Arbor Age: Please start by telling us a little about Unitil, your territory/distribution area, as well as your primary job responsibilities.
Sankowich: Our principal business is the local distribution of electricity and natural gas in the states of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Maine. Our affiliates serve more than 101,400 electric customers and nearly 71,900 natural gas customers and provide energy brokering and advisory services to large commercial and industrial customers in the United States.
I am the system arborist for the electric system portion of Unitil. My service territory includes areas in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. My primary job responsibilities are to develop and manage the vegetation management program at Unitil. This includes developing corporate policies, strategies and specifications for the vegetation management program, as well as managing contracts and work implementation. I also measure line clearance costs, productivity and effectiveness and track and administer the vegetation management budget. In emergency restoration efforts, I coordinate the movement and acquisition of tree crews and assist the operations area commanders with forestry resource allocation.
AA: What are some of the challenges you face on a day-to-day basis, and how do you approach them?
Sankowich: The biggest challenge I face on a day-to-day basis is managing safe and effective vegetation management work at the lowest cost while keeping customer satisfaction high. I am challenged to develop and maintain systems for planning, scheduling and supervising multiple resources across three separate geographic regions, and am challenged to efficiently and effectively meet customer needs and expectations, while managing the vegetation maintenance requirements of the overhead electric transmission and distribution systems.
I approach this by breaking down the overall goal into smaller measurable pieces and setting targets for each goal to achieve during the year. I make sure to monitor and review the process and keep myself flexible and open to change when it’s necessary. I try and keep the outlook positive and use that positive energy to carry the projects forward and keep people motivated.
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