Utility companies need notification system

Trent Knuckles is publisher of The News Journal.

The other day, I got in the shower to get ready for work. I turned on the faucet … and all that came out was cold, wet torture.

It’s a heck of a way to start your morning! A cold shower. Shaving with cold water. Not fun at all.

I went downstairs to check the pilot light on my water heater. It was out. I started the process of relighting it, but had to wait 10 minutes for any possible latent gas to disburse, according to instruction.

So, I went back upstairs. I figured I’d check the pilot light on my gas logs. It was out too!

It started to dawn on me that I had not gas service to the house.

I called the gas company. There’s been some construction going on in our area. They informed me that, yes, gas service had been interrupted.

Bummer!

Just a few weeks before, there was a boiled-water advisory in my area because of a water line breakage caused by the same construction project. I only knew about it because I heard about it word of mouth.

It occurs to me that it would be nice for utility customers to be notified, in a more technologically savvy way, about outages in their areas. Manually tagging houses in the case of boiled water advisories, calling radio stations to broadcast it, or, in the case of the gas company, basically doing nothing at all, seems deficient.

Our local school systems and cities utilize an affordable and effective notification system that calls, sends texts and emails citizens when important things are happening. Just about everyone has a cell phone these days. I think if our utility companies aren’t already investigating these options, then they should.

Utilities have a monopoly. They also, basically, have guaranteed profit. This would definitely be something, I think, customers would appreciate. It almost seems like a necessary and responsible move given the changes in the way folks get information now.

It would be nice, in the future, if there is a gas outage at my home that I be told about it in advance so that I could be mentally prepared for that ice cold shower at 6:00 a.m.

SOME OTHER STUFF

• I thought Octoberfest in downtown Corbin, which apparently goes by the name The October Festival now, was a smashing success. One of my favorite events of the year.

There were many vendors there this year. The city even had to close a portion of Main Street to accommodate them all. The weather seems like its almost always perfect. I had a great time enjoying the atmosphere.

• It seems like we’ve been in almost a perpetual campaign cycle in regards to U.S. President. It’s more than a year out from when we get to vote in the 2020 General Election, and I’m already worn out with it.