More Public Art
Saturday, December 15th, 2007
I ran across this great sculpture of an electrical lineworker and groundworker while walking the other day and thought my friends at McCleary Light and Power might enjoy the photo. By the way guys, that’s a 75 kva transformer hanging on the pole.
The sculpture is across the street from the main local CFE office and service compound. As far as I was able to determine, except for the wires above, it is almost totally composed of concrete, even the rope held by the groundworker, who, by the way, is holding a flashlight directed above. As you can see at the bottom of the photo, the sculpture sets in the midst of a fountain.
Utility poles here are typically of concrete, thus the workers climb the poles using a couple of straps into which they insert their feet and alternately slide the ropes up the pole.
CFE, Comision Federal de Electicidad, is the publicly owned utility responsible for the generation, transmission, and distribution of electrical energy throughout Mexico.
I think CFE is a good example of how a publicly owned enterprise, providing an essential public service can act to advance societal objectives, such as economic development and providing jobs.
Here most everyone uses LPG for cooking and water heating, and there is no space heating needs. My latest bill, for the period of Sept. 28 through Nov. 29, is $191.78 pesos, about $17.75 USA at today’s exchange rate. I consumed 244 kWh during the period, with the first 150 Kwh charged at .637 (about 5.9 cents USA/kWh) pesos per kWh and the other 94 kWh at .751 pesos per (about 6.9 cents/kWh).
Kicking Calvin in Playa Baracoa.
