way.” So, I’m glad you stopped by today. That was a very informative recap. I know we have not a lot of time for much, I mean, we could go a half hour, is what I’m trying to say.
James: [15:32] I think we may have to do an asset episode…
Jim: [15:36] I think so.
James: [15:37] To look at assets from all angles.
Jim: [15:39] Peel back the onion, as we say, and dive down deep into it to really show because James just scratched the surface, and there’s so much more. Your world is very interesting to me. SPOT tracker, folks. What’s your website?
James Bugg: [15:53] Spottracker.com.
Jim: [15:56] That’s it.
James Bugg: [15:57] If you’re looking for us, you can find us on LinkedIn. You can find our website as well. You can set it up. Anyone who want information, want the demo, go to our website, you can set up a demo from there.
Jim: [16:07] Spottracker.com, or give them a call. He’s on LinkedIn. We connected this morning.
James: [16:13] James, it was nice to get to know you. We’ll see you around.
Jim: [16:13] Thanks, James. We’re glad to call you our friend now, absolutely. We’ll be right back.
Jim: [16:18] James, I’m standing here, Sarah walks by and, at first, I recognized her, she recognized me. She’s smiling. She comes around the corner, she goes, “Do you remember me?” and I’m like, “Maybe.” She’s like, “Lord and Winter.”
[16:32] David Winter, her CEO, said to say hi. I remembered her, she’s on the environmental side. We connected, we remembered the times of David and Sarah at conferences. We’re on the same circuit together.
[16:47] The interesting thing about Lord and Winter, when I first met David, I said, “OK, you’re Winter, David Winter, who’s the Lord of Lord and Winter?” He’s like, “You just said it.” I’m like, “Well, who’s the Lord?” He’s like, “You just said it.” I’m like, “Again, who’s the lord of Lord and Winter?” The Lord, that’s how he named his company. Very interesting.
Sarah Lewis: [17:03] It is.
Jim: [17:03] Anyways. Sarah, please introduce yourself. Tell them, and I already said a lot about your company, but tell them about your aspect in the company, please.
Sarah: [17:11] Yeah. I’m Sarah Lewis, and I don’t know where I was looking…
Jim: [17:16] That’s all right.
Sarah: [17:17] I’m Sarah Lewis, and I work for Lord and Winter. We are an environmental consulting firm. We have both a geology side and a natural resource side. I’m primarily on the natural resource side, although I do dabble a little bit on the geology side as we knew.
[17:36] Part of our work in regards maybe to the pipeline conference is we do environmental permitting. We also do wetland delineations and endangered species surveys. We do Corps of Engineers section 10 and 4 for permitting.
[17:59] Say you’re wanting to put in a pipeline but you have a wetland area or a water course that you’re going to need crossing, or you need to impact to be able to put your pipeline in, we permit that. We are where we like to show you the way through the permitting process.
Jim: [18:15] Gotcha. You would be our leader in that.
Sarah: [18:18] Yes.
James: [18:18] I was not confused. I was really listening to the whole thing.
Sarah: [18:28] I know. You kind of have this look on your face…
James: [18:29] Well, because I’ve never heard this part. I was going to ask some of the questions that you hadn’t answered. It’s a chunk of it all I don’t quite understand yet. This is really interesting. I was leaning in.
Jim: [18:42] I think it’s a very interesting aspect of the industry. Again, there’s a lot of ways to do things, but just having a path and an understanding of that path sometimes takes experts.
James: [18:52] One hour. I immediately obviously went to Louisiana, and why it would be important here, places like Florida and things like that to where…
Jim: [19:01] What lands?
James: [19:01] You have a lot more impacted things. Being from Texas, it seems odd that that would be a lot of…I’m sure you have a ton of business. I’m just saying…
Sarah: [19:14] Oh, well I was going to say in Texas too…
James: [19:18] It’s harder to relate in comparison to someone else.
Sarah: [18:54] Right, but also because you brought up Texas. Texas has state requirements also for different permits, and so State of Tennessee, which is where we’re headquartered they have state waters. Just like you have to get a court permit, you have to get a State of Tennessee permit as well.
James: [19:30] Very interesting. Very interesting. You see? I like the sound of that.
Jim: [19:33] We’re learning something.
James: [19:35] I’m just putting it all together in my little mind.
Jim: [19:37] Like the pieces of the puzzle.
James: [19:39] LGA, are you a long‑time LGA or a short‑term? Like you just been there.
Sarah: [19:47] We’ve probably been part of LGA for at least…while I was at that conference in Cypress. Been three years ago, right before COVID I guess.
Jim: [19:55] That was in 2019. Yes, October 2019.
Sarah: [19:59] Right. I’ve been involved at least on the exhibitor side for at least three or four years. I’m not sure how long we’ve been members, but we’re definitely members now.
Jim: [20:10] I remember you back at the Crowne Plaza when we used to hold the LGA there, so it’s been probably four or five years or so.
Sarah: [20:17] Now I’ve been with the company for five years, so probably around then.
Jim: [20:21] No, that’s great.
James: [20:23] Thank you, Sarah. Thank you so much.
Jim: [20:24] Thanks for joining us.
Sarah: [20:25] Yes, it was very nice.
Jim: [20:25] You jumped right on. You jumped right on.
Sarah: [20:27] Thank you.
James: [20:28] We hope you have a good show.
Sarah: [20:31] Of course. Thank you.
