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Dec 14 , 2009
If you’re anything like my two kids (OK, me too), you’ve been anxiously anticipating the pending snow and disappointed by the wimpy dusting of snow we received last night in Spokane and Coeur d'Alene. Now, ask me again if I’m excited about the snow after digging my car out of a ditch or spending hours shoveling the driveway or sidewalk and I might be singing a different tune.
But, at least today – pre-snow – I’m excited.
Snow in the Northwest, at least over the last few years, hasn’t been all that friendly. It comes like a led blanket filling the streets and making travel plans slower, if not non-existent. We bought new tires for my wife’s car this weekend and those chains we bought last year are still in the trunk, hopefully for good.
The snow blower is prepped and ready to do the heavy lifting. I got a funny look from my 4-year-old when I pulled the noisy contraption out of the shed in October and fired it up – you know, “just in case.” Better to be over-prepared, I said. She told me not to block in her Barbie Jeep in the garage with my snow blower. Fair enough.
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What you can't see in this picture
is that the snow piles on either side
of this gas meter are about 30 feet
high. | We never had a regularly-in-operation snow blower when I was growing up. Excluding me, of course. The driveway also had those pesky little blacktop bumps that always seemed to mess up my rhythm and jam the shovel into my gut when I got going too fast. I can still feel the handle of that wood and plastic shovel that I cursed every snow day for ruining my fort building and sledding.
But alas, I’ve graduated to a real snow blower that’s pushing five years now - a gift from my mom one December. And no, it didn’t make up for not having a snow blower for the 18 years I lived at home. It was close though, especially over the last two years of record-breaking snow.
The point of my trip down this snowy memory lane is to remind you to keep a clear path to your electric and gas meters. If you miss it on the first big snow, you might never remember to do it. One shovel-wide path is enough. I job-shadowed a meter reader this summer and saw how tough it was to get to some of the meters. Some people tend to pile up leftover items on the side of their houses, making the trip to the meter a treacherous one. Now pile on a foot of snow and it multiples the danger.
It’s not just meter readers that need to get to your meter. Gas and electric service personnel may also need to access your meter this winter – and that’s a safety issue for your whole house.
So, believe me when I say that I know how much work it is to keep the snow in its place, a safe distance from sidewalks, driveways, walkways and to your utility meters. Yet, I think a little extra effort is certainly worth the peace of mind it can bring you.
Let it snow.
Dec 11 , 2009
We sent out this media release today, but I think our blog readers would benefit from reading it too.
Avista is encouraging customers to be alert to scams this holiday season and to play it safe by verifying any request for confidential information.
Keep in mind that Avista employees do not phone customers asking for confidential information, including credit card numbers. If such a call is received, the customer should end the call and notify Avista at (800) 227-9187 or online at www.avistautilities.com. Also, Avista does not send e-mail messages to customers requesting account or personal information.
To protect personal property, customers should also be alert to Avista’s field practices. Field employees always wear Avista photo ID badge, and often will be wearing Avista apparel and driving a clearly marked Avista vehicle. Employees typically do not need access to a customer’s home or business unless the customer has contacted Avista about a specific problem. Customers may contact Avista at any time to verify the identification of an employee.
“The trust of our customers is important,” said Sandy Dragstedt, customer service manager for Avista. “We want to make sure our customers have the information they need to help protect themselves and their personal property from scams.”
Oct 09 , 2009
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My gas meter and new
concrete work. Click to
enlarge. |
So, a funny thing happened to me this week. Dan_at_Avista, the guy who talks about Avista online, became Dan – the Avista troubled gas customer. Let me say first, that everything turned out great, but had some knowledgeable employees not inspected my gas meter, I could have been in a world of hurt.
It turns out that six years ago when we built our house (years before I ever worked for Avista), the concrete crew that poured the path around my garage to the backyard made a pretty big mistake. My natural gas meter is attached to the side of my garage, right on the paved sidewalk. Unbeknownst to me they paved right over the lower shutoff valve. I had no idea this was covered, since I’m no gas meter expert and I’d never had any problems or the need to shut off gas to my house.
