Evergreen Implement employment can mean a variety of experiences

OTHELLO — Since he took employment with Evergreen Implement of Othello, Andy Garza has had a variety of experiences. Next week he’ll add public speaking.

Garza and Curtis will give a presentation on safety around the potato piler at the Spanish session of the Oregon-Washington Potato Conference at Kennewick on Jan. 24.

This will be Evergreen’s first presentation at the Conference, Garza said. The company chose do one because of accidents with pilers in recent years. The presentation will be done bilingually.

“Kurtis and I will be speaking about piler dangers, such as snag and pinch points, and the importance of being trained on the equipment’s dangers and abilities,” Garza said.

Garza said certain steps should be taken when testing equipment, such as making sure equipment is clear of people or any other dangers when running or moving it, making sure safety shields are always installed and all electrical guards and wires are in good condition.

“Make sure when any repair is being made that the machine is disconnected,” Garza said.

Born in Royal City, Garza has lived in the area his entire life except for education at distant places. His first job was spraying weeds with a backpack pump sprayer on the edges of onion fields.

When Garza was older, he worked with his dad at the same farm, He did everything from swathing mint to driving combine and grain cart. He repaired equipment and worked with his brother in swathing and bailing hay.

After graduating from Royal High, Garza went to UTI Universal Technical Institute (UTI) in Houston, Texas and studied diesel/industrial and automotive programs. Graduating, he came back to Washington and started working at Evergreen Implement. As part of his training, he went to Walla Walla Community College and went through the John Deere Ag Tech Program.

At Evergreen Implement Garza started in the service department. He set up and prepared tractors for sale and set wheel spacing. He also washed and cleaned tractors.

“Then I moved to the implement side of the service department, where I would help set up tillage equipment and potato diggers,” Garza said. “I also worked on combine set up and repairs.”

Later Garza moved into the tractor service shop. Then he placed in a service truck and went on tractor service calls. Last year he was moved into the AMS department.

“That consists of me selling and repairing GPS units for Deere equipment and helping with set-ups and questions customers have,” he said. “We also work on other John Deere and non John Deere technologies from rate controllers, field connect, operations center, tillage and planter fertilizer and chemical rate control equipment.”