James: [20:32] Smile. We’ll be back
Jim: [20:31] Justin, which we just met, we had a different conversation with him and our last guest James Bugg. Are the mics on?
James: [20:39] Anymore to that.
Jim: [20:40] That was it. Done
James: [20:42] No one knows what that is.
Jim: [20:43] Welcome to the show, Justin.
Justin Coward: [20:44] Thank you.
Jim: [20:46] Wait, are you green?
Justin: [20:47] I am green. I am green. I am.
Jim: [20:49] OK. We got to make sure.
James: [20:50] Also green. Justin, we just met you. Our audience would like to meet you. Just introduce yourself, who you work for?
Justin: [21:03] I’m a client representative for Inspection Associates at Cypress, Texas. My name’s Justin Coward. Been in this business for about…about my 23rd year. My job now is, I’m putting technology inspection in front of the client, with a different investment. I’ve been in business for a long time. I worked for the gas company. I was an inspector, so now I’m on…just say putting project together.
Jim: [21:26] OK. Well, give us a typical day in how you help your clients to become better and safer. What are you implementing to help them do that?
Justin: [21:37] Absolutely. Our client would ask us…maybe give us a scenario what they’re trying to do. Maybe it’s a budget cost they have, money to burn. Third quarter scenario, we got the excess money budget. I would come in and fit that. What kind of inspectors do you need? Can you utilize it? Proficiency. How can they be proficient with that budget that they have left?
[22:01] Then of course, at the same time, we can come in at that point and then gear up for the next year. Especially the new engineers are coming out in the field, they don’t always have it down right and it’s easier to turn to somebody like me and get it the…Everybody says turnkey, but then again, turnkey needs be turnkey.
Jim: [22:24] Well, especially turnkey when you’re dealing with the human aspect can be very interesting because you just can’t turn a key on a human and have them proficient and everything. Real briefly though, your footprint, where does your company reach to? Are you all over the United States?
Justin: [22:37] All over the United States. Yeah. Right now, we’re currently in California, throughout Texas, throughout the Northeast. Pretty good footprint in Minnesota. You’re talking about Wisconsin, in that area.
Jim: [22:51] Oh yeah, don’t you know. You had a little accent before.
Justin: [22:54] Yeah, Michigan, all down the East Coast.
James: [22:57] You said you’re from Cypress?
Justin: [22:59] Well, that’s where Inspections Associates are at Cypress, Texas.
James: [23:02] Oh, OK.
Justin: [23:03] But I am from Texas, yes.
Jim: [23:05] Where do you live right now?
Justin: [23:06] Conroe, Texas.
Jim: [23:07] Oh, you do live in Conroe.
Justin: [23:08] I do. Yeah.
Jim: [23:08] Oh, I know Conroe well.
Justin: [23:10] Yeah, but I travel quite a bit, “don’t you know?” I travel quite a bit.
James: [23:15] Cool.
Jim: [23:16] He’s going to go up there and get a little cheese curd. Sure.
Justin: [23:19] No, my deal is perch.
Jim: [23:21] OK. Walleye, do you have a little fried walleye up there?
Justin: [23:23] Yeah, I do, but perch is…
Jim: [23:25] Better?
Justin: [23:25] One of the best.
Jim: [23:27] OK. All right.
James: [23:28] We’re learning a lot today.
Jim: [23:29] We can go full Minnesota right now. Let me tell you.
Justin: [23:31] We can. We can.
James: [23:33] I don’t know what y’all are talking about. Y’all talking about fish?
Jim: [23:34] We’re talking about fish, Walleye fish.
Justin: [23:36] Fish. We’re trying to break the monotony of pipeline, right?
James: [23:40] I’ve never caught a walleye in my life.
Justin: [23:36] Me neither.
Jim: [23:37] Oh, walleye sandwiches up in Minnesota are staple.
Justin: [23:46] I haven’t caught one either. I’ve eaten them.
James: [23:49] I’ve never eaten one either.
Jim: [23:51] Walleye is a staple up there.
James: [23:48] Not that I know of.
Justin: [23:49] Anyway, I do appreciate y’all introducing yourself. I know we had the unscripted off the…
Jim: [23:54] Oh no, you’re great. You’re great.
Justin: [23:55] That was appreciated. I have not heard of you guys, so I appreciate y’all stepping in here and introducing yourself.
James: [24:00] We hear that a lot.
Jim: [24:01] We have three listeners right now. Well, no.
James: [24:04] And some of them are here.
Justin: [24:07] We have five total?
Jim: [24:08] No. We’ve been…Yeah.
James: [24:11] We’re doing the best we can.
Jim: [24:13] We’re trying.
James: [24:14] Hey, we appreciate you coming on bore.
Justin: [24:15] For sure. Appreciate it.
James: [24:16] Have a good show. Man, LGA, how about this?
Jim: [24:18] Absolutely.
Justin: [24:19] Good to see you guys.
Jim: [24:21] Absolutely.
Jim: [24:23] Mike, thank you for joining us.
Mike Lewis: [24:25] Glad to be here.
Jim: [24:25] You have a call in eight minutes?
Mike: [24:27] I do. Yeah.
James: [24:29] We have to move this along. I do have a voice for a podcast.
Mike: [24:34] Oh yeah?
Jim: [24:28] Oh, he does have that.
Mike: [24:30] I’ve got a face for radio too.
James: [24:36] Thanks.
Jim: [24:36] We hear that. That’s us.
James: [24:38] All the time.
Jim: [24:39] That’s us.
