VOL 4 NO 9

3NOVember

2017

P U B L I S H E D B Y C E N T R A L H U D S O N rsquo S C O R P O R A T E C O M M U N I C A T I O N S D E PA R T M E N T

New this weekNetworking event3Central Hudson hosts Northeast Underground Committee meeting

Regular features

E D I T O R C H R I S V A L D E ZP H O N E ( 8 4 5 ) 4 8 6 - 5 2 2 7E M A I L C V A L D E Z C E N H U D C O M

FO R T H E E M P LOYE E S O F C E N T R A L H U D S O N G A S amp E L E C T R I C CO R P O R AT I O N

NewsCentral

Central Hudson

People Power Possibilities

A COMPANY

Service anniversaries6Thanksgiving food drive6

Union scholarships8Save the date8

Gallery Food bank7

Career fairs4Employees visit college to recruit future employees interns

New statewide program to assist more low-income customers Starting this month Central Hudson

and all other New York utilities will be launching a new program aimed at assist-ing the statersquos most vulnerable residents

Low-income customers spend a larg-er percentage of their household income on energy On average electric bills ac-count for less than 2 percent of house-hold income in the Hudson Valley and the average gas bill accounts for another 2

percent Lower-income residents can ex-perience energy costs that can be 10 to 20 percent of their household income which results in these customers having to make difficult choices

The Low Income Bill Discount Pro-gram is a new framework to address cus-tomer needs by reducing their energy bur-

Consumer Outreach employees including (back row) Customer Account Services Supervisor beth monaco Operating Supervisor of Consumer Outreach Paula Coppin Customer Account Services Supervisor Loretta butler and (front row) Consumer Outreach representatives Shannon Hester-Jenkins and Danielle Whiteley are working with local agencies to spread awareness about the statersquos new Low Income bill Discount Program that takes effect this month

S E E L O W I N C O M E O N PA G E 2

Our People5Donate $5 and wear jeansto support Dutchess Outreach

Text alert system8New text messaging system available for outages wires down

2 N O V E M B E R 3 2 0 1 7 N E W S C E N T R A L

den to 6 percent or below their household income The recipients receive monthly credits based on their type of energy ser-vice and the amount of benefits they re-ceive from the federal Home Energy As-sistance Program (HEAP) HEAP benefits are funded and administered through the Department of Social Services

What are the requirementsThere are two requirements to par-

ticipate in the new program The custom-er must receive a regular or emergency HEAP grant and he or she must enroll in Budget Billing

When a customerrsquos account receives a HEAP benefit he or she will automatically be enrolled in the Low Income Bill Dis-count Program The HEAP application period begins on Nov 13

For the first time customers who do not heat with Central Hudson are also eli-gible to receive the monthly credits Those who heat by other means such as oil coal propane wood kerosene or corn and re-ceive a HEAP benefit will automatically be enrolled in the new program once the HEAP department notifies Central Hud-son Self-enrollment is also available for these alternate fuel source customers by sending in their ldquoNotice of Decisionrdquo let-ter once itrsquos received from HEAP

Once enrolled in the Low Income Bill Discount Program customers will receive a letter advising them of their enrollment in Budget Billing and the monthly budget installment amount Customers can opt out of Budget Billing at any time

How does it workOnce HEAP is received or Central

Hudson has verified the HEAP grant a monthly credit will be applied to that ac-count for 12 consecutive months provid-ed the account remains open and active for the entire period The amount of the bill discount credit is based on the service type and amount of HEAP benefit Dis-counts range from $30 to $67 per month

on natural gas heating bills up to $3 per month on natural gas non-heating $19 to $72 per month on electric heating and $19 to $56 per month on electric non-heating A combination of any of these services could mean increased credits Customers receiving a HEAP benefit for non-utili-ty fuels for heating could receive a credit ranging from $3 to $22 per month

