On May 15, Charles (Chuck) Larsen, General Manager of Carbon County Power & Light (CP&L), will officially retire from his position and Russell Waldner, Director of Engineering of CP&L, will fill the role. Both Larsen and Walder have taken the time to reflect on their careers thus far and are looking forward to the future.
Larsen, General Manager of Carbon County Power & Light, began his career with the company 36 years ago—working as a lineman—climbing and installing telephone poles. “I really liked climbing
(poles),” said Larsen.
With an education as an electrician at a tech school, he applied for a job in Saratoga, started moving up in the ranks, and along the way growing with the company seen today that successfully installs power for most of Carbon County and some of Albany County.
Larsen considers one of the CP&L’s greatest successes as taking the risk to buy a DirecTV franchise. The initial cost to buy into the franchise was $172,000 was a risk to the company, especially with the lack of knowledge they had about DirecTV, according to Larsen. “We didn’t even have a prototype of what the dish was going to look like; we had nothing to show the board, and they went along with it and that was a great success,” said Larsen. CP&L sold their franchise back to DirecTV several years later, for $4.9 million.
This enabled them to build their new headquarters; which, according to Larsen, the employees were able to help build.
Now after 36 years in the company and 23 years as General Manager, Larsen looks to experience life in Northern Wyoming—to be closer to his family in South Dakota—while still living in the state he loves. Larsen and his wife bought a home in Hulett, Wyoming and are planning to settle there. “I promised my dad about five years ago that when I retired, I would try to move a little closer, and that’s about as close as you can get and still be in Wyoming,” said Larsen.
“We will miss this community a lot. When you are involved in the community it is hard to walk away from that and go somewhere else but its time for a change and we are missing a lot of grandkid stuff … so we want to see some of that.”
According to Larsen, Waldner will do an excellent job as General Manager for CP&L. “We have been working together for a long time,” stated Larsen. “The employee group works so well together, on the senior staff level we work as a team, and that’s really good for Russ (Waldner) coming into that position because he knows exactly how we all work together and already recognizes what it takes to be the manager of the co-op because he has been involved with me on that team level.”
Waldner will be taking over the position as General Manager. Waldner had a background in mechanics after graduating high school and spent a decade working for Rocky Mountain Power Company; he has been working with CP&L for almost the past 24 years.
According to Waldner, his favorite part about his extensive time on the job thus far has been providing the community with the access to power that they would otherwise not have without CP&L. “Seeing infrastructure in place that wouldn’t be in place if it was for what you are doing … and how good it looks and how long it lasts.”
Although difficult, when lines sometimes can’t be provided to a location, he knows that the company does the best they can to get power to whom they can.
Generally, Waldner says he is hopeful about this new opportunity as General Manager of CP&L. “I am excited for the opportunity even though a little apprehensive—because Chuck (Larsen) has done it for so long and has done such a good job—you know it’s going to be difficult to match his performance.”
When discussing the legacy that Larsen has left on the company, Waldner was quick to talk about Larsen’s significant impact on the company as a whole. “Chuck (Larsen) is a great mentor, he has helped me from the day I was hired, he helped me learn things and he told me things I needed to improve on. So he has been a really good mentor. He will be a very hard act to follow; and as far as the employees and what he has done for the Carbon Power employee team, it will be very hard to do what he has done for this employee team since he has been here.”
Waldner believes his greatest struggle with the new position will be progressing in changing times without the guidance he has had for more than two decades. “I don’t see anything that has to change, we just need to keep on top of things like he (Larsen) has kept on top of things, and take care of those things that come forward so that we can continue on like we have since he’s been our manager.”
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