--- title: 2019 Trust Key Messages description: "Citizens Energy Group’s Key Messages for 2019 support the theme of the recent State of the Trust address: Inspired to Create Value. As you interact with customers, please use these key messages and supporting statements." image: https://blog.citizensenergygroup.com/hubfs/GO%20Horizontal%202.jpg --- [![](https://blog.citizensenergygroup.com/hubfs/Engauge/engauge-logo.jpg)](https://blog.citizensenergygroup.com/engauge) [![](https://blog.citizensenergygroup.com/hubfs/Backgrounds/search-mobile.png)](https://www.citizensenergygroup.com/Search) # 2019 Trust Key Messages By Mandy Saucerman on 11/2/18 1:19 PM ![](https://blog.citizensenergygroup.com/hubfs/GO%20Horizontal%202.jpg) Citizens Energy Group’s Key Messages for 2019 support the theme of the recent State of the Trust address: Inspired to Create Value. As you interact with customers, please use these key messages and supporting statements.   **Summary Message:** Citizens Energy Group is your hometown utility focused on enhancing the safety, quality and affordability of our services. Our system improvements, such as the DigIndy Tunnel System, are creating a more livable and sustainable community. We operate utilities only for your benefit and the long-term economic health of Central Indiana.   **Key Messages:** - **We are raising efficiency to control costs. **Process improvement is driving efficiency and holding down costs. Our value engineering process has reduced the original cost of the DigIndy Tunnel System and associated investments by more than $400 million. - **We are making vital system investments. **The first 10-mile section of DigIndy has already prevented more than half a billion gallons of sewer overflows from reaching area streams each year. Citizens has requested a three-phase increase in wastewater rates starting in summer 2019 to fund sewer rehabilitation and federally mandated work on the DigIndy Tunnel System and related projects. Our water system improvements are improving water quality, reducing water lost from main breaks and ensuring vital supplies for economic development. Continued natural gas and thermal system investments are keeping both utilities among the safest and best maintained in the nation. - **We are helping customers better manage their utility bills. **We are working with community partners to assist low-income customers having difficulty paying their utility bills. Citizens is seeking permission to create a Low-Income Customer Assistance Program that would provide a 10, 18 or 25 percent discount on wastewater bills for customers who qualify for a similar discount program now provided to our natural gas customers. At the same time, we are proposing to create a Wastewater Infrastructure Fund to help low-income customers with investments that can reduce their water bills, such as low-flow water appliances. We also are educating customers about how they can reduce their utility bills through easy water and energy conservation measures such as limiting lawn irrigation and turning down their thermostat. In addition, we are encouraging customers to enroll in Citizens Budget Plan to spread out the costs of winter heating and summer lawn watering throughout the year. - **We are enhancing customer service. **We are offering new self-service options that allow you to manage your account on your terms while helping reduce wait times for customers who contact our call center. New self-service options include 120 new remote payment sites, and convenient online options, such as paperless billing and digital alerts for billing and service appointments. - **We are supporting our community. **We are improving quality of life in Indianapolis through philanthropy and employee volunteerism. Each year hundreds of Citizens employees volunteer for non-profit organizations across the Indianapolis area. Our biggest volunteer event is our annual Sharing the Dream project which has made more than $3 million in improvements to 10 Indy Parks facilities over the past decade in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. ### Current Articles ### Recent Issues - [November 2019 (23)](https://blog.citizensenergygroup.com/engauge/archive/2019/11) - [November 2018 (21)](https://blog.citizensenergygroup.com/engauge/archive/2018/11) - [January 2021 (21)](https://blog.citizensenergygroup.com/engauge/archive/2021/01) - [October 2021 (21)](https://blog.citizensenergygroup.com/engauge/archive/2021/10) - [February 2020 (20)](https://blog.citizensenergygroup.com/engauge/archive/2020/02) - [December 2021 (20)](https://blog.citizensenergygroup.com/engauge/archive/2021/12) - [October 2018 (19)](https://blog.citizensenergygroup.com/engauge/archive/2018/10) - [January 2019 (19)](https://blog.citizensenergygroup.com/engauge/archive/2019/01) - [June 2020 (19)](https://blog.citizensenergygroup.com/engauge/archive/2020/06) - [August 2019 (18)](https://blog.citizensenergygroup.com/engauge/archive/2019/08) - [October 2019 (18)](https://blog.citizensenergygroup.com/engauge/archive/2019/10) - [April 2020 (18)](https://blog.citizensenergygroup.com/engauge/archive/2020/04) - [September 2022 (18)](https://blog.citizensenergygroup.com/engauge/archive/2022/09) - [July 2019 (17)](https://blog.citizensenergygroup.com/engauge/archive/2019/07) - [July 2020 (17)](https://blog.citizensenergygroup.com/engauge/archive/2020/07) - [June 2021 (17)](https://blog.citizensenergygroup.com/engauge/archive/2021/06) - [April 2019 (16)](https://blog.citizensenergygroup.com/engauge/archive/2019/04) - [January 2020 (16)](https://blog.citizensenergygroup.com/engauge/archive/2020/01) - [October 2020 (16)](https://blog.citizensenergygroup.com/engauge/archive/2020/10) - [December 2020 (16)](https://blog.citizensenergygroup.com/engauge/archive/2020/12) - [April 2021 (16)](https://blog.citizensenergygroup.com/engauge/archive/2021/04) - [July 2021 (16)](https://blog.citizensenergygroup.com/engauge/archive/2021/07) - [September 2020 (15)](https://blog.citizensenergygroup.com/engauge/archive/2020/09) - [March 2021 (15)](https://blog.citizensenergygroup.com/engauge/archive/2021/03) - [June 2022 (15)](https://blog.citizensenergygroup.com/engauge/archive/2022/06) - [February 2019 (14)](https://blog.citizensenergygroup.com/engauge/archive/2019/02) - [May 2019 (14)](https://blog.citizensenergygroup.com/engauge/archive/2019/05) - [May 2022 (14)](https://blog.citizensenergygroup.com/engauge/archive/2022/05) - [July 2022 (14)](https://blog.citizensenergygroup.com/engauge/archive/2022/07) - [October 2023 (13)](https://blog.citizensenergygroup.com/engauge/archive/2023/10) - [September 2021 (12)](https://blog.citizensenergygroup.com/engauge/archive/2021/09) - [March 2023 (12)](https://blog.citizensenergygroup.com/engauge/archive/2023/03) - [May 2023 (12)](https://blog.citizensenergygroup.com/engauge/archive/2023/05) - [June 2023 (12)](https://blog.citizensenergygroup.com/engauge/archive/2023/06) - [February 2022 (11)](https://blog.citizensenergygroup.com/engauge/archive/2022/02) - [August 2018 (10)](https://blog.citizensenergygroup.com/engauge/archive/2018/08) - [August 2023 (10)](https://blog.citizensenergygroup.com/engauge/archive/2023/08) - [March 2022 (9)](https://blog.citizensenergygroup.com/engauge/archive/2022/03) [![PDF Archives](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/2545024/33b9e93c-8f43-4101-9b48-7e78154731f5.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/2545024/33b9e93c-8f43-4101-9b48-7e78154731f5) **Engauge** is published by Citizens Energy Group, Corporate Affairs Department, under the direction of Shannon Stahley, Director of Corporate and Public Affairs. 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