City of Blaine enters contract for power outage communications

The city of Blaine has contracted a dispatch service to respond to residents during power outages.

Blaine City Council unanimously approved the contract with Basin Electric Power Cooperative’s dispatch team during its November 13 meeting. The company, located in Bismarck, North Dakota, will charge the city a sign-up fee of $2,000, plus a base fee of $650 per month plus an additional 16 cents per meter.

Blaine public works crews have previously needed to answer calls about power outages while working on high voltage lines, causing a safety hazard for the crews, according to the city. The dispatch service will update residents on the status of the outage, as well as take payment and turn on the power for residents whose power is disconnected when they fail to pay.

The dispatch will answer incoming calls to public works outside of business hours and will try to answer callers in a timely manner, according to its contract with the city. The company uses automated answering and customers may experience queues during heavy call times. The dispatch team will contact the public works department about outages and give all non-emergency calls to public works by 8:30 a.m. the following business day.

The contract was set to start this month.