Rochester Public Utilities is celebrating Public Power Week, Oct. 3-9, along with more than 2,000 other community-powered, not-for-profit electric utilities that collectively provide electricity to 49 million Americans.

“This year, we especially celebrate the employees of RPU, the people behind public power,”said Mark Kotschevar, RPU General Manager.  “These folks work tirelessly to keep ourcommunity up and running 24 hours a day seven days a week,” said Kotschevar. “Our dedicated teammates work in many departments including customer care, safety, accounting and finance, communications, field supervision, energy services, and engineering and operations; and pull together with a common goal: keeping Rochester powered.”

“The people behind public power take pride in serving our friends and neighbors with safe, reliable electricity and water services, our most essential needs,” said Kotschevar. “RPU is proud to have served Rochester for over 120 years.”

RPU invites community members to participate in celebrating Public Power Week by visiting the RPU Service Center where kids will receive an RPU Halloween bag with candy and fun activities associated with safety and public power (while supplies last).

About The Public Power Association

Public Power Week is an annual national observance coordinated by the American Public Power
Association. The American Public Power Association is the voice of not-for-profit, community-owned utilities that power 2,000 towns and cities nationwide. The Association represents public power before the federal government to protect the interests of the more than 49 million people that public power utilities serve, and the 93,000 people they employ. It advocates and advises on electricity policy, technology, trends, training, and operations. Its members strengthen their communities by providing superior service, engaging citizens, and instilling pride in community-owned power. More at www.PublicPower.org

About Rochester Public Utilities

As the municipal utility of Rochester, Minn., for more than 110 years, RPU provides high-quality and reliable electricity to over 56,000 customers.  Water customers number more than 40,000.  RPU continually investigates innovative technologies to help customers realize the best value from the services they receive.  Current initiatives include photovoltaic offerings, wind energy, energy and water efficient equipment, and electric vehicle charging.

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Effective tomorrow, Friday, August 6, 2021, all City of Rochester teammates and visitors will be required to wear facial coverings in city-operated facilities, regardless of their vaccination status. This requirement is going into effect because Olmsted County is classified as a county with substantial community transmission of COVID-19. Once counties reach that threshold, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Minnesota Department of Health, and Olmsted County Public Health recommend that face coverings be worn in indoor, public settings by all individuals – vaccinated or not.

The requirement to mask in City facilities will be in place until further notice. The City of Rochester will continue to work with community partners as we monitor and adjust our response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The City of Rochester highly recommends all individuals, regardless of vaccination status, wear masks in indoor, public settings in an effort to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Vaccines that protect against COVID-19 are widely available through medical providers and pharmacies. Individuals 12 and older can find vaccine availability at https://mn.gov/covid19/vaccine/find-vaccine/locations/index.jsp. The vaccine is still highly effective against COVID-19 and dramatically reduces hospitalizations and death. However, the Delta variant spreads very easily, and in rare cases, vaccinated people can transmit the virus even if they do not have symptoms.

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Rochester Public Utilities (RPU) will be resuming non-pay disconnects beginning August 2. Service disconnections were put on hold in March 2020 due to the pandemic.

RPU customers with an outstanding balance will receive a disconnection notice, with a date of disconnect. If you are behind on your RPU bill, and need to make a payment or set up a payment arrangement, contact RPU Customer Care. If no action is taken, the account will be up for disconnect after August 2.

Financial and energy assistance resources can be found on the RPU website at https://www.rpu.org/education-environment/community-resources.php under the Community Resources page or by calling RPU Customer Care at 507-280-1500.

About Rochester Public Utilities

As the municipal utility of Rochester, Minn., for more than 110 years, RPU provides high-quality and reliable electricity to over 56,000 customers.  Water customers number more than 40,000.  RPU continually investigates innovative technologies to help customers realize the best value from the services they receive.  Current initiatives include photovoltaic offerings, wind energy, energy and water efficient equipment, and electric vehicle charging.

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Recycle any and all of your old holiday lighting between now and Friday, January 29, 2021. Just drop your old lighting strands off at the RPU Service Center (4000 East River Road NE). The recycle bins are right inside our lobby.

What is accepted:

• Holiday Lights – incandescent or LED (working or non-working)
• Holiday Light Decorations

What is NOT accepted:

• Appliance Cords
• Battery Packs
• CFL Lights
• Cord Adaptors
• Electric Cords
• Plastic Rope Lights
• Telephone Cords

Rochester Public Utilities (RPU) announced today that an additional $250,000 in funding from the Federal Coronavirus Relief Funds (CRF) allocated to the city of Rochester, is available to go towards helping local small business customers pay their utility bills.

The CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security) Act enacted on March 27, 2020, has appropriated $150 billion to the CRF, which can be used towards paying customer utility bills that incurred during the period of March 1, 2020 through December 31, 2020. Rochester has already received over $8.8 million CRF dollars from the State.

The initial launch date for this program was August 4, 2020 and was a plan approved by the Rochester City Council to work with qualifying small business customers to utilize $500,000 for utility bill payments.

In addition to providing assistance to locally owned small businesses, the program also has designated funding for women, minority, and veteran owned local businesses (WMBE).

“We are excited to be able to offer an additional $250,000 to help local small businesses with their utility bills. To date RPU has been able to assist 333 business locations that were impacted by the pandemic. We continue to strongly encourage all RPU small business customers that meet the criteria for application to apply for assistance,” said Krista Boston, RPU Director of Customer Relations. 

Applications must be submitted for approval by October 16, 2020.

Full program details, applications, and eligibility requirements can be found on the RPU website at www.rpu.org.

About Rochester Public Utilities

As the municipal utility of Rochester, Minn., for more than 110 years, RPU provides high-quality and reliable electricity to over 50,000 customers. Water customers number more than 40,000. RPU continually investigates innovative technologies to help customers realize the best value from the services they receive. Current initiatives include fuel cell research, wind power, and photovoltaic offerings.

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