James: [24:40] Why don’t you go and introduce yourself?
Mike: [24:42] Sure. My name is Mike Lewis. I’m responsible for business development for National Underground, which is an umbrella of companies. We’ve got two here that really kind of touch this business. One is involved with public locating. That’s primarily an East Coast business that’s geographically growing West.
[25:00] We work with gas utilities and other companies that are looking to do professional sole source locating. We take care of our customers and really help out with their damage claims and so on there. Really do a top‑notch shove there. Then the other part of our business is we do cross bore inspections.
Jim: [25:21] Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Mike: [25:23] We’ve got robots crawling around the sewer system looking for cross bores if something goes those out.
Jim: [25:29] Let me just jump in here quick. Cross bore is a common term for us in the industry, but for those that don’t know it, explain it real quick what happens, if you could.
Mike: [25:38] Yeah, I appreciate that. Thank you. As most things are being installed in the infrastructure underground these days, they’re being installed using a horizontal drilling technology, where they’re being bored…
Jim: [25:50] HDD.
Mike: [25:52] underground. We locate and mark the different lines that are there, but the problem is sewer lines don’t have tape. They’re really hard to mark and locate in advance. It’s common, unfortunately, that in that horizontal directional drilling that you could very well have a cross bore.
Jim: [26:15] You could have a sewer line and then you could have a gas line going through it and not knowing it until there’s blockage.
Mike: [26:23] Absolutely.
Jim: [26:23] When there’s blockage and they send down an auger into it, they could rip that gas line apart. What happens, Mike?
Mike: [26:31] You could have a catastrophic failure. There’s lots of examples of homes and shopping centers having an explosion. The gas explosion due to that.
Jim: [26:40] It’s very serious.
Mike: [26:41] It’s a very serious thing. We see our guys that are looking for that, we throw a robotic camera down into the sewer system and look for that. We see them as first responders really trying to prevent an incident or an accident before it really happens.
[26:54] We work with the largest gas utilities and contractors that are doing that installation work, and going back through their legacy systems to search for and find cross bores and identify them.
Jim: [27:04] It’s important.
Mike: [27:05] It’s lifesaving. We’re glad to be here. Hey guys, thank you very much. Appreciate it, Jim.
Jim: [27:09] Mike, appreciate it. Thanks for taking the time. Check them out.
Mike: [27:11] Awesome time. Thanks. Appreciate it.
James: [27:12] We’ll be right back. All right. Ready?
Jim: [27:15] Landry, welcome to the show.
Landry Carbo: [27:18] Thank you very much.
Jim: [27:19] Are you excited to be here?
Landry: [27:20] Very much.
Jim: [27:20] Speaking of Landry, where is Dave Landry right now and where is Bryce? Why aren’t they here? What did they say?
Landry: [27:27] Well, Bryce said to…he felt like I could talk better, so he sent me over here instead. Dave, I don’t know where he is.
Jim: [27:35] I think they’re just hiding from me.
Landry: [27:37] Probably.
Jim: [27:38] I think they’re just hiding for me.
James: [27:39] No?
Jim: [27:40] Introduce yourself. Tell us a little bit about what you do. Give us a little high‑level overview.
Landry: [27:46] I’m Landry Carbo, I’m with System Services Pipeline. We are a contractor for AMO’s Synergy and CenterPoint Energy. We do construction.
James: [27:54] Client.
Jim: [27:55] They are very much of a client.
James: [27:56] Client.
Jim: [27:57] Yes, they are. We threw him off. That’s all right.
Landry: [28:03] No, I can give you the whole history.
James: [28:04] Please, go for it.
Landry: [28:05] We’re a family‑run company. My dad started the company in 1987 doing telecommunication work and continued with that until about 2001 when we changed names from System Services of Louisiana to System Services Broadband, and continued our growth. Around 2015, speaking of Bryce, through some connections of his, we got into gas pipeline work and that roar just threw a series of happenstances, grew on its own.
[28:28] In 2017, we spun off System Services Pipeline, and we’ve continued to grow since then, all the way through COVID and everything.
Jim: [28:34] You grew up in the business?
Landry: [28:35] I did grow up in the business. When I was five, I was shredding papers for my mom.
James: [28:40] Learning by osmosis.
Jim: [28:42] I love it.
James: [28:43] That’s amazing.
Jim: [28:44] That’s fantastic.
James: [28:45] That’s amazing. Have you been involved with the LGA for a while?
Landry: [28:49] Yeah. Since I joined doing full‑time to the company in 2017, I’ve been coming to the shows every year and participate.
James: [28:55] Enjoy it?
Landry: [28:56] Yeah. It’s always good to meet people, see what the new products are, rub the elbows where you got to, and have good dinners and all that.
Jim: [29:04] As they say, “Elbow and elbow and knees and knees.”
James: [29:05] Knees and knees.” That’s where all the business takes place.
Jim: [29:08] Business gets done. It gets done.
James: [29:10] You need a name of people. Well, this is my first time here.
Jim: [29:12] He’s a newbie.
James: [29:13] I’m new here. I’ve heard lots of great things about it.
Jim: [29:18] What did you say about the show today?
James: [29:19] Oh, I love it. I love the amount of people here.
Jim: [29:22] It’s the best show he’s been to all year. It’s what he said.
James: [29:24] Oh, for sure. A hundred percent.
Landry: [29:27] Maybe it’s my first show.
