Nicholas Reimer, '05
The head of the Western Colorado Community College Electric Lineworker program has, in his way, completed a career circuit.
Nicholas Reimer is a graduate of the very program he now heads. The program includes about 60 students each semester who handle thousands of volts of electricity high above and below the ground.
Reimer was first drawn to the electric lineworker field while he was delivering furniture in Vail to support his skiing habit. One day he saw a crew of lineworkers on the job.
When he asked for advice, he was told to look into a program, the same kind he now heads.
He graduated in 2005 and promptly got a full-time job as an apprentice with Holy Cross Energy, a rural, electric co-op in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. During the next several years, he worked his way up to foreman of a construction crew with Grand Valley Power in Grand Junction.
“I’d accomplished so much in those roughly 15 years of doing linework and really wanted something different and exciting, and have always enjoyed working with the younger people in the trade to expand their knowledge,” said Reimer. “I still remember what it was like for me being completely overwhelmed and intimidated by the people and nature of the work in this trade.”
There were times early in his career that he wanted the kind of guidance that he now offers his students. “I’ve been thinking about teaching for the last couple of years so when this opportunity came open I jumped right on it. It’s a completely different world being an instructor versus being out there every day doing the work that a lineman does, but so far so good.”
Reimer thoroughly enjoys the daily interactions with students as they grow in the program.
“They make me laugh,” he said. “All day.”
Lineworker students learn how to work on utility poles 50 feet above the ground, as well as on street lights and transformers. They learn these skills both in and outdoors at WCCC’s hands-on training facility that opened in 2019.
When it comes to preparing his students, Reimer said, “We’re definitely making it happen.”