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A close up of the uncovered
valve. Click to enlarge. |
As you can see from the pictures, if you didn’t know the valve was buried, you’d never know it was there. Full disclosure: there is another shutoff valve on the top of the meter that feeds into the house, so had an emergency occurred and the fire department or Avista needed to shut off service to the house, they could have. But I’d certainly rather have every option available.
A few weeks back, during a routine inspection of meters, Avista noticed the issue and created a service order to have it fixed. A Customer Project Coordinator checked it out Tuesday, left a detailed door hanger, business card and called and left me a message explaining the safety situation and that he was scheduling a crew to cut out the concrete under the meter to free up the valve in the next day or so.
I got a call yesterday from the crew on site, letting me know they were going to shutoff my gas service to perform the concrete cuts. They wanted to know when it was convenient for me to have a Gas Serviceman return to my house and re-light my appliances. They scheduled the re-light for a little after the time I usually get home.
So, when I got home last night I called our customer service department to double check that I was scheduled for a re-light that night. Indeed I was, and the serviceman was on his way. Sure enough, about 3 minutes after I got off the phone, my co-worker showed up.
After explaining to me what work had been done at the meter he came inside and re-lit my furnace and water heater. Unfortunately, I did get a stern look when he pulled out my air filter, that hadn’t been changed in a few months. “This is costing you money,” he said. Plugged/dirty air filters make your system work harder to heat the home – information I already knew, but had ignored in my laziness. (I’ll be picking up some new filters on the way home tonight, promise.)
In the end, I’ve learned a few things over the last three days. First, the Avista customer service that we talk about so much is alive and well. There’s no flag on my account that says “be nice to this one because he’s an employee,” this is how we treat everyone. Second, I was impressed with how quickly this issue was fixed once it was discovered. And finally, I need to keep better track of when to swap out my furnace filter.
Do you have a good Avista story you can share? Drop me a note in the comments section.
Sep 11 , 2009
As much as we dislike having planned power outages, with the number of infrastructure improvement projects we’re working on for customers, some planned outages are necessary. They create a safe working environment for our crews. One such project will impact around 2,700 customers in the Lake Roosevelt area in Stevens and Ferry counties in about a week.
The outage will occur on consecutive Thursdays: Sept. 17, Sept. 24, Oct. 1 and Oct. 8 – and will last from 10 p.m. until 4 a.m.
As we said last week in regards to a planned outage in Coeur d’Alene, it’s time to check the batteries in your alarm clock or figure out how to set the alarm on your cell phone (my favorite choice). If your boss reads this blog, you’ll have no excuse for showing up late to work on Friday morning. And trust me, you can’t know if they read us or not!
Our Colville Operations Manager Marshall Law said in a news release today, “This upgrade will ensure that we’re able to reliably meet the energy needs of our customers in this area for years to come.”
So what does improved reliability mean? In this case new, taller steel poles are replacing existing wood poles along Addy-Gifford Road. So we’re moving the exiting power lines to the new structures. With the added height of the lines, inclement weather and trees are less likely to cause outages. The new structures also mean the lines can carry additional power to meet the growing needs of our customers in Stevens and Ferry counties.
You may receive a flier from us about this outage, see a notice in the paper or even get a phone call. Click here for a map of the outage area.
Areas that will be impacted by the planned outages are:
• Stevens County – Cedonia, Daisy, Fruitland, Gifford, Hunters, Rice, Two River and West End. Also, the Summit Valley area west of the Addy Gifford Road and Swiss Valley Road intersection, including Addy Gifford Road, Addy Cedonia Road, Summit Valley Roads, Swiss Valley Road, Clark Lake Road, Egland Road, Gilson Road, Forsland Road, Grimm Road, Burgess Road, and other side roads in the Summit Valley area.
• Ferry County – Inchelium area from Nine Mile Creek north
Sep 03 , 2009
Avista will begin lowering the water level at Lake Coeur d’Alene and the Spokane River behind Post Falls Dam on Tuesday, September 8 in accordance with its new Federal Energy Regulatory Commission license.
