AEP celebrates 60th birthday with day of family fun
AEP’s 60th birthday was celebrated on Aug. 26 with a huge party for past and present employees and their families. The Wesney family, Brandon and Brittany and children Kyndal, Easton, Kylan and Emersyn, were enjoying the bounce houses before getting (temporary) tattoos and snow cones. Jen Jones | Beacon
CONESVILLE – On Saturday, Aug. 26, AEP celebrated its 60th birthday with a huge party for the employees, both past and present, who keep the plant going every day. A barbecue dinner was available plus plant tours and plenty of activities for children.
Brandon Wesney is a 12 year employee of AEP. He said the company is good to its employees and always treats them well. “It’s great to plan a day for families so we can all get together and have fun,” Wesney said. “We have lots of opportunity here and many places don’t have that. Relaxing together is fun for the kids, too.” He brought his family – wife Brittany, son Easton, 11, and daughters Kyndal, 10, Kylan, 9, and Emersyn, 1. The kids were happily playing in the bounce houses.
All three of the older children said the “sports house” was the best. “Cause it has a slide,” said Kyndal. Kylan said it’s better because it bounces more and Easton believes it’s just the best one. Little Emersyn was having more fun with her balloon. The best flavor of snow cone was also up for discussion and what kind of (temporary) tattoo to get.
One of the retired employees attending the celebration was Bob Little. He started at the plant in 1968, when it was still Columbus and Southern. He was able to retire when AEP purchased the plant and has been retired for 30 years. Little said, “You couldn’t find a better place to work. We had the best supervisors and co-workers. I still miss them and always enjoyed coming to work. We were told what to do and we’d get it done and go see what else we needed to do. If a person wasn’t happy, there was something wrong with them, cause everyone here was great.”
Ten year employee, Darrell Conkle and his wife, Susan, were enjoying the lunch together. Conkle said he likes everything about his job. “There is great teamwork and people to work with.” He also said the plant manager, Ryan Forbes, has an open-door policy and is always available to listen to any employee. “You can’t ask for a nicer guy to work for. He shows appreciation to us for what we do and that makes coming to work even better.” Conkle also said the fact that supervisors know the names of employees and stop and ask how they are doing is great. Susan added, “There are good opportunities for career advancement here, too.”
AEP is a family affair for the Shrimplin family. Stacey Shrimplin-Kaser said, “This plant raised me – allowed me to be in 4-H and go to college. And now it’s doing the same for my kids.” Kaser’s husband, Tad, has worked at the plant for nine years and she worked there during the summers when she was in college. “We painted and sorted bolts – it was a great job for college kids.” Kaser’s dad, Dan Shrimplin, worked at AEP for 37 years and she also has an uncle and cousins who are employees now. “My childhood memories include so many of being here with these guys.”
Erich Skelley, operations manager, has been at the plant for 41 years. “We wanted to bring back as many retired employees as we could and have a fun day for families, too.”
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