The Jamestown Board of Public Utilities is waiting for guidance for how to proceed with the possibility that the state’s utility shut-off moratorium is ending.
BPU General Manager Dave Leathers said with Governor Andrew Cuomo‘s ending of the state of the emergency for the Pandemic last week, they haven’t seen an extension of the utility shut-off moratorium. Leathers said the Public Service Department had typically sent out guidance on what to do when the moratorium was extended or expected to end, “I anticipate that the Department of Public Service in the coming days will issue some updated guidance that we’ll look at and try to incorporate into our planning. Because there are available protections for our residential customers, there’s available protections for small businesses, there’s a new provision in there around liens on property.”
Leathers said for customers who are experiencing hardships, they could self-certify and get protections they had under the moratorium. He said there is quite a bit of financial assistance available that people haven’t tapped into because they weren’t at risk of utilities being shut off, “But now, if they have that risk or they’re responding to a shut off we want to be sure they know what potential help they can get and what specifically they need to do to get that. But there’s money out there to help with past due rent as well as past due utilities.”
Leathers said customers should call the Jamestown BPU at (716) 661-1660 for more information.
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