Dawson Public Power District General Manager Gwen Kautz.
By Gwen Kautz, General Manager
gkautz at dawsonpower.com
308-324-2386
I used to think the people who read the Wall Street Journal were old, like fossil-relic old. Now it’s one of the few publications I trust. I read it faithfully which, by definition earlier, makes me old.
The prevalence of “fake news” makes you wonder who or what you can trust. At Dawson Public Power District, we do our best to work and conduct business transparently. We don’t want to bore you with a bunch of technical things that doesn’t matter to you, but we want to make sure you have the right kind of information when it’s important.
Times are changing, and print media is falling by the wayside; caving to online access which can be provided cheaper and faster. We still have customers who prefer the “old fashioned” communication methods and for now, we’ll continue to provide as many options as we can. At some point, readership levels will decide which direction we take.
There are several ways we communicate to you, but not everyone wants the information in the same way. We offer our newsletter in paper form once a month. You can get the same information through email, on our website or via social media. We put out occasional press releases, but those are usually printed at the mercy of the newspaper having time or room to insert them. Of course, you’re more than welcome to call us or write us a letter…or even better, drop by for a visit!
Our system is changing demographically. Customers who have been with us for decades are retiring and either selling their farm/ranch or are handing it down to their children or grandchildren. Those who remember with great fondness the day they got electricity are fewer.
Phone scams
The scams that demand immediate payment from you are growing weekly and we want to make sure you don’t fall for them. We will never ask you for personal information over the phone, we will never tell you that you should get a pre-paid debit card immediately.
We send you a disconnect notice in the mail if you have not paid your bill. You WILL get an automated call from us reminding you that your bill is still unpaid if we have your phone number on file. You know if you’ve paid your bill or not prior to this demanding caller. If you haven’t paid your bill, give us a call and we’ll walk you through payment options. If you’re simply unsure about the caller, just hang up and call us at (308) 324-2386 any time day or night.
Social media
If you’re on social media and follow us, you’ve likely seen our customers posting things on our Facebook page. We don’t allow you to report your outage on social media – there are too many things that could go wrong doing that. Most of the comments to us are good ones and occasionally we have a customer who is upset with us. We do our best to answer all questions, even the ones that aren’t happy with us. A negative comment is not deleted unless it is threatening us or our employees. We will reach out to the appropriate authorities when that happens. If the negative comment is related to a specific incident with that customer, we will ask the customer to call our office and will not post private customer information in response to the comment.
Negative feedback
If you read something negative about us, please know there are always two sides to every story. We are happy to defend ourselves if it’s the right thing to do. If the complaint has merit, we will follow up and find a solution.
May 2019