Apprentice lineman Jordan Togstad held a toy bird on a miniature power pole Wednesday and, as soon as he touched its wing to a second wire, sparks flew off its feathers.
"When he spreads his wings and goes across two wires, he creates a path for the electricity," Togstad said.
Togstad and Ben West, lineman for the city of Loveland, demonstrated how electricity works during the 12th annual City of Loveland Children's Day event, presented by the city of Loveland and Thompson School District. They showed what happens when a ladder touches a power line, a car hits a power pole and a piece of equipment hits an underground wire at the Loveland Water and Power safety booth.
"Electricity always wants to go to ground," Togstad said.
Using a model of the distribution system for electricity, Tori Mitchell, office support specialist for Loveland Water and Power, explained what happens when electricity is stepped down from the power plant to the substation and then to industrial, business and residential areas.
"It's cool to see a visualization of how their power came from the power plant," Mitchell said. "Finally, it makes it all the way to your house."
This year, Children's Day moved from downtown Loveland to Civic Center Park with booths at the Civic Center and the Foote Lagoon, storytime at the Loveland Public Library, arts and crafts at the Chilson Recreation Center and touch-a-truck at the library parking lot.
"It's cool. You never get to be in them," said 10-year-old Trinity Dunham about sitting in the various city trucks.
City employees stood by two firetrucks, a recycle truck, a road grader, a snow plow, a cherry picker and other city vehicles to answer questions about their features and purposes. Children could climb into the vehicles, as long as they didn't stand too high off the ground, or had an extensive amount of computer equipment inside.
Five-year-old Ava Flanscha sat inside one of the fire engines from the Loveland Fire Department to look at the equipment.
"There's a lot of flashlights, and it can put out fires," the Loveland girl said, adding that her favorite part was seeing a city map on a computer. "If you don't have a map, you can't find anything."
Four-year-old Kylee King also had a turn sitting in the fire engine.
"It was big seats. It was a computer," she said.
Fire department engineer Janet Probst stood by the back of the engine to point out the two generators and the tools, all labeled and hanging in assigned places, used for fire and other rescues.
"They're so excited because everything is so heavy," Probst said. "Firefighters are known for breaking into things, and it's just fun to see the tools we use to do that."
Ryan Biermann, paint crew leader for traffic, answered questions about the thermo truck, which uses a thermo plastic material, instead of paint, to put down bike lanes, crosswalks and parking spaces. The city uses paint only for long white and yellow lines, he said.
Thermo plastic is more precise and lasts longer than paint, three to five years on average to one year, Biermann said.
"We heat it up ... and it bonds with the oil in the asphalt," he said.
Contact Staff Writer Shelley Widhalm at 970-669-5050 ext. 531 or firstname.lastname@example.org