James: [29:29] Everybody else. I’ve really enjoyed it, the sessions are awesome, I love how it’s not just folks from Louisiana here. I think that says a lot about the association and the effort put in reaching outside of this state to impact even more folks. I love that part of it. Any advice to give me on this event or Louisiana as a whole?
Landry: [29:54] Well, Louisiana as a whole we can get into a whole other podcast, but…
James: [29:58] Careful.
Jim: [29:58] Yeah, that might be an hour long.
James: [30:00] It’s after an hour.
Landry: [30:01] [laughs] But as far as the show, go to the after‑party functions, they are a ton of fun. Mark Ball with EGW host a great after‑party that’ll be going on tonight.
Jim: [30:11] The Tracer, that’s actually one of my babies and we’re sponsoring that. We are going to be there together, my friend,
Landry: [30:19] Yeah, make sure you go, meet all your customers and all that, rub the elbows and enjoy it. It’s a good time for everybody.
James: [30:28] Absolutely.
Jim: [30:29] Thank you, brother.
James: [30:30] Appreciate your business as well.
Jim: [30:30] Appreciate you being on. Absolutely. We’ll be back. James, we are back. Jonathan was swinging by and we pulled him in and we’re like, “Do you want to be on?” He’s like, “I’m sure. Why not?” Then James goes, “Well, do you guys know each other?”
James: [30:47] We laughed.
Jim: [30:48] We looked at each other like, [laughs] “Oh, we know each other.” Goes back to 2017, ’16, ’15, and even before, but in 2017…Are we OK?
James: [30:57] There we go.
Jim: [30:57] All right.
James: [30:58] Oh, it’s your shirt.
Jim: [30:59] It’s a shirt, probably.
James: [31:01] I love it.
Jim: [31:02] Go ahead, tell the story about…
Jonathan Kimbril: [31:04] In ’17, we were walking down Bourbon Street…
Jim: [31:06] Is your wife’s name…
Jonathan: [31:08] Yeah, Jackeline Kimbrough. There was a group of about seven of us that night and we were coming back and we had…We weren’t out very late.
Jim: [31:15] No, no.
Jonathan: [31:15] She stepped off of a curb wrong and tripped and fell, broke her sandal, and fell down to the ground in a white dress, and none of us saw her fall. That made it even worse because she was instantly upset that no one tried to help her. [laughs].
[31:28] She got up the next morning and her knee hurt just slightly, so she went down to Walgreens. She was like, “I’m going to get an x‑bandage, something to take care of it.” And squatted down and ripped all of the cartilage in her knee when she squatted down for the bandage
Jim: [31:42] In the Walgreens.
Jonathan: [31:43] In the Walgreens, like fell out. Then we had to take her to…
Jim: [31:47] Emergency.
Jonathan: [31:48] an emergency care center here and they gave her minor pain pills and said, “Oh, you got to follow up with your regular doctor.” We got back and the doctor got looking at it, did the MRI, and said, “Oh, well, you tore cartilage, but you’ve got a problem. You have a birth defect where you only have half the cartilage in your knee, to begin with.”
[32:06] He gave us a 50‑50 chance of them going in and cleaning it up and making it better. There’s just this arthroscopic surgery, but he went in and cleaned it. Then the kneecap wouldn’t stay in line. She didn’t have enough cartilage, so we had a second surgery for a partial knee replacement.
[32:23] She got it six months later. It squeaks like a dog toy. It’s not supposed to happen. I got a video of it. She would bend it, and it squeaks like a dog toy every single time.
James: [32:34] Hold on. We’ll cut to that bit. I’m just kidding.
Jim: [32:38] No, I don’t.
Jonathan: [32:39] Then she became this giant medical phenomenon, because never in the history of half a million of these artificial knees has one ever squeaked.
Jim: [32:49] Wait, we’ll do this. A year later, you show back up in LGA, 2018, and I see everybody, we’re happening. She has a knee brace on or something at that time of year later…
Jonathan: [32:59] That was her first replacement.
Jim: [33:01] I’m like, “What is going on?” Then I get filled in on this. We’ve known each other for years. It’s nice that she comes with you, because she is always, I’m not going to say…
James: [33:10] She’s a legend.
Jim: [33:10] I’m not going to say you’re not the life of the party, but she is very bubbly and always is…
Jonathan: [33:15] She definitely picked up my slack when I was on the operation side.
Jim: [33:20] Give the folks a little history, what you do now.
James: [33:22] You jumped right in.
Jim: [33:23] You tell people what you do.
Jonathan: [33:25] For a number of years, I ran a small utility, and I managed the water, wastewater, and natural gas side of it and all. I actually used EWN’s products. We had swapped from a third‑party contractor that provided us with O&M. Not O&M, the OQ programs, everything like that. I couldn’t…
James: [33:43] She talked to me once.
Jim: [33:43] Did you notice his hat anyways? Did you notice that hat?
Jonathan: [33:46] These are our favorite hats.
James: [33:47] Let me give you about 16 there.
Jonathan: [33:51] I swapped over to EWN. We went with the B31Q style. We modified all of our cover tasks, lists, and everything directly to my company, and all with the help of the Energy World Net. We got it specifically sent to us. I did that for a number of years.
[34:07] Now I swapped over to the Alabama Public Service Commission as an inspector. I came in as a regular and moved through senior, and now I’m a supervisor. Hopefully, in the near future, I might be a director. We got to see that process play out.
James: [34:22] I love it. I love that he says a number of years, so you were five when we started? [laughs] I don’t understand, no way.
