A desire to work outside, a plan to graduate without student debt, and a recommendation from a family member drew two brothers to the Northeast Community College utility line program.
Their training and work ethic have helped both advance to leadership positions in the state’s utility industry.
Throughout their childhood, Scott and Matt Fritz grew up in Brown and Knox County. Scott graduated from Ainsworth Public School and Matt from Creighton Community Schools.
Scott is now a transmission supervisor for Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD). Matt is the general manager of the Niobrara Valley Electric Membership Corporation, headquartered in O’Neill.
“I enjoyed working outside,” Scott explained, “but there really wasn’t a place for me to go back to the farm. My uncle, Chris Fritz, was already enrolled in utility line school here at Northeast. He reached out to me and said ‘Hey, I think you would enjoy this.’ ”
Matt is eight years younger than Scott.
“He had already graduated from college when I was in the seventh grade,” Matt said. “I saw the opportunities he was able to get with that kind of career and that pushed me in that direction.”
“I went to school for two years,” Matt continued. “I enjoyed it. I make more money with a two-year associate degree than others who went to a four-year college and have debt. I had no debt. It really is a good opportunity if you are willing to work.”
Scott graduated from the Northeast utility line program in 1993. He worked briefly in Iowa, then joined NPPD. He is currently the transmission supervisor for an area in Northeast Nebraska that includes 1,200 miles of transmission line and is bordered by the communities of Ainsworth, North Loup, Fullerton, Columbus, Fremont, Sioux City and the Fort. Randall and Gavins Point hydroelectric dams.
Matt graduated from Northeast in 2001. He worked as a lineman in training for NPPD on the transmission crew in North Platte for a year, then in Lincoln for about nine months before he was asked to consider coming back home to Creighton to work for North Central Public Power District. Over a period of 19 years, he went from apprentice to journeyman, then safety director and assistant operations manager.
The manager of North Central Public Power at that time was the late Keith Harvey, a long-time member of the Northeast Community College Board of Governors.
“He was big on continuing education,” Matt said. “The program was open to anyone who wanted to do it and paid 100% tuition and books.”
Matt came back to Northeast to earn a one-year business management diploma, followed by a bachelor’s degree from Bellevue University in 2014, and a master’s degree two years later.
“In 2021 an opportunity came up in O’Neill when the manager there retired,” Matt said. “I was offered that position and have been there almost four years now.”
In their current positions, both Scott and Matt hire utility linemen, and they both give high marks to the Northeast two-year program.
“The internship and extra year of school that Northeast requires just gives them a leg up,” Matt said. “They seem to come to work more prepared. The learning curve isn’t as steep. That internship is worth its weight in gold.”
Scott agreed.
“We get a ‘test drive’ with students during the internship,” he said.
When asked about favorite memories of their time at Northeast, the brothers both spoke of their instructors.
“They were hard on us, weeded us out.” Scott said. “But they helped us thrive,”
“One thing I liked about the instructors,” Matt added, “is they were relatable. They wanted to teach you, wanted to help you. They had real world experience.”
A favorite activity during training for Scott and Matt was playing catch with softball gloves– at the top of utility poles.
“If someone had a bad throw,” Matt said, “that person – and you – had to go down the pole. You went up and down a lot of times. It makes you comfortable at the top of a pole.”
Matt stressed that climbing a pole is not the only job open to graduates of the Northeast utility line program. He said you might wire a cabinet one day and be digging underground another.
“Technology has really infiltrated this business,” he said.
In his position with NPPD, Scott speaks at a lot of high school career days.
“I tell them the best resource is right here in Northeast Nebraska,” he said. “You can learn a trade and go to work within two years. You don’t need a four-year degree or a lot of debt to be successful.”
Scott and his wife, Jennifer, live south of Plainview and have three sons. One just graduated from the electrical mechanical program at Northeast and a second is currently enrolled in the program. Their youngest son attends Pierce High School.
Matt and his wife, Amber, have three daughters. The oldest is a student at Wayne State, while the younger two attend West Holt Schools in Atkinson, where the family lives.
Northeast Community College encourages all alumni to share their stories by visiting northeast.edu/giving/alumni.
Fritz Brothers, Utility Line
Matt and Scott Fritz, two brothers who graduated from the Northeast Community College line program, have worked into supervisory roles in the utility industry. (Northeast Community College)
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