Village electric head retired early March

Al Livingston, 57, superintendent of Freeport Electric since 2014, retired last month.

Livingston’s career with the village began in 1990. He had just gone on reserve from the U.S. Marine Corps, in which he served as a combat lineman, after studying computer science and engineering at St. John’s University and New York Institute of Technology. Then 24, he went to work for the village, starting as a lineman’s apprentice.

Linemen are responsible for running electrical wires — either underground or overhead, along utility poles — as well as for maintaining the transformers on those poles, in order to keep the village lit up and make it possible for residents to communicate.

For five years Livingston worked as an apprentice under the watchful eyes of his mentors, Freeport Electric’s foremen, until he was promoted to journeyman.

“I had some really knowledgeable foremen that taught me the business,” he recalled of those early years, “taught me what I needed to do, how to do it, (and) how to do it safely. I credit those guys with keeping me alive.”

Eventually he became a foreman himself, and taught new apprentices the trade. “I wasn’t the best,” Livingston said, “but I think I was very close.”

He found the work gratifying and rewarding, citing the “satisfaction of knowing that you’re bringing power to the residents of Freeport.” He added, “Our mission statement was to bring safe, reliable, economical power to the people of Freeport … so that’s what we did.”

Livingston and his colleagues’ dedication to reliability meant that most of the time they “worked things hot,” opting not to interrupt power to residents while they did repairs or maintenance, thus substantially upping the risk factor of that work in order to avoid inconveniencing customers. And they worked fast as well: The average response time to a power outage in the village, according to Livingston, is eight minutes.

Eventually, around 2004, seeking to branch out, he shifted his focus to engineering, becoming a junior engineer and once again taking on the role of mentee. He completed his engineering degree from New York Tech in 2005 and became the village electrical system’s operational coordinator. In 2014, he became superintendent.

A major part of Livingston’s work was helping to build and upgrade the LM 6000 engine housed in Power Plant 2 in the industrial district — an engine designed for use in a jet plane that is capable, in certain weather conditions, of powering the entire village. A 50-megawatt generator that runs on liquid fuel and natural gas, it is the pride of the utility.

Livingston also helped coordinate major storm-recovery projects after Hurricane Sandy in 2012, which included a massive overhaul of the underground cables through which Freeport draws up to 25 percent of its power. Originally laid along the bottom of Freeport Creek, they were relocated 30 feet underground, mitigating the possibility of damage if and when another massive storm rolls through.

The new cables will “last way more than my lifetime,” Livingston said, sounding satisfied with a job well done.

Now, he faces his next great challenge: retirement. Born in 1966 in Brooklyn, he moved with his family to Roosevelt when he was 3. He spent most of his life there before he and his wife Beth moved to Freeport in 1992. Both of their children live in the village, and Livingston is looking forward to enjoying himself, and his family.

“I’m still getting up early in the morning,” he said wryly of his retirement. “It’s new, and I’m getting used to it slowly but surely.

“I’m going to take a couple months,” he added. “I’m going to relax, then I’m going to re-evaluate and see if I want to do some consulting, or something like that. I’m not the person that can just sit around.”

“Al has been … a great superintendent of the electric department,” Mayor Robert Kennedy said. “His shoes are going to be hard to fill. … He did such a great job.”