Clark Public Utilities recently announced major changes to several policies, operations, and events related to the ongoing coronavirus situation.
Pursuant to a release, “Clark Public Utilities is committed to continuing to provide steady, safe service and responding to outages as quickly as possible. If you see our crews or employees in our neighborhood, please wave and smile but observe the six-foot social distancing recommendation to keep them healthy. Employees are only doing necessary work in the field – all maintenance and ongoing work has been suspended to limit travel through the community and field employees are taking care to stay clear of customers and sanitize in line with recommendations.”
Service disconnections have been suspended and no customers are without power or water. Any customer experiencing hardship (illness, loss of income, inability to pay using online/phone methods) should call, as criteria for payment assistance programs has been expanded.
Effective immediately, they have closed the in-person service desks at both locations, but phone, email and online is available 24/7. Any energy assistance appointments (or any other appointments with utility employees) currently scheduled will be conducted by phone, or rescheduled, and all future appointments will be phone appointments until the situation changes. Payment assistance remains available and these processes can be done without in-person contact, so please call if you have questions or concerns.
All large utility events (Home & Garden Idea Fair and Earth Day Fest) are canceled and smaller events are being updated as decisions are made (only very small, outdoor events where participants can remain six feet apart are being considered – all public health recommendations will continue to be followed as they change.) Anyone registered for an event will be receiving information from the organizer with updates.
According to the release, “We are continuing to carefully balance the work required to maintain our high level of service (both safe and reliable water and electricity, as well as 24-hour customer service on the phone and email) while keeping our customers and employees safe. We are in a quickly changing situation, however, and will continue to make adjustments as needed to provide the support both customers and employees need to stay healthy. We appreciate your patience and flexibility as we move through these next days and weeks.”
Outages should be reported as usual to 360-992-8000 or online using the outage reporting tool. Steps have been taken to ensure these critical employees continue this work along with our other first responders doing vital work in our communities.
