Utilities Kingston CEO remembers ice storm as ‘team-building exercise’

In early January of 1998, the townships of Kingston and Pittsburgh had recently amalgamated with the City of Kingston, as did their respective utility departments.

The new Public Utilities Commission was put to the test early on when what is now known as “the storm of the century” hit hard across four provinces, impacting more than three million residents.

“It was a great team-building exercise,” Utilities Kingston CEO, Jim Keech recalls. “We didn’t plan it that way but it was a great team-building exercise.”

Freezing rain and frigid temperatures led to trees falling on power lines, leaving many without power for more than a week in some cases.

They say hindsight is 20/20 and Keech admits if he had to do it all over again, he’d have taken the help offered from other cities a little bit sooner.

“When they first called and asked, our response was ‘No, we can look after this,’” Keech said. “Twelve hours later, we were calling them back saying, ‘Yeah, we need help.”

Kingston was hit with another ice storm in December of 2013. While not quite as serious, Keech said he learned how to deal with that storm through the events of 1998.

Another thing he learned in 1998 — just how closely-knit a community the City of Kingston really is.