Do you ever wonder about the simple fact that when a switch is flipped, the lights turn on?
For a combined 55 years, two Mount Vernon men labored to produce that modern day fact.
Doug Pitlik spent his 38-year career at the 6th Street Power Station in Cedar Rapids. Chris Stoltz gave 17 years there.
Stoltz worked maintenance as “part of a team that repaired everything. We kept things running,” he proudly noted.
Pitlik was a Grain and Locomotive Engineer. He operated the small engine that moved coal from the adjacent railyard into the plant’s boilers.
“The super-heated boilers powered the turbines, producing 55 Megawatts of electricity. It also produced steam, a byproduct that heated Cedar Rapids’ downtown,” Pitlik furthered.
Tucked behind Quaker Oats near the Cedar River, Iowa Electric’s archaic, six story structure was an “expensive place to run,” said Pitlik. Built in 1888, it was terminally damaged by the 2008 flood and demolished in 2014.
“I watched the flood waters rise. Things exploded as water hit hot pipes and boilers,” Pitlik recalled, “the flood destroyed my personal locker which held my clothing, photographs, and boots.”
Life inside the 6th Street Station piqued Pitlik and Stoltz’s senses.
SOUND: Both remember the constant whine of eight turbines and the coal-fed boilers. Both wore ear protection, “though not everyone did,” Stoltz observed. “The boilers roared like constant thunder,” Pitlik said.
SIGHT: Safety glasses were required. The building’s cavernous interior was of extreme light and dark due to large window banks and deep recesses in which equipment was housed.
SMELL: “No ‘weird’ smells, just dusty-like,” explained Stoltz, adding “it didn’t smell like burning coal.” Pitlik described the plant’s air as “fine dust. My nose always had black coming out.”
TOUCH: “We wore gloves. The coal dust was always there,” said Pitlik.
“With lots of hot stuff we had to be careful,” Stoltz added, “when working on hot items, we were isolated. It was a dangerous place.”
Pitlik remembered the plant’s intense heat, “on upper floors the air temperature reached 120 degrees.”
TASTE: Neither Stoltz nor Pitlik recall any ‘conventional’ taste in the building. However, their remembered ‘taste’ was almost identical. Both described the station as a “great place to work that paid well.
“Iowa Electric was good to me, good pay, good benefits, I had a good job. No regrets,” Stoltz concluded.
“A lot of people take electricity for granted. They flip a switch and lights come on. People don’t know where electricity comes from,” Pitlik observed.
Doug Pitlik and Chris Stoltz were part of a hard-working team who brought electrical comfort to our modern day lives.
“Just like everyone else, I flipped a switch and didn’t know there was a power plant. It was a rude awakening,” Stoltz observed. “Making electricity takes a great effort.”
Bob Campagna is a local photographer and writer. His email is: [email protected].
In his acreage north of town Doug Pitlik stands with his 38-panel solar array.