Jonathan: [34:26] I’m actually fixing to be 39.
James: [34:31] He was five.
Jonathan: [34:31] Yeah.
James: [34:32] Fair enough.
Jim: [34:32] Yeah, he grew up in the industry.
Jonathan: [34:35] It was funny, because growing up, we did heavy equipment. My family did logging in a furniture store, a hand‑carved, mahogany furniture store.
[34:42] We were expected to work from little kids, so I can run a loader to load out log of trucks when I was five. We just thought we were playing on big equipment, having the time of our life. My uncle and grandfather were like, “We got free labor.”
Jonathan: [34:54] That’s what we did the whole time growing up.
Jim: [34:56] Same.
James: [34:57] I wouldn’t say that I’d agree, but I was definitely there.
Jim: [35:01] He works with Randall Hand who we met yesterday. Randall, I have to say this publicly, you have asked me to be there in December in Montgomery. I’m going to try my best. Probably saying, I’m going to try my best because I have missed a couple of times.
James: [35:14] Usually, we go.
Jim: [35:16] Yeah, we do.
Jonathan: [35:17] I went into the army, did electronic warfare, got out of the army. I actually worked at a Hyundai plant when that opened it in Andalusia, Alabama when Hyundai moved to Alabama because I could program the robots and had a welding background from working on heavy equipment.
[35:31] I did that, but I only did that for six months. I was doing 16 hours a day as the assistant plant manager. I had just got married. I came home one night, my wife, my starter wife, told me, “You can either have that job, or you can have me.”
Jim: [35:44] You took the job?
Jonathan: [35:47] No, I should have. I took a different job. I went to welding inside nuclear power plants for two years. Then in ’08, when the Great Recession hit, the federal government pulled our contract, put all of us out on the street. That’s when I got into the utility…
Jim: [36:03] Do you hear the experience that he has? You could try to put it in as well.
James: [36:06] I’m just thinking, you just started welding in a nuclear reactor.
Jonathan: [36:10] We only did structural at the nuclear power plant. We actually built air ducts. It was 40‑foot by 40‑foot tall and wide. It ran 1.2 miles in one direction and 1.2 miles in the other direction. It was 100 percent steel weld for the cooling air to be sucked in and blown like that.
James: [36:27] This was the air duct itself, was that long?
Jonathan: [36:31] Yeah, that’s how it was, but it was in pieces that were 16 feet in all, and they were 40‑foot wide and 20 feet tall. You would mirror them together, one on top of the other.
James: [36:38] Can we just have him back on later to tell us all these stories?
James: [36:40] We need…
Jim: [36:41] We need more.
Jonathan: [36:43] It was crazy, when I came to the pipeline, when I actually come to the inspection side, not the operation side because we were so small we used plastic for everything. I watched a welder for the first time weld downhill. I was like, “That, you can’t do that.” It wasn’t allowed in the nuclear industry, even on structures let alone pipelines.
[37:00] Then you come to the pipeline side, and everybody’s welding downhill. I was like, “Y’all playing with fire over here.” They’re like, “Oh no, we’ve just better lobbying people that allowed us to keep doing it.” [laughs]
Jim: [37:11] I tell you what though, this is the type of person that I actually respect in the industry.
James: [37:17] I want to have dinner with.
Jim: [37:18] He has all this vast industry, and he’s bringing safety aspects from the nuclear industry as well as maybe military, maybe some other things, and bring it together for, I’m going to call it, best practices to say what’s safe. I commend you for that, Jonathan.
Jonathan: [37:34] Thank you, sir.
Jim: [37:34] We have to have you back on. We’re going to get Randall on.
James: [37:37] We just need a whole episode just to talk about cool stuff.
Jim: [37:40] That is cool. That’s like “MacGyver” stuff that he’s talking about. MacGyver meets the Mentalist.
James: [37:45] Jonathan, anything that you’re looking forward to at this conference?
Jonathan: [37:49] There is a couple of presentations. My state doesn’t normally touch on liquids. There’s a couple of liquids presentations coming up and a couple of rule change presentations I’m looking forward to.
Jim: [38:00] That would be a point.
Jonathan: [38:01] It’s always nice to get a different aspect, to have different speakers get up and give their background, say, “This is what we think is going to happen, or “This is how we think it’s going to be addressed through a new rule.”
[38:11] The biggest thing that I see as an inspector is operators see the code requirement that they must do this. A lot think that there’s only a single way to do it. When in reality, there’s 10 to 15 possibilities of how you accomplish that code requirement.
James: [38:26] You might be doing one.
Jonathan: [38:27] That’s it, and you might be doing one, but there might be a better one from someone else’s perspective. Anytime that we can get together with industry folks, and everybody can talk about, “Well this is how I do it, and this is how I do it,” you can actually get the best practice or the best method and modify it.
Jim: [38:42] That emulates everything I was trying to say yesterday, seriously.
James: [38:46] We probably need to have a long talk about all of this.
Jim: [38:46] Everything you were just talking about, we were seriously…I was trying to say it last night when we started, that’s why people come here is to understand that and to understand those rules, and how we can disseminate it out for safety, number one, and best practices.
Jonathan: [39:00] The best this thing about these conferences is the socializing to where you can do mutual aid work, you have a problem when you’re outside the conference. You’ve met a person from another operator that you feel confident in their response.
[39:13] You can call them up on the phone and say, “Hey, I’m not asking for the exact documentation. I just want to have a guideline of how are y’all doing. How are you addressing it? How did you get it?” That’s the best thing is being able to get mutual assistance and just have those contacts within the industry.
