Today, the Eugene Water and Electric Board – or EWEB -- is holding an open house to let customers weigh in on their response to last month’s ice storm.
It left more than 21,000 people without power, and taxed nearly 30 regional utility crews for more than a week.
EWEB spokesman Joe Harwood says they’ll also bring up “smart meters”…low-wattage devices that can automatically alert the utility if a customer loses power.
”We think it’s time to bring the utility into the 21st century like other utilities. Not only in this area but up in Portland and Salem, and other places," says Harwood.
"Also at this open house, it’ll give folks an opportunity to update their EWEB accounts. If they’ve gotten rid of their land line like so many of us have, that their cell phone is a primary number, that way they can report an outage from that cell phone.”
The EWEB open house is from 4-6pm at 500 East 4th Avenue in Eugene.
People can also provide feedback on EWEB’s website.