I.C. King Park closed through May

KUB and its contractor, Southeast Connections, will close I.C. King Park starting Monday, March 2, and lasting through May 2015, as work is completed in this area for the South Loop Natural Gas Pipeline Installation Project, according to a county news release.

In cooperation with Knox County Parks and Recreation, and to ensure the public’s safety, the entire park will be closed as construction is in progress. Barricades and signage are in place at the park’s entrances to notify visitors of the closure.

This project will provide a portion of the connecting pipeline that will allow the University of Tennessee to convert its coal-fired steam plant to natural gas by late 2015. This plant conversion will remove the second largest source of airborne pollution in East Tennessee, and will be the equivalent of taking 7,000 passenger vehicles off the road each day. Additionally, this pipeline will improve the overall reliability of KUB’s natural gas distribution system, and allow for future natural gas demands.

KUB will post regular updates throughout the project on its website at www.kub.org, and on the KUB Facebook page. Additionally, KUB has set up a blog RIGHT HERE to keep customers informed about project milestones. Customers can send their e-mail address to blog@kub.org (please reference South Loop in the subject line) to receive updates on the project. Customers can also call 558-2331 after normal business hours to leave a message that will be followed-up with a call from a KUB representative by the end of the next business day.

Power back on for 'substantial amount of customers' by midnight Wednesday

Scene from Southwest Knoxville

Some 13,000 Knox County residents are still without power as of 11:15 a.m. because of the ice storm that swept through the area, but KUB officials say they expect to have a “substantial amount of customers” back on by midnight Wednesday.

During a 15 minute news conference, Gabriel Bolas, an incident commander with the utility company, said KUB has 60 crews working rotating 16-hour shifts, but it’s taking some time to navigate many of the roads to get to the downed lines.

He said the company’s call centers also are fully staffed, but the payment centers are closed, so no one will be cut off due to a non-payment.

He noted that officials were looking at a “multi-day event” before everyone is back online and that at the peak, some 21,000 customers were without power. He said crews focused first on critical care facilities, which they’ve taken care of, and then mix in the areas with the largest outages and those that have been shut down the longest.

“Damage has been pretty significant,” Bolas said. “So far, we’re getting around OK, but it’s slower than normal.”

Bill Elmore, chief operating officer for KUB, said customers so far have been “appreciative” and “appear to be understanding.”

“The fact that it hit early yesterday morning and continued into the night meant the restoration effort was an ongoing one, and as we were restoring power, additional outages were occurring,” he said.

KUB also is working closely with the city, county and state Department of Transportation.

Full Story RIGHT HERE.

KUB to 'Round It Up' starting in May

KUB has launched a pilot program in which it will round up customers' bills to the next dollar, and then give some folks "long-term sustainable funding to fix weatherization," according to Leslie, one of my new peeps, at WBIR.

The initiative - called "Round It Up" - will start in May.

President & CEO Mintha Roach emphasizes this is not some kind of freeloader program, and that 100 percent of the coin will go to construction and repairs for low-income homeowners and renters in our community.

So, based on the numbers, the maximum contribution in a year would not exceed $11.88 per customer, and KUB, which is teaming up with the city and the Knoxville-Knox County CAC, says the average would be about $6 for most people each year. (Those aforementioned groups by the way will help evaluate homes of those in need and determine what improvements should be made.)

Some folks have complained about the automatic rollover. Actually, I'm not gonna mince words: Some folks are flat out livid about the "opt out" program. You know, the principle of it.

Others don't care and probably won't notice the difference.

To read Leslie's full story, to find out how to opt out or stay in, and to check out KUB's release, CLICK RIGHT SMACK HERE.