James: [39:28] Although, sometimes people are so scared of the inspectors. I love sitting down and talking and hearing things like mutual aid and reaching across the line. It’s all about being better. It doesn’t matter. It’s lessons learned, and it’s moving full onward.
Jim: [39:49] You’re right, and that perception of inspectors can be intimidating or whatever Jonathan gives the aspect that it’s like…
James: [39:55] I want to give this guy a hug. I don’t even know him.
Jim: [39:58] He wants to teach people. He wants to educate them.
Jonathan: [40:01] We give the guidance and give them their options. We can never tell him what to do, but we can say, “Hey, we’ve seen it these multiple ways and stuff like that.” The one thing that was real big when I came over to the inspection side is during our exit year when we closed up, we express that we’re not here to have an adversarial role.
[40:17] We’re here as advocates to help promote a company to produce the safest best practices they can produce. We tell them all the time, “If you have a question, and you call me, I’m never going to jump in my agency vehicle to run over there to write a violation.”
[40:32] I would much rather them call and ask, and us give some guidance, and then make the changes on their own. Then we verify.
James: [40:39] It’s a great thing to hear just for…
Jim: [40:41] The things once we go in for their inspection and see the improvements that they’re making on their own, rather than, for instance, just show up and say, “Oh, you did it wrong, and here’s a violation.”
Jim: [40:49] How does that happen? It happens through trust, and him giving his word, and by people hearing it in the industry that, “Hey I had this question. I called up Jonathan or Randall, or somebody, and they didn’t come over and just slap my hand. They gave me some guidance.”
James: [41:04] They worked with me.
Jim: [41:05] That is what we want, because we want everybody to be working together.
Jonathan: [41:09] It should promote a standard within the industry that we’re always working to be safer and better at what we do. It should never be we’re trying to issue a fine.
James: [41:20] That’s what we’re saying. That’s what we say all the time when we talk to…
Jonathan: [41:22] There’s times that you should fine, there’s times that you should give them guidance and stuff like that. We should always foster an environment for a safer work environment.
Jim: [41:30] Amen to that. What more can you say?
James: [41:34] Nice to meet you, brother.
Jim: [41:35] Thanks, brother.
Jonathan: [41:36] Y’all have a great morning.
Jim: [41:37] All right, you have…
James: [41:37] We’re going to get you back on. I swear, I want to spend 30 minutes just talking about nonsense, go all live, what you all like to eat. I don’t care. I just want to hang out with you.
Jim: [41:50] [laughs] He’s a great guy. Every year, I just love getting together. His wife is wonderful. We all have a good time.
Jonathan: [41:54] That’s me too.
Jonathan: [41:55] I’m in LA Shipping because I was a military brat. I lived in Alabama. It was all Alabama fans, the most, craziest thing. I laugh at them because they go into grocery stores and yell roll tide on the day of games. We call it the Alabama mating call. They can find their closest family member to start dating.
Jim: [42:13] OK, wait a minute. Now hold on.
Jonathan: [42:18] We make fun of them. When I was an operator in Alabama, every conference I went to I always had something purple or gold on. Then when I came over to the inspection side, I’m working for the state. I can’t wear anything that’s affiliated with the team at all.
[42:32] Then I cut down on my partying with my wife. I married my wife shortly before I came to the inspection side. She picked up my slack. She is the most people honest person on the face of the earth.
Jim: [42:44] She’s a yin to my yang.
James: [42:45] I love it.
Jim: [42:47] I saw her yesterday, and I think she screamed my name, yelled, gave me a virtual hug, and gave me the thumbs up. We were line‑checking into the hotel. It’s great.
James: [42:58] We’re working enough to get a sound waiver up from her anyway because of the story we told earlier.
Jim: [43:04] We do. She’s a trooper. Thanks, brother.
Jonathan: [43:06] Thank you.
James: [43:07] We’ll be right back.
Jim: [43:09] We’re back, again.
James: [43:11] Fans cheering for me.
Jim: [43:12] We have now handlers bringing people on. Look at people cheering right now for you. I don’t know if they’re cheering me. They’re ready to throw something. He’s got something in his hand.
James: [43:26] He’s about to fire it up.
Jim: [43:29] Josh, go ahead and introduce yourself, and tell a little bit what you do, your company, what you guys’ specialty is.
Joshua: [43:34] Sure, thank you. My name is Josh Brewer. I work for Hubbell Gas Connectors Accessory. We now changed to HGAS. I’m a product manager, so anything above ground, that’s your risers, your MSAs, any of the steel products, we make all that for the natural gas industry.
[43:49] We have a big presence. Most of the utilities you’ll see running around here, buying from us, they’re our customers. That’s you. That’s what I do. Been there about five years.
Jim: [43:58] Excellent group. We run across them throughout the whole country. An old friend of mine, Barry out of Wisconsin, I just mentioned, “Who’s up from Wisconsin?” I had forgotten the name for second. Josh goes, “Barry.”
[44:08] I’m like, “Yep, that’s it. Barry.” I just saw Barry. I ran into him somewhere weird like California, something like that. He’s all over.
Joshua: [44:15] We have a facility in California. In my position, I deal with sales directly. I’m really the person they go to if they need help with engineering, they help with the pricing. We help develop new products. I get my hands in a lot of different baskets.