Central Hudsonrsquos current low-income initiative the Powerful Opportunities Pro-gram (POP) will be phased out by 2020 It serves a limited amount of customers and the new program will provide assistance to a larger number of customers

While the Powerful Opportunities Program is being phased out the existing POP customers will continue to receive the arrears forgiveness benefit as long as program requirements continue to be met along with receiving the new low-in-come program benefits

ldquoItrsquos a good start in our effort to assist those customers who need it mostrdquo said Consumer Outreach Supervisor Beth Mo-naco ldquoWe are collaborating with our part-ners throughout our service territory to find additional avenues that will provide further support to our customersrdquo

Based on its agreement with the state Public Service Commission Central Hud-son is expected to enroll 25000 custom-ers within the first three years That is a challenging task since only 8200 received HEAP benefits last year (not including emergency and minor grants) In order to reach its goal Consumer Outreach is ramping up its communication with local agencies and customers

All previous HEAP recipients were notified of the changes and are being re-minded of the new program The Compa-ny is also sharing resources and education-al materials with roughly 180 community agencies who work directly with the tar-geted population Employees within Con-sumer Outreach are conducting office presentations about the new program and it has expanded its networking opportuni-ties The Company is also reaching out to local oil propane and kerosene companies

to advise them of the changes so employ-ees can work with their representatives to get as many mutual customers enrolled in the new low-income program as possible

The department will introduce a new web page and a new low-income newslet-ter Powering Connections which will be sent to all HEAP customers Both of these platforms will provide information on the available programs energy efficiency tips and other resources to help vulnera-ble customers cut down on their energy expenses Central Hudson is also utiliz-ing social media bill inserts the website media releases radio advertisements out-bound calls and Customer Service Repre-sentatives to spread the message

ldquoOutreach is committed to working with any and all agencies to help bring awareness to the many programs that we have available to assist our low-income and senior customersrdquo said Operating Supervisor of Consumer Outreach Paula Coppin ldquoWe hope that our employees will help us get the word out to organizations for which they may volunteer such as se-nior centers churches and community agenciesrdquo

How did we get hereThe PSC began examining all state

utility low-income programs in 2015 in order to standardize them The goal was to reduce the economic burden on all low-income customers The PSC approved the Low Income Bill Discount Program in 2016 and then Central Hudson and all other energy providers submitted imple-mentation plans for how each organiza-tion would adhere to the new program

The Consumer Outreach and Infor-mation Technology departments have been collaborating for about eight months to implement an automated system that will facilitate the Low Income Bill Dis-count Program All of the programming was completed in-house led by Senior Sys-tems Analyst Janet Manfredi The program will run through the Customer Informa-tion System (CIS) in the same manner that the current HEAP credits operate

L O W I N C O M E F R O M PA G E 1

C E N T R A L H U D S O N G A S amp E L E C T R I C N O V E M B E R 3 2 0 1 7 3

Central Hudson employees networked with representatives of other energy

providers to share information on work practices equipment safety and construc-tion standards at the biennial Northeast Underground Committee meeting last week

The Northeast Underground Com-mittee is a regional organization of inves-tor-owned electric utilities located in the Northeast Middle Atlantic and East Cen-tral areas of the United States Its members exchange ideas and information on prac-tical solutions to operating construction and engineering concerns involving the underground electrical distribution sys-tem

The purpose of the organization is to develop a forum to share views and ex-periences on underground distribution systems with the intent of promoting an early awareness of potential problem areas and methods of improving reliability and productivity This was the first time that Central Hudson has hosted a Northeast Underground Committee conference

ldquoIt was a great opportunity to host this event for the first timerdquo said Assis-tant Engineer Henry Wilson-Sowah who organized the conference ldquoIt was a great networking experience We shared ideas

on underground standards and work methods with the group members and engineersrdquo

The attend-ees which includ-ed representatives from National Grid Con Edison Public Service Enterprise Group United Illu-minating and Or-ange amp Rockland discussed electric grounding in un-derground manhole systems and tech-nology used for test-ing underground ca-bles Wilson-Sowah said learning from other energy providers will help Central Hudson finalize its underground ground-ing practices and documentation

