Руководитель Rochester Public Utilities объяснил рост тарифов и рассказал о своем прошлом в цирке

A Q&A with Tim McCullough, General Manager at Rochester Public Utilities. So, my first question was going to be, "Hey, Tim, why do you personally keep jacking up my utility bill every year?" But I really don’t know you that well, so ... ADVERTISEMENT That’s fair. Go for it. OK. Why do you personally keep jacking up my utility bill every year? Utilities are an expensive business, and I very much love the public power model that Rochester has. We’re a community-owned utility, so we don't have a profit motive. And so we can actually do it cheaper. We can provide local service. But utilities — specifically, electricity and water — require a lot of infrastructure. ... The costs have gone up, both for the infrastructure and now the energy that we're buying from the energy market. ... Inflation in the last three years has been crazy in our business. So the biggest driver right now is the economic conditions. OK. Well, that’s a good answer. At what age did you realize you're a huge energy nerd? Actually, my passion growing up was that I wanted to design green tractors. I was a farm kid. Do you mean environmentally green? Or ... I mean the color John Deere green. I had an affinity towards one brand of tractor. ADVERTISEMENT The best year of your life must have been as a product design intern at John Deere. Exactly. When I was in college, I wanted to study abroad and see the world. I went to the career fair and found that John Deere and Iowa State University collaborated on an international internship and a study abroad semester in Istanbul, Turkey. ... They sponsored me to go to Istanbul for a semester. And they brought me back to Waterloo the following summer, and I got to design tractors for four months. When we met at the Quarterbacks Club Hall of Fame induction ceremony, you had me as soon as you said your parents were carnies. True. It's my favorite cocktail conversation. It's got a hook to it. It's also very true. It comes from both sides of the family. Frey Amusements is from my mother's side. And my dad is connected to Merriam’s Midway Shows. My parents met in high school when they were both working as help on their respective carnival shows. They were from rival carnivals? Is this like a Romeo and Juliet of the carnival world story? There's a little bit of rivalry in the business. There's a rivalry to secure the fair spots. But there's also a camaraderie — and this is where the utility business is very close to the carnival business. Wow. OK. Can't wait to hear this. ADVERTISEMENT When there's a hurricane in Florida, we send our RPU line workers over the road to Florida. That type of stuff happens in the carnival business all the time. If you’ve got a ride that goes down, you call up your competitor, say, "Hey, can you spot me a Ferris wheel?" And they'll send a truck with a ride and help set it up, and it just trades back and forth. So, it's both rivalry and family at the same time. And you traveled with their carnival? Yes. My experience was as a 4-year-old to an 8-year-old kid. ... We went full-time in the carnival from '84 to about '89. That took us around Iowa and surrounding states. In the winter, we lived in New Orleans, and we took the whole show south. It was a wild childhood. That sounds awesome. Tell me about this group: You, Tyler Bonnicksen and coach Jon Larsen. We won the high school state championship in mime. At Armstrong-Ringsted High School, in Iowa, we had three banners on the wall for winning state championships. One was a 1970s state football championship. One was basketball. And all-state mime. Do you still do the miming regularly now? I get a hard time from my wife because she was a linguistics major, and thinks it's hilarious that I won a speech competition in mime. And I remind her that 80% of communication is nonverbal. So I use it every day. ADVERTISEMENT You and Christy have four kids? We have a senior, Audrey, a sophomore, Norah, an eighth grader, Justus, and a fifth grader, Sawyer. Christy has homeschooled our kids all the way through. Wow. What a huge undertaking. We love having them home. And they're turning out really well. What's your most embarrassing hobby? Cross stitching. Really? I mean, I was already writing down “miming.” ADVERTISEMENT I'm not embarrassed by cross stitching, but other people may be. What have you made? We have a "Home Sweet Home" sign that hangs in the bathroom. I did that as a kid. Whenever a button needs to be sewed on, or clothing repaired, I'm the one in the family that takes care of it. Or if you need to silently communicate that it's really super windy out, and how hard it will be to walk against the wind, you are the guy. Yeah. If you need a man in a glass box, I'm your guy.