[44:30] I work with Barry. I work with Mike and [inaudible], another guy you might have met. Barry came along whenever we required a weld. That’s what we got. He’s an excellent resource.
Jim: [44:41] He’s a good guy. He’s a great guy. Where are you out of? What’s your home base?
Joshua: [44:45] I’m actually out of Tulsa. I work for the Hubbell corporate office.
James: [44:48] I’m in Tulsa a lot.
Jim: [44:50] Are you?
James: [44:51] I sit on the board of the Oklahoma Gas Association. I’m involved there. I’m there, I don’t want to say every month, but the board meetings used to be every month. They were a lot of times in Tulsa.
Joshua: [45:03] It’s good thing you’re not there now. I think the temperature today is 114 or something. It’s crazy. I’m just saying.
James: [45:10] I’m out of [inaudible] just a little south. I think 111 today. My wife is like, “Whew, it’s hot.”
Jim: [45:16] Let’s hope the air conditioner and the power grid stay up right now.
James: [45:21] For sure. How’s the LGA going? How’s this event been for you?
Joshua: [45:26] Good. This is my first year back since COVID. I don’t know if the event happened in the last couple of years or not.
Jim: [45:33] It happened last year, and it was a tough year because a lot of the utilities were on restrictions. Then the year before it was virtual. Really, this is the first year back since 2019.
Joshua: [45:45] I think 2019’s the last time I came. It was a different facility the last time.
Jim: [45:48] Yes, at the Crowne Plaza. It was at the Crowne Plaza, which is small. We outgrew it. That’s why we moved down here.
Joshua: [45:54] It’s a good turnout this year. They don’t let me out the office very often but I’ve been fortunate to come here twice now.
James: [46:02] It’s a good one.
Joshua: [46:03] I met a lot of good people, good folks. I’ve enjoyed it.
Jim: [46:08] Good.
James: [46:09] Good for you. Josh, appreciate you coming on today.
Joshua: [46:12] No problem.
Jim: [46:13] Tell Barry we said hi when you see him, please. We’re just…
Joshua: [46:11] I will tell him. It was nice meeting you, guys.
Jim: [46:15] Take care. We come back as we’re just walking by. Sarah brought you over. Do us a favor, introduce yourself to the audience, tell them who you are, and who you’re with. Give us something unique about your company, and how it impacts, positively, our industry. How does that sound? Easy as pie.
Wilfred Barry: [46:31] I am Wilfred Barry. I am second‑generation in SJB Group, a company founded in 1953 by my father. Those are the initials, Simmons J. Barry. We’re SJB Group based in Baton Rouge. We have an expanding presence in compliance that was given to us a booster when Robert Bone, retired from Energy Gas Distribution, joined our firm.
[47:01] We are now more and more capable of helping clients with compliance issues like jet plans, OQ, making sure plans for geo‑reference, we have now got into GIS Solutions, because everything about being compliant is tracking your records and making your records up to date and findable.
[47:36] There’s a PDF you can download, Small Operators. It’s a guidance manual for help smell gas distribution systems can stay compliant. In that PDF, which is about 60 pages, records, the word records, is mentioned 41 times.
[47:54] It’s all driven by what has been evolving over time, the part 192 453 regulation to govern our industry, 41 times. That’s a trivia question you can use on somebody.
Jim: [48:10] That was a good one.
James: [48:09] I’m going to use that.
Jim: [48:11] I’m going to use it tonight.
James: [48:12] Thinking back to that.
Jim: [48:15] I think I will. That would be good, and or Steve Allen.
James: [48:19] Ooh, Steve Allen.
Jim: [48:20] You have been associated with the LGA for a few years. We have seen each other over the last 14 years, every year, correct?
Wilfred: [48:28] Correct.
Jim: [48:29] I would say so. It’s been a long time.
James: [48:33] This is our first year, just for the record.
Jim: [48:36] Whose first year? He’s new. He’s a newbie to it.
Wilfred: [48:40] Here’s a trivia piece I want to give you.
Jim: [48:43] Let’s do it, please.
Wilfred: [48:44] The LGA was started by operators of gas systems in Louisiana. I don’t know what other states were doing that.
[48:53] My father, after the war, an engineer, followed pipelines that were getting converted from products, in the war effort of World War II, in the Gulf Coast to the northeast and shipping on into the war effort, across the pond. A lot of those product pipelines were repurposed as natural gas pipelines.
[49:14] He followed the gas pipelines as it crossed this county, that county, near that town, that city. He went in and knocked on doors, and got gas systems built. At that same time, it was relatively new.
[49:27] That was when revenue bonds became very, very popular. You have property taxes, but these are construction improvements to build out these gas systems that were financed with debt to which the proceeds of revenue of the gas systems were pledged to pay off the bonds.
Jim: [49:47] Interesting.
Wilfred: [49:48] Anyway, to continue forward, he decided to build his own gas system, because he had been designing them in the West Bank of St. Charles Parish. In the ’50s, he started his gas system. He sold out to Louisiana, LGS. Louisiana Gas Service, which is now part of Atmos.
[50:05] The funny thing was, he was very, very passionate. He was a Democrat, and a good one, and all about public good. He was very passionate about operators coming together. The first several presidents of the LGA was the manager of his gas system.
[50:25] Alan Ray was several times the LGA president. I mentioned Robert Borne. Robert Borne has been active for 30, 40 years. He has been present…
Jim: [50:37] I haven’t seen Robert.