IMCORP a cable health diagnostic company presented on its methods for testing cable and locating defects Rep-resentatives from the organization were invited by Engineer Nick Conza after working with Central Hudson on a re-

search and development project over the summer IMCORP employees spent two weeks with Central Hudson to test approx-imately 30000 feet of underground resi-dential distribution cable For each section of cable tested IMCORP provided a report that identified what parts of the cable and which components had defects

IMCORPrsquos technology can determine where partial discharge is occurring as well as the severity Knowing the severity can help with prioritizing repairs Partial dis-charge is arcing and sparking that occurs at certain voltage levels around a defect in the insulation Partial discharge forms electri-cal trees in the insulation which are carbon paths that branch out over time Eventual-ly these carbon paths grow through the insulation as the cable system is subjected to lightning and switching transients at which time the cable fails at that location causing an outage

Conza said he invited IMCORP be-cause it could be beneficial for other en-ergy providers to learn about the available technology so they too can identify defects in underground cable and prioritize re-pairs based on the severity of the defect

Central Hudson hosts biennial networking event

Director of electric Distribution and Standards Heather Adams (left) and engineer Nick Conza (right) discuss technology and methods used to find defects in underground cable splices and terminations with John Kreso from ImCOrP

Central Hudson hosted the biennial conference for the Northeast Underground Committee last week The three-day networking event was organized by Assistant engineer Henry Wilson-Sowah (center back row)

4 N O V E M B E R 3 2 0 1 7 N E W S C E N T R A L

Future employees interns recruitedThe strength of Central Hudsonrsquos fu-

ture depends on its ability to recruit and retain the greatest talent

This requires consistent communica-tion to make potential employees aware of the many opportunities at Central Hud-son the benefits of working in the energy industry and how their talents fit into the Companyrsquos mission to provide safe and reliable service To that end Central Hud-son employees have been attending career fairs at statewide colleges throughout the fall

ldquoThe fall career fair season has been extremely successful and we have spoken with excellent candidates for employment and the internship programrdquo said Asso-ciate Human Resources Administrator Corey Chambers ldquoPersonally I have seen some outstanding resumes and I have been impressed with the students that have done their research on Central Hud-son prior to coming to the career fair and speaking with usrdquo

Representatives from HR and other employees visited Marist Rensselaer Poly-technic Institute the State University of New York at Binghamton Clarkson Uni-versity Manhattan University and others

throughout the fall Chambers expressed grat-itude to the employees who volunteered to attend the ca-reer fairs and share their ex-periences with the students

ldquoI want to give a special thanks to the Central Hud-son employees that have vol-unteered to at-tend the career fairs with usrdquo Chambers said ldquoThese employ-ees are usually alumni of the colleges that we are attend-ing and play a pivotal part in recruiting because the students can relate to them since the Central Hudson employee was once in their shoesrdquo

Employment Coordinator Diane DrsquoAlessandro Associate Accounting Soft-ware Specialist Sean Manna and Junior Engineer Cora Juczak attended the SUNY New Paltz career fair on Oct 18 Juczak is one of 30 current employees who were formerly interns

Alicia Knights a junior studying fi-nance visited the Companyrsquos table to learn about the requirements of the sum-mer internship program She has already interned at the Walkway Over the Hud-son but wants to further her experience at Central Hudson Knights said she was drawn to Central Hudson because of its involvement in the community and be-cause the program provides tremendous opportunities to start a career

Nathan Hempel is graduating in May

and is searching for a career in econom-ics The Tivoli resident has friends who recommended Central Hudson due to its culture and values

ldquoCentral Hudson provides a valuable service to the community and it would be great to be part of that effortrdquo Hempel said

