Newsy

It's a busy news day today! Stories cover outages, bills & payment arrangements, water main breaks and trolleys!

Yesterday got pretty windy and we had scattered outages throughout the city. The weather caused outages to about 8,800 total MLGW customers with a high point of about 5,500 outages yesterday afternoon. Power has been restored to all but a handful of these customers.

This morning, mlgwglen interviewed with local radio personalities Drake and Zeke on 98.1 The Max. Customer bills and payment arrangements were the primary subjects of the interview.

If you missed it, they will replay it this evening. However, mlgwglen provided the following information:

• Customers typically see higher bills in the winter and summer because heating/cooling system use more energy during periods of more extreme temperatures.

• Customers receiving high bills should review their consumption totals rather than simply focusing on the overall amount of the bill.

• Each year, MLGW implements a moratorium on cutoffs from December 15-January 14.

• To help accommodate customers after the expiration of MLGW's annual moratorium on cut-offs on Jan. 14, our call center has expanded its hours of operation to include Saturdays from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m.

• Each Saturday from Feb. 5 until March 5, after which it will return to regular business hours (7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday).

• If customers are having trouble paying their bills, we ask that they contact us so that we can review their options.

In other news, a water main break occurred this morning at S. Third and Interstate 55. Water from the main created ice on the road and two car accidents were reported in the area. Police and TDOT closed the eastbound ramp entering Interstate 55 from S. Third. MLGW continues to repair broken the 10" main, which was likely caused by the drop in temperature last evening. Repairs should be complete this afternoon.

And finally, the Commercial Appeal has a story on the Madison Trolley repairs. The system was shut down last year due to its adverse effects on MLGW's underground services in the area, but if all goes well it will reopen in four weeks. Read the story here.