Page 8 - Tennessee 811 Magazine 2020 Issue 4

To be successful at anything you do in life, it is
important to establish good relationships. In my six and a half years of working for Tennessee811, I have met some extraordinary people and built some great relationships. One of those extraordinary people
that quickly came to mind for
this edition of our Damage
Prevention MVP is Sam
Andavazo from Springfield Gas System. If you have worked
in Springfield or in Robertson
County, you’ve probably met
Sam. In my experience, he’s a
genuine and humble man who
prides himself on building relationships and working
together.
Sam is the safety and training coordinator for Springfield Gas System and has been with the gas department going on 33 years. He started working part-time during his summer breaks in high school with
the Springfield Water Department. He said he got the job through a family member who knew the director of the water department. Sam was told to go see the director about the part time position and he showed up wearing his best polo shirt, pants, and tennis shoes to the interview. The director asked Sam when he could start and Sam replied, “Right away.” Sam was told that someone would pick him up in a few minutes. All the way back
in 1986, Sam still remembers his
first wage of $4.50 per hour. For the water department, Sam was a water distribution tech and did a little bit
of everything. After high school, Sam applied for a full-time position with the gas department. He said, “I was trying to decide if I wanted to go to college or work for a great company full time.” Later, Sam took some night classes for college at Nashville State Community
6 • Tennessee811 2020, Issue 4
College. After getting hired by the gas department, his starting wage was $7.03 an hour. Sam recalled that the gas company put him to work very quickly. “We were working seven days a week and 10 to 12 hours a day. We were really installing some gas lines.” One of Sam’s
By Jason Fryer
Damage Prevention Liaison Tennessee811
Sam started in his current role most of the employee training was done in person. Springfield Gas System has
a nice training center that is open to emergency responders, excavators, and other utilities. “Having that space has created an open line of
communication with different stakeholders. I get to do training for fire departments and for that we give each fire hall at least one leak detector. Not only do we give
them this leak detector, we also calibrate it for them. Springfield Fire Department has four
units and the rest of our volunteer fire departments across the county have at least one. If they are going to be the first to arrive on the scene for a gas call, we want to make sure they are properly trained and have the equipment they need.”
In his current role, Sam is responsible for Springfield Gas System’s regulatory compliance and public awareness efforts, which are codes enforced
by the Gas Pipeline Safety Division (GPSD) of the Tennessee Public Utility Commission (TPUC). Springfield Gas System participates in Tennessee811’s Partners In Protecting Everyone (PIPE) Program, which is a cooperative liaison program made possible by support from local distribution and transmission pipeline operators. The Springfield PIPE Meeting is one of the best attended meetings in the program. This is all because of the hard work the sponsors, including Sam, put into the meeting. Some of that hard work
is boots on the ground, reaching out
to excavators, public officials, and emergency responders and actively recruiting folks to attend this luncheon
Sam Andavazo
Springfield Gas System
Sam Andavazo, Springfield Gas System
first jobs was running a jackhammer. Sam says, “The day I started running
a jackhammer, I thought I was in a completely different world. I had never seen nor did I know how to handle a jackhammer. I came in from work that first day and I had blisters all over my hands.”
Sam has worn many different hats working for the gas department. He started out as a laborer, performing grunt work then moving up to become an equipment operator running excavation equipment and working
on construction crews. Then Sam got promoted to construction supervisor where he managed four or five guys on his crew. After that, Sam worked in the engineering department doing GIS work. About 16 years ago, Sam got promoted to his current role of safety and training coordinator. When