The season of career fairs coincides with the Companyrsquos recruitment of in-terns Central Hudson began sorting through resumes and applications a few months earlier than previous years to match with the timeline of other organi-zations By starting the process earlier the Company has a greater chance to attract the most qualified candidates before they commit to another business

ldquoBy recruiting earlier we have a better chance to recruit top talent for each de-partment so we can continue to bring in quality interns that will have the potential for full-time employment in the futurerdquo Chambers said

Recruitment

employment Coordinator Diane DrsquoAlessandro discusses internship and career opportunities at Central Hudson with a SUNY New Paltz student during a recent career fair

LOOKING FOr AN INTerNRequests for 2018 summer interns can be sent to Associate Human Resources Administrator Darrick Fuller at dfullercenhudcom

Please remember the request should have the group headrsquos approval and it should include an outline of the duties and projects for which the intern(s) would be responsible

Central Hudson will accept applications from students until April 13 Applicants can apply by visiting CenHudcomemployment and clicking ldquoSearch Career Opportunitiesrdquo

C E N T R A L H U D S O N G A S amp E L E C T R I C N O V E M B E R 3 2 0 1 7 5

Central Hudson and its employees raised more than $2000 to support the Alzheimerrsquos Association Walk to End Alzheimerrsquos on Oct 14

The walk benefitted the Hudson Valley chapter of the Alzheimerrsquos Association and it is part of the nationrsquos largest event to raise awareness and funds for care support and research

Central Hudsonrsquos team was organized by Associate Systems Analyst Jim Bowers (center) Order Dispatcher 1C Janine Matuk and Engineering Aide Nick Boffoli also attended the event on the Walkway Over the Hudson

Money raised to benefitAlzheimerrsquos Association

Records and Information Analyst Jen-nifer Cannella and Associate Real

Property Services Representative Lind-say Cullen are organizing Central Hud-sonrsquos annual Thanksgiving Food Drive for Dutchess Outreach

Cannella and Cullen said they vol-unteered to lead the 37th annual drive because they want to make a difference in their community The donations will provide five local families with a home cooked Thanksgiving dinner and other necessary household items to get through the holidays

ldquoItrsquos incredible to see how our entire Company can come together to provide much-needed support for our neigh-borsrdquo Cullen said

Last year Cannella and Cullen re-ceived a letter from one of the families expressing its appreciation for the do-nations Cullen said the feedback rein-forced the positive impact that employ-ees can have on their neighbors even if itrsquos through a small food or monetary donation

ldquoWe would like to thank everyone for their continued support and their willingness to donate their time and en-ergyrdquo Cannella said ldquoYou make our job easyrdquo

The team will sort donations on Nov 17 shop for perishable items on Nov 20 and deliver to the five local families on Nov 21 For more information please see Page 6

Employees can contribute by participating in the Casual for a Cause fundraiser on Nov 10 and 17 By donating at least $5 employees will be allowed to wear jeans to work on the next two Fridays To learn how to donate or to obtain more information on the Casual for a Cause fundraisers please visit the Employees Events Committee space on the CH Wiki site

OuR PeOPleTHE POWER TO MAkE A DIFFERENCE

JENNIFER cANNELLARecords and Information Analyst

ORgANizATiONDutchess Outreach

LINDSAY cULLENAssociate Real PropertyServices Representative

6 N O V E M B E R 3 2 0 1 7 N E W S C E N T R A L

HOLIDAY FOOD DrIVeCentral Hudson employees are once again coordinating the annual Thanksgiving food drive

Employees are encouraged to donate needed supplies including canned meat vegetables tuna fruit soup yams potatoes pasta sauce rice peanut butter jelly powered milk cereals and more

in addition to assisting these local families the extra donations will be given to the Dutchess Outreach food bank to help others during the holiday season

The following volunteers have set up collection boxes for non-perishable items in their work areas and will be accepting donations through Nov 17bull Corporate Communications

