Funds from the Public Service Commission will help fund a new scholarship for students of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System.
The PSC 811 Damage Prevention Scholarship is a pool of $66,000 dollars. Students chosen will get $2,000 each, starting next academic year.
It will help train students to locate and manage underground utility lines. That includes those studying construction technology, plumbing technology and heavy equipment.
Brian Sizemore is a student with Hazard’s heavy equipment program. He says the money would help him buy needed supplies.
“The boots, the pants, some of this stuff is kind of expensive, so it's really going to help with that. Travel, I live about 30 minutes away. So it's going to help with gas, things like that,” Sizemore said.
It’s pooled from penalty fees paid to the PSC by organizations who dig where underground utility lines run. Striking lines can cause them to explode, which can cause personal injury and property damage.
PSC Chair Angie Hatton says the commission gets around 1,000 reports of struck lines each year.
“It usually takes just a day or so to get an answer about where it's safe to dig, even if you're just digging in your backyard, putting up a fence, something like that,” Hatton said. “It's so important that people call before they dig, and hopefully this scholarship is going to shed a little bit more light on that.”
The money from penalty fees usually goes to advertising campaigns asking workers to call before they dig.
The PSC says to call 811 before digging to make sure a project isn’t above any utility lines.