Wilfred: [50:39] Robert is semi‑retired and he and his family have a camp now on the Mississippi, Louisiana estuarine, you can call it, area. For two weeks, he had family coming and going. He may be here later on in to speak.
[50:58] We’ve been members of the LGA in one form or another, but one organization or another, gosh for 40 or 50 years. That’s it. Signing off. I wish you all the best.
Jim: [51:06] Thank you. Outstanding. Yay. You heard it here first. Great job.
James: [51:13] He’s got rapture. He will be back.
Jim: [51:15] He’s off like a shot. James, we have just been overpowered. I was ready to go to a session. Lindsay yells from across the…
James: [51:25] Careful.
James: [51:26] We’re a safety company.
Jim: [51:28] We’re safety and we want you to be safe.
Jim: [51:30] We’re coming,” she says.
Lindsay Sander: [51:31] Sorry.
Jim: [51:31] We’re coming to join the podcast, and here they are. Please, go ahead and introduce yourselves and tell us what…
James: [51:36] Go.
Dana Brown: [51:38] Dana Brown Boxes and Houston Hazmat.
Lindsay: [51:41] I’m Lindsey Sander of Sander Resources, among other things.
Katie Henry: [51:44] Katie Henry, Sander Resources.
James: [51:46] Among other things.
Jim: [51:48] Among other things. Tell us one benefit that you all bring to the industry.
Lindsay: [51:53] Really creative thinking.
Jim: [51:55] Creative thinking.
Dana: [51:56] I’m a user of the creative‑thinking.
Jim: [51:58] A user of the creative‑thinking?
James: [51:59] You both have a good answer.
Katie: [52:02] I don’t.
Jim: [52:03] You sound like her.
Katie: [52:04] I’m the fun one.
James: [52:06] That is valuable.
Jim: [52:07] I’m also the fun one. Just kidding, you are. It’s impressive.
Katie: [52:11] We make things lively.
James: [52:13] First time at LGA?
Dana: [52:15] Yes.
Jim: [52:19] No.
Lindsay: [52:20] No.
Katie: [52:20] No, many times.
Jim: [52:22] Veterans. Newbies.
Jim: [52:24] He’s a newbie too.
James: [52:25] I’m a newbie too.
Jim: [52:26] You guys are getting your LGA feet under you.
Dana: [52:27] Really? Is this seriously your first time?
James: [52:30] I feel like an outsider too. Everybody else has all these inside jokes.
Katie: [52:32] I have seen you before.
James: [52:34] Probably not here.
Jim: [52:34] On LinkedIn, Coffee Jim and James. That’s where you see him.
James: [52:38] Was it outside of TGA?
Jim: [52:40] TGA?
Katie: [52:41] No, in a TGA.
James: [52:42] Is it SGA?
Jim: [52:44] OGA?
Katie: [52:44] That was last year.
Jim: [52:44] SGA, AGA?
Dana: [52:46] Probably.
Katie: [52:47] It’s AGA, something.
Jim: [52:48] We’ll figure that out. We’re going to work something out. It’s awesome here. Awesome event. So is the traffic.
Dana: [52:56] We love it.
James: [52:57] In terms of awesome sessions, we’ve got one right now that Jimmy’s got to get to.
Dana: [53:00] That’s it? You have the most interesting person here standing next to you that you could ever imagine.
Katie: [53:06] No.
Dana: [53:07] She flies Apache helicopters.
Katie: [53:09] Nobody cares about that, we’re at a pipeline conference.
Jim: [53:12] We do. That’s kind of interesting.
Dana: [53:13] Name another woman that’s 5 feet tall that flies Apache longbows.
Jim: [53:18] And is that for…what are we doing with that? Leak detection?
Dana: [53:24] The U.S. military?
Katie: [53:26] You could. We got cameras.
Dana: [53:27] She can shoot missiles with her eye.
Jim: [53:29] Are you‑‑ OK, wait a minute. Are you active in the military right now?
Katie: [53:32] No, I just got out.
Dana: [53:34] We have one of our clients walking by.
Katie: [53:35] We are way off topic. Way off topic.
Jim: [53:38] Way off.
Dana: [53:38] We’ve lost control of this one.
Jim: [53:40] Wow. We have an Apache helicopter pilot with us. I didn’t know that. I thought you were joking at first.
Dana: [53:49] No. Why would I lie to you?
Jim: [53:52] I knew she was part of the hazmat division for Texas, which is…
Katie: [53:54] Houston Fire Department hazmat team.
Jim: [53:56] OK. Which is a big deal.
Katie: [54:00] Yeah.
Jim: [54:00] Sure, yeah. In the area of Houston, that would be something that unfortunately can be used a lot.
Katie: [54:07] Yeah, we have a lot of emergencies. Looks like you need to go.
Jim: [54:13] We’re OK. We’re OK.
James: [54:15] Listen, thank you all so much for being on.
Dana: [54:17] You’re welcome.
James: [54:18] We’re going to have to make another shot at this, a longer one. Another attempt for another day.
Dana: [54:24] We really appreciate your time. We love seeing you guys. Jim and I have been friends for a long time.
Jim: [54:27] We have been, yep.
Katie: [54:28] We appreciate it.
Jim: [54:29] We’ve been friends back to our, I think, TGA days, Texas Gas Association.
Dana: [54:32] Way, way like more than a decade.
Jim: [54:35] Yes, it has been.
Dana: [54:36] Close to a decade.
Jim: [54:36] Yeah. It’s good to have friends on.
Transcription by WatchingWords