Plumas-Sierra Rural Electric Cooperative > Manager's Message > Manager’s Message — May 2020

Manager’s Message — May 2020

Dear Members:

I hope all of you and your family members are safe and getting through these unprecedented times as best as possible, given the circumstances. The pandemic has forced many changes on all of us, and it has had a huge impact on the economic vitality of our region.

Our lobby is still closed to the public and we suspect it will stay closed through the month of June. Having said that, you can still easily reach us by phone or on our website.

We are still keeping the lights on and expanding our fiber-optic broadband internet service. I will mention more about that a bit later, but I wanted to make a few suggestions that will help get our community through these tough times.

Please Give Big Tips for To-Go Orders

Restaurants in our region are hanging on by their fingernails. Everyone I have seen is taking precautions and working hard to make sure your food is safe. In these times, the lack of table service and beverage sales is extremely difficult for them. Generous tips now will help the local restaurants we all love keep their employees and stay open through these tough times.

Now is the Time to Donate Locally

Unemployment is sky high in our region; we all know people who have been laid off or had to close their business. People are struggling with paying the rent, utility bills and buying food.

Many of our second-home owners came up to our region to wait out all this.

That is great, especially if you are keeping the restaurants busy and tipping generously, but please remember many of the full-time residents of our region are in dire straits.

Here are some of the better-known entities offering assistance and taking donations — there are more listed at the end of my column:

The nonprofit sector of our region is also hurting, from arts programs to land trusts to animal rescue. We don’t have space to list them all, but if you are in a position to donate, please consider it.

PST Internet Hot Spots Available

Plumas-Sierra Telecommunications is on a rapid expansion path through our region. With our own funds, and grant funds from the California Public Utility Commission, we have been building as fast as we can and are continuing that effort.

For safety reasons, we cannot install service inside living quarters of homes.

As I write this, we are still installing in some garages and commercial buildings, if there is appropriate access and safe conditions.

We hope to get back to normal installations this year, but we just don’t know what the future holds at this point.

We are also increasing the hot spots where people can obtain free PST broadband internet access, as many people are trying to work from home, upload schoolwork, take classes and hang on to some semblance of normalcy.

Visit the Hotspots page on the PST website.

In a few areas, we have placed outdoor wireless access points to increase coverage and encourage proper social distancing by being able to work in your car.

If You Are Struggling

Our staff is working with everyone struggling to pay their bills. Please talk with us to make payment arrangements. We are working hard with our own lenders to get maximum flexibility for our electric members and telecommunications customers.

As always, we are here for you, our member-owners. Please contact us at (530) 832-4261 with any questions.

Sincerely,

Bob Marshall
General Manager