power Trip

WASILLA — “Is there a guy here I can talk to?” is the question Scotty Lamkin says “just tickles me to death.”

That’s because the query is usually aimed at his wife, Sherry, a sales associate for Husky Electrical Supply in Wasilla. What those men don’t know is she’s also an experienced licensed electrician.

“Oh yeah, a lot of the guys don’t think right away that a woman can be an electrician,” Sherry said.

In an industry typically dominated by men, she said it usually doesn’t take long to convince her male counterparts of her expertise.

“A lot of the guys who come in here are electricians and know their stuff, and she can stand back there and play ball with them,” said Scotty, who is also the operations manager at Husky. “They love it.”

It’s a reaction Sherry is used to and it doesn’t affect her easy smile or passion for her profession. Perhaps that’s because she grew up around the building trades and is comfortable talking the industry talk and walking the industry walk.

“I have two older brothers and my father was a handyman and did all kinds of building and stuff,” she said. “I was always around it. My father did all kinds of trade work and my brothers were house builders.”

Sherry strapped on her tool belt at age 22 and spent years as an apprentice wiring houses and doing commercial work before earning her license six years ago.

“I did remodels and repairs at first, then wiring houses,” she said.

It was the commercial end of the industry that opened her eyes to how diverse the profession can be. She spent time doing a big job for the U.S. Army wiring target dummies for the tank range at Fort Knox, Ky.

When she goes out to job sites, one common reaction from customers is, “‘Oh, you’re doing it?’” Sherry said. “That would be the reaction a lot of times. They think it’s really cool that a woman would even consider doing the trade.”

She’s been helping Valley residents and electricians at Husky for the past three years, and for the most part has earned a good reputation among the mostly male clientele.

“It’s a hard trade, I think, and not for everyone,” she said. “A woman doesn’t have the (physical) strength a man does, so there are times you need to say, ‘hey, I need a little help here.’”

Once Sherry opens her mouth, any doubts a woman can be an electrician goes out the window, Scotty said.

“She did have that man-woman block to get over,” he said. “But it’s like Martin Buser said just yesterday when he was here: ‘That woman knows her stuff.’ She knows it so well the word’s got around. It’s just like any lady in any male-dominated field, like truck driver.”

Keeping up with local and state building codes is important for any electrician, Sherry said, as well as consumer trends.

“Right now, people want to go green,” she said. “Now is a big time for us because it’s going into darkness here.”

Another trend is in commercial buildings and homes that use standard tube fluorescent lights. Those four-foot bulbs can be replaced with strips of LED lights, which offer several benefits, she said. The LED lights don’t need ballasts like traditional fixtures use, which can get hot and become a fire hazard. They consume less energy and last for years.

The advice she has for homeowners looking for an electrician is simple — hire a licensed one.

“Licensed means they carry a license in their pocket that says they meet the state standards, keep up with the industry, pay their dues and have their hours in,” she said. “If you want to sell a house again, it all has to be up to code. The codebook, that’s the electrician’s bible. If it doesn’t pass code, you’re not getting the job done and you’re not getting paid.”

Husky Electrical Supply owner Cathy Carr and Sherry are women who have earned the respect of the Valley tradesmen, Scotty said. But any doubt the local electrical trade appreciates a woman’s touch can be snuffed each Friday at Husky, where Carr and Lamkin serve up homemade lunch to customers.

“They all come in for that,” Scotty said. “Come lunch time, you’ll see all the tradesmen coming in here to grab something to eat.”

Contact Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.