Citizens Energy Group announced in mid-January that Sherry D. Davis joined its nine-member Board of Directors. Selected by the Board of Trustees, the Board of Directors exclusively manages and oversees the operation of the organization. The Board establishes ongoing business strategy consistent with its fiduciary duties and responsibilities to the beneficiaries. As the newest member of the Board of Directors, Davis replaces Joseph Whitsett, who served on the Board for seven years.

The Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC) is expanding a program to help small businesses recover from the pandemic. Through the Indiana Small Business Restart Grant program, eligible small businesses can apply for funding to reimburse payroll expenses; insurance premiums; rent, lease, and mortgage payments; utilities; and safety investments incurred from March 2020 through May 1, 2021.

Each day more than 800,000 people and thousands of businesses in Central Indiana depend on Citizens Energy Group for natural gas, thermal energy, water and wastewater services to support quality of life and our local economy. As your hometown utility provider, our primary goal is to provide safe and reliable service every day. In order to help customers better understand our key utility processes, we are producing a series of virtual tour videos.

For the past 13 years, Citizens Energy Group has partnered with the Parks Alliance of Indianapolis (formerly Indy Parks Foundation) and Indy Parks to refurbish a facility in need. Sharing the Dream is an annual event held each January to honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Typically, Citizens employees volunteer for the multi-day community service project. This year, however, due to the pandemic, Citizens employees were not able to volunteer for the project, but Citizens, along with many of our partners, contributed $100,000 in donated materials and labor to refurbish the Pool House at Frederick Douglass Park.

On Saturday, March 6, the 5,000th tree in Citizens Energy Group’s 10 Thousand Trees initiative was planted at Haughville Park on the city’s west side. The 10 Thousand Trees project started in 2017 as a partnership between Citizens, Keep Indianapolis Beautiful (KIB), and the Indianapolis Department of Public Works (DPW) to beautify neighborhoods and support the DigIndy Tunnel System, which will nearly eliminate combined sewer overflows (CSOs) to area rivers and streams.

As required by federal, state and local regulations, Citizens Energy Group enforces its Backflow Prevention and Cross Connection Control Program to keep our drinking water safe. Customers with backflow prevention devices play an integral role in ensuring water safety, quality and reliability for the entire community through the installation, maintenance and annual testing of their devices in compliance with these regulations.

With spring weather arriving in central Indiana, you may want to think about shutting down your facility’s steam service. Failing to properly shut down steam service can cause corrosion and ultimately may reduce the life of your steam system. Citizens Energy Group recommends the following steps be taken: Always wear personal protective equipment (PPE) such as leather gloves, long sleeves and eye protection while working on or around steam systems. Shut off the steam isolation valve inside your building. Tag and lock the steam service valve in the closed position. Open all drain valves to remove condensate from the steam system. Open available vent line valves to promote system drainage. Tag all drain valves in the open position.

At Citizens Energy Group, we proudly provide safe and reliable utilities to our customers while working to improve the quality of life for all those who live, work and play in Central Indiana. With spring (or warm) weather arriving, we want to share some of our outdoor volunteer and community service initiatives with the community. Our spring advertising campaign is a continuation of our winter campaign, “Committed to Community.” We are using new footage, photography and interviews from past events to tell the story.

We want your feedback! Look for our Key Account Customer Survey coming soon! It only takes a few minutes to complete. Due to COVID, we did not send the survey in 2020, but will be contacting about 100 customers by email in May.