Sen. Hinkins/Industrial Electric to receive lifetime achievement award from energy producers

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David Hinkins started out as a 22 year old opening a small motor rewind shop on Orangeville’s Main Street in 1976. He smiles when he talks about that old shop.
“It was a good place to start, but I don’t think the neighbors there enjoyed the noise we made grinding and welding much,” he said.
By 1978 they had grown enough that they moved to southwest Orangeville, the location where they are in business today. Growing from three employees who worked largely with local mines Industrial Electric Motor Service now employs 35 people and works with industry in many of the surrounding states.
“We work with about 30 mines in Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah,” said Hinkins as he walked through the main shop floor at Industrial Electric Motor Service. “We celebrated our 39th year in May.”
The company provides and repairs motors and pumps for mines, does control repair and custom controls and works with and provides some communication systems for mines. The company handles such lines as Flygt, Appalacian, Ocenco, Line Power, Baldor and Stancor.
Hinkins has other interests too. He has a ranch, works with cattle and has race horses. He is a the state senator from District 27 which encompasses much of eastern Utah including Carbon, Grand, San Juan and Emery counties.
The shop the company has is sprawling, and walking from department to department one can see that the employees take pride in what they are doing.
“We want to be sure what we send customers will work right for the application they need,” states Hinkins. “We rebuild motors so that they provide the power needed and make sure the paperwork on the tests we do on them go to the customer. Without the testing you can never be certain that even if a motor is rebuilt it will provide the power that is needed in a mine. It can be quite a deal if someone goes to all the trouble to install a motor in a mine and then find out it isn’t capable of what they need.”
Hinkins and his brothers come from a coal mining family, but also had a lot of agriculture in their blood as well. He credits his family and upbringing for a strong work ethic and willingness to try and succeed, for he and his brothers success. Education also helped.
“I went to Utah Valley Technical College and actually roomed with John Houston while I was in Provo,” he said. “That education was valuable.”
While not everyone can agree with all of anyone else’s politics, it’s hard to argue with success. That is what Industrial Electric achieved over the years.
Sen. Hinkins and Industrial Electric will be honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the annual Southeastern Utah Energy Producers banquet on Oct. 29.