Jesse Burton

Celebrating 35 years with the cooperative is Jesse Burton, a shift supervisor at the Thomas Hill power plant ... Read full story

Celebrating 35 years with the cooperative is Jesse Burton, a shift supervisor at the Thomas Hill power plant.Burton joined the cooperative in the spring of 1969, when the second generating unit at the power plant went on line to serve the needs of member systems.

After accumulating more than 80 years of collective experience, Jesse Burton, Terry Ross and Tom Stuck recently retired from Associated Electric Cooperative Inc.
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Jesse Burton retires after more than 35 years at AECI

In the old days at the power plant, there was a lot of hard, manual labor - and a lot of good times with a close-knit group that became like family.

Jesse Burton initially began as a temporary laborer at Associated Electric Cooperative Inc.'s Thomas Hill Energy Center in July 1968, just shy of his 18th birthday.Since that time, many things have changed at the plant.Jesses said he remembers using a shovel and wheelbarrow to clean up areas of the plant that are now cleaned with a large vacuum truck.

He doesn't miss the manual labor, but the old times had their good points."We'd have shift picnics and go to somebody's house," he said."We grew up watching our kids grow up.Now, with everything (staff) doubling, we're not near as close as we used to be."

Hired May 12, 1969, as a utility operator, Burton was part of the second wave of employees needed to staff the newly built Unit 2.There were six people to a shift and about 30 people total in operations.Now, there are 13 to a shift along with constant maintenance and coal yard coverage, which used to be only on the day shift, he said.

Burton was born and raised in Huntsville.After high school, he went to electronics school a year, worked a summer at the plant and a few months for the railroad.He was pumping gas at a station in 1969 when his brother-in-law told him AECI was hiring for the new unit.That was the beginning of a 35-year career in operations.He advanced to auxiliary operator in July 1969 and continued to progress.He became assistant control room operator in April 1972 and then control room operator in 1977.He took the job of assistant shift supervisor in 1980, was named acting shift supervisor in 1998 and then shift supervisor in 2000.He retired Jan. 3, 2005.

"It was a great job," he said."It took care of my family well, and we got both kids through college with degrees, so it's been real good."

Burton said he will miss his co-workers, whom he plans to visit, but it's time for change."After 35 years, I'm ready to go and have some fun while I'm still healthy," he said.Burton's plans include "knocking a few handicap strokes off his golf game," traveling, getting back into woodworking and babysitting grandchildren with his wife, Barb.

"We'll miss him because he came up through operations and he definitely knew the operations of the plant and how it should run," said Jesse Burton, a shift supervisor who worked with Jerry 34 years.