As the country and Indiana come together to manage through the COVID-19 pandemic, I hope that you and your loved ones are healthy and safe. I would never have thought this was how my career as CEO at BCREMC would begin, but I am here, ready to lead, during this unprecedented time.

In recent weeks, we have all needed to take extreme measures for the health and well-being of our community. Our hearts are with those diagnosed with the virus and our deepest gratitude goes out to the heroes of this moment, including the doctors, nurses, health care professionals and everyone on the front line who are displaying incredible bravery to support the greater good. They set an inspiring example for all of us.

We thought you might want to know some of the steps we have taken to keep your power flowing here at BCREMC.

Before Gov. Holcomb’s State of Emergency Executive Order, we temporarily suspended disconnects and late fees for electric accounts. We encourage members experiencing financial hardship to pay what they can to avoid a large bill down the road.

To alleviate some financial burden, the board of directors has voted to lower the membership fee to $5 and refund the remaining $45 to members. You will see this refund on your May bill. Also, special arrangements will be available in the coming weeks for those needing an extension to pay off account balances. 

We have closed our lobby to prevent the transmission of the virus. We are encouraging members to use the variety of payment options we have available.  See page 7 for a full list of payment options and more on the membership fee refund.

We also decided to have most employees work from home.  Although our office is not filled with employees, we have many ways to serve you from a distance, whether that is on the phone, via email, through our SmartHub app, or through our website.  We are available to answer your questions, even if we can’t greet you face to face.

As always, we are fully committed to restoring power during outage or emergency situations. All daily service work that can be done safely with a two-man crew is continuing. However, linemen are still practicing social distancing at all times. If you see them out working, please give them space to work.

At Bartholomew County REMC, we remain committed to the efforts in slowing the spread of the virus.  We are closely monitoring the situation and will re-open our lobby as soon as it is safe to do so.  We look forward to seeing you!  

These are uncertain times and we understand the importance of electricity more than ever in your life. We are doing all we can to protect our employees so that we can continue providing the service you expect from us. We are here for you!  We have weathered storms before, and while this storm is nothing like we have experienced before, we will get through this the cooperative way.  We will take the knowledge and experience to move forward through whatever “storm” may come our way next.