Editorial

Editorial

Turning up the heat

At last week’s Town Council meeting, employees of the utility companies serving the town heard from some of the residents about what they feel are inadequacies in service. The representatives from Centel and Potomac Edison heard an earful from residents who have put up with what they consider poor service for some time.

It’s an old complaint, and one which the utilities don’t seem to take very seriously. Maybe it’s time they did.

Granted, some of the complaints probably involve matters which are beyond the utilities’ control. After all, they can’t be held responsible every time someone gets a wrong number, or the power goes off at an inopportune moment.

But it seems that Washington has more than its share of problems with telephone service, particularly during ; prolonged wet spells. The switching equipment often seems to suffer from a case of “the damps,” making connections difficult and sometimes impossible.

The Rappahannock News office has had the unpleasant experience of the power going off without warning, causing the loss of files on computer terminals. The law office next door has had the same experience.

Again, Potomac Edison can’t be blamed for every power failure. But, in these cases, we later found that the outage was planned, so that the company could replace transformers ; near the offices. Wouldn’t it have been possible to notify ‘ customers in advance, or perhaps do the work after business hours? .

A member of the Council complained last year tKat tree trimmers working for the utility cut trees on his property without permission. According to him, the property owner is supposed to be notified before trimming is done. Again, why can’t the utility consider its customers? Sometimes trimming trees to allow clearance for lines is unavoidable, but can’t the crews work to accommodate the property owners when possible?

Late last year, the Council approved a permit for an underground installation of an electric service, and authorized the town to pay whatever expenses were not covered by Potomac Edison’s credit to the homeowner for not having to erect a service pole. The company refused to issue a credit, leaving the town to pick up the entire tab. Since the utility saved itself the cost of installing the pole, why wasn’t that savings passed on?

After making a point of its policy of not requiring other customers to pay for additional costs incurred by underground installation, shouldn’t the reverse also be true for customers who save the utility money?

Granted, the town has only a few hundred residents, and the county only a few thousand. We are, in the words of one resident at the hearing, “a small town in your big pond.”

But we are customers, and we do pay for services. The government has granted a monopoly to the utility companies. It’s not like buying gas — if we don’t like the electric service we can’t take our business to the station down the street.

It seems that the utilities should recognize the special responsibility which they owe in return for their guaranteed business, and attempt to serve their customers with courtesy and thoughtfulness. If they’re going to make their customers pay for any additional expenses, shouldn’t those same customers be credited when they save the company money?

We’re behind the Town Council in requesting action from the utilities. Promises of maintenance schedules and service upgrades have been made. The residents of the Town of Washington expect those promises to be kept.