Avista manages the lake level to prepare for spring runoff, to mitigate flooding in the winter and to optimize power production. The drawdown will take several months to complete.
Aug 11 , 2009 Unless you’re really, really into digging holes, you might not be aware that today is National 811 Call Before You Dig Awareness Day. Take note, today is 08-11, pretty tricky, huh?
The “call before you dig” idea is that if you are planting trees or shrubs, or installing a fence, mailbox post, deck footing, or sprinkler system, one dig with a shovel or backhoe could strike a buried natural gas or electric line. Simply put, that’s bad and dangerous. Every digging project, big or small should begin two days prior with a call to 811, so a professional locator can come out to your property and locate your underground utility lines so you can avoid them when you dig.
Each year more than 250,000 unintentional dig-ins occur. If you don’t want to be a statistic, call 811 two days before you dig.
Aug 06 , 2009
The Coeur d’Alene Press ran a good story today about floating on the Spokane River. They even got in some safety messages from one of my co-workers, Anna Scarlett. Seeing as we’ve been hitting the 90s for about two weeks now, hanging out on the shores of the river or floating down on a tube seems really, really enticing. I saw some kids splashing around the shore earlier this week, just off the Centennial Trail – not a care in the world and not a parent to be found either. Don’t let the cool water fool you. A quick dip isn’t worth injuring yourself and playing or floating upstream of a dam is a big no-no. So, for you parents out there, take note of these safety tips and make sure your kids (and you), know the rules. Read Safety Around Dams from the Avista Utilities website. Shutting off the fallsYou might have also heard in the news yesterday that we shut off the flow of water at the Monroe Street Dam to aid fire and law enforcement officials in searching the area for a potential swimmer in danger. The water was slowed for just a few hours and word is that searchers came up empty, which in this case was probably a good thing. Read the Spokesman-Review story here. You’ll need a Spokesman login to read the whole thing.
Read the Coeur d’Alene Press story, “ Lazy River,” by reporter Rick Thomas.
Read the Spokesman-Review story, “ River scare stalls traffic,” by Thomas Clouse. You’ll need a Spokesman login to read the whole thing. Jul 23 , 2009 There’s no doubt about it – it’s hot out there. Doesn’t matter if you’re in Spokane, Colville or Lewiston – all across Avista’s service territory, it’s hot. But more importantly it is dry. Every summer we hear about wildfires and the brave efforts of fire crews to save homes and lives by keeping fires at bay. While fires can be caused by any number of things, there is one simple way that we’re trying to help eliminate the threat of fires – and that is by making temporary changes to our operations concerning power lines.
There is a chance when a power line goes down, for any number of reasons, that it could potentially spark a fire. Our system is set up to maximize reliability, so there are mechanisms on most power lines that sense if the line has issues, such as when a tree branch falls on the line. Typically the line tries to automatically reenergize – so power can quickly be restored to customers. You might experience this as a blink or two of your lights.
During dry conditions like this summer, we change how certain lines operate to attempt to limit fire danger when reenergizing the power line. So, as of today, certain lines, typically those located in rural and/or forested areas, will no longer be reenergized automatically. Instead, line personnel may have to physically patrol the outage area before the line is placed back into service.
So, what does this mean for you? It could mean that if your home or business has a power outage, it may be a bit longer than usual to get your power back on. Physically patrolling the lines takes time – but it’s certainly worth it to be cautious during such dry conditions.
We appreciate your patience during this time. We will return the distribution system to normal as soon as weather permits.
Jul 20 , 2009
If you’re out and about near the Nine Mile Dam today, you might notice some crews installing a new safety cable in the water.
The cable was broken by floating debris during the high runoff period in April, causing authorities to close the section of river between Plese Flats and the dam. Continuing high water levels have prevented crews from safely replacing the cable until now.
As this is a work in progress, please keep your distance. We expect that once the cable is in place the river, Spokane County will re-open it for recreation.
If I get some pictures of the replacement work, I’ll post them this week.
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