The John Robert Nixon Substation is now officially up and running.
Directors and staff of Smithville Electric System held a ribbon cutting and dedication Thursday morning at the substation located on South College Street which is named for the longest serving member of the Smithville Electric System Board of Directors. Mr. Nixon himself cut the ribbon joined by his fellow board members Hilton Conger, Mayor Jimmy Poss, Tony Hagan, and Chairman Walter Burton and then pushed an energizer breaker button to mark the official start of the substation, owned and operated by SES.
Nixon said he has enjoyed his service on the SES board of directors. “I’ve had some good board members to work with. Its been good to have been on this board. We have got the best employees I have ever seen. They are people who know what they are doing and they are not afraid to work,” said Nixon. As evidence of his dedication to SES, Nixon said he has only missed maybe three board meetings in his 48 years as a member.
Nixon’s daughters, sons-in-law, and granddaughter joined Mr. Nixon at the ceremony, Dr. J.C. and Sandra Wall, Harrell and Gwen Tolbert, and Tara Tolbert.
With the new substation, the City of Smithville now has two electrical power sources. The second substation located on West Main Street will continue to be shared by SES, TVA, and Caney Fork Electric Cooperative.
“Today we celebrate a first for the City of Smithville. The City of Smithville now has two sources of electricity. What this means for the city and our industrial customers is no more outages,” said Chairman Burton, who presided over the dedication program.
“In just a few days the West Main Street Substation will go off line with needed updates and improvements and the city will be served entirely by the John Robert Nixon Substation. As soon as the work on West Main Street is completed both stations will be on line to provide power to the city,” he said.
“In 1969 the City of Smithville purchased what became SES from the McMinnville Electric System. The original board members were John Robert Nixon, Clarence Braswell, John Bill Evins, Dr. W.E. Vanatta, and Bill Maffett. The original board started with a bond issue of $450,000 to begin operation. They retired these bonds and today the system is debt free. This capital project, the John Robert Nixon Substation was built without any debt to the City of Smithville ratepayers. Much of the work was done by our manager, Richie Knowles along with an outside staff and inside staff of Smithville Electric. As far as we know this is the first in the TVA region of a utility our size building their own substation,” he said
Burton gave credit to Mr. Nixon for his leadership and conservative business practices in the success of SES over the years. “He was the first chairman and he was re-elected chairman for 48 continuous years until he stepped down as chairman this year at his request. The board would only accept his request to step down as chairman if he agreed to stay on the board”.
Burton also recognized the service of two other original SES board members the late John Bill Evins and the late Dr. W.E. Vanatta, who served until they passed away in 2008 and 2010 respectively.
Members of the SES staff are Interim Manager Richie Knowles; Kevin Martin, line supervisor; Ed Rowland, lineman; Jeremy Ashburn, lineman; and Keith Randolph, lineman. Office staff are Vickie Snow, Office Manager; Amy Martin, payroll clerk and Human Resources; Beth Vandergriff, customer service specialist; and Megan Nixon, accountant.
Local minister and Chamber leader Isaac Gray opened the ribbon cutting and dedication program with a prayer. Burton then recognized Mayor Poss, Alderman Danny Washer, Police Chief Mark Collins, and City Public Works Director Kevin Robinson who were in attendance. He also called for a moment of silence due to the passing of Karen Jacobs, wife of Alderman Shawn Jacobs.
The idea of building a second substation had been in the making for several years but the SES board began to put the plan in motion two years ago when it purchased the property on College Street after receiving approval from TVA to proceed.
According to Interim Manager Knowles, the new substation will provide the City of Smithville an alternate power source. “We will be able to supply power to the entire city from either substation. We can do maintenance work on the West Main Street substation without shutting off the power to the entire city,” he said.
The new substation will also be a plus for industrial recruitment to the city and lessen power outage concerns of industries already here. “Taking a city wide outage is very expensive for everyone involved. A planned outage cost to our industries alone is approximately $200,000 an hour. The new substation will help keep that from happening. It will also provide us a secondary feed for industries that might be looking at possibly coming to Smithville. That is usually their first question “do you have a dual feed”? Now we’ll be able to say “yes we do”. Hopefully that will help attract new industry and help us keep the industry we have,” said Knowles.
In a recent interview with WJLE, Nixon reflected on the history of Smithville Electric System. “We started in May 1969. The City of Smithville issued utility service bonds to purchase the electric system for $450,000 from McMinnville Electric, which had been operating the system for 25 years. McMinnville Electric had bought it from Tennessee Electric in 1944. After Smithville Electric System was formed, the city appointed a board to make all the decisions for the electric utility,” he said.
Today, Smithville Electric System serves more than 2,500 metered customers, more than double the number in 1969.
Nixon said Smithville is fortunate to have its own electric utility with directors who have managed it so well over the years. “When we decided to build this new substation, we didn’t have to borrow the money or raise rates to do it. We already had the $3 million dollars needed to complete the project,” he said.
Born in the Cove Hollow area, Nixon grew up and was educated in DeKalb County. He started college in 1948 at MTSU in Murfreesboro. He married June Judkins in 1951 and was drafted later that year. After serving in the U.S. Army including a tour of duty in Korea, he returned home to his wife and a job offer.
“Jim Amonett approached me about going to work at the Chevrolet garage”, he said.
Nixon later joined Amonett as partner owners of the business which became known as Amonett-Nixon Chevrolet. Nixon sold his interest in the dealership and left in 1983 to take on a new role as Clerk and Master for the DeKalb County Chancery Court, after having been appointed by Chancellor Vernon Neal. He served in that position for sixteen years.
His wife June passed away in 2009.