Tina Romainebull Human Resources

Roxanne Shepleybull Purchasing Domenick DrsquoAddonabull S1 Lisa Rundle and Rick Naccaratobull S2 Linda iovinobull Main floor Donna giametta

and Denise Hectorbull Main floor by gas and Mechanical

Engineering Joe Kobergerbull Second floor Amy Dittmar bull Second floor by Electric System

Protection zarin Mirzabull Third floor Jaime Timberlakebull Kingston Kelly Torcellobull Poughkeepsie District Carmie Ortizbull Newburgh Carrine Brownbull Eltings Corners Shannon Malakbull Catskill Jill Warnecke

Cash donations or checks (made out toldquoDutchess Outreachrdquo) may also be made to the above volunteers Cash donations will be used to purchase perishable items for five holiday meals for area families

in an effort to raise additional funds employees can also participate in ldquocasual Fridaysrdquo on Nov 10 and 17 with a $5 donation to Dutchess Outreach Volunteers are still welcome if anyone is interested in helping please contact Jen Cannella at ext 5290 or Lindsay Cullen at ext 5430

Debra KeltosAccounting Technician 1C

PoughkeepsieNov 14

40YEARS

E M P LOY E E M I L E S T O N E SService anniversaries

Gail DuncanEngineer

PoughkeepsieNov 2

25YEARS

Nicole TancrediDirector of Systems Development

PoughkeepsieNov 17

20YEARS

Dan HarkenriderService Supervisor

PoughkeepsieNov 12

15YEARS

eric ballerCommercial Representative ndash Special

FishkillNov 18

15YEARS

Sean CrossChief gas Mechanic

NewburghNov 19

15YEARS

Daniel CasellaStrategic BuyerPoughkeepsie

Nov 5

5YEARS

Dan Olivierigas Foreman

FishkillNov 30

5YEARS

C E N T R A L H U D S O N G A S amp E L E C T R I C N O V E M B E R 3 2 0 1 7 7

M A k E A D I F F E R E N C E D AY O N O C T 2 4Photo gallery

Above Central Hudson employees and other local residents volunteered at the Food bank of the Hudson Valley on Oct 24 The team worked in the warehouse in Cornwall-on-Hudson and checked the quality of the donations and sorted inventory This was part of the United Way of the Dutchess-Orange regionrsquos annual make a Difference Day

Above United Way chair brianna Peak sorts frozen meat before it is weighed and put back in the freezer Central Hudsonrsquos participation in make a Difference Day is part of the annual United Way campaign which concludes later this month

Above Associate engineer Chris Gilbert checks the expiration date of donations The team unloaded pallets of donations sorted usable items from damaged products weighed acceptable donations and then re-stacked them onto pallets to be sent to the freezer

Above Tester 3C eric Palmatier prepares to bring a box of donations to the scale For more photographs from make a Difference Day visit the Corporate Communications space of the CH Wiki site The gallery can be found under the ldquoNewslettersrdquo tab

8 N O V E M B E R 3 2 0 1 7 N E W S C E N T R A L

THANKSGIVING LUNCHThanksgiving lunch will be served early this year in the South Road cafeteria The Thanksgiving meal will be served on Nov 9 and cost $699 or $799 with pumpkin apple or pecan pie Contact Chef Manager gian Stagnaro at ext 5843 for questions or more information

Employees will be able to chow down on an assortment of holiday fixingsbull turkey and gravybull sweet potato with marshmallows

and brown sugarbull Brussels sproutsbull green bean and bacon casserole bull savory mushroom and rosemary

bread pudding andbull cranberry and black pepper sauce

LOCAL 320 SCHOLArSHIPThe international Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 320 awarded five Student Achievement Awards The recipients were Daniel Boyle Connor Wylock Matt Earley Stephen DrsquoAlessandro and Katherine gallery They will each receive a $500 college scholarship from the Local 320

To be eligible for the award applicants must be enrolled full time and be attending an approved accredited college or technical institution be the son or daughter of an active iBEW Local 320 member and not be a prior Achievement Award recipient The awards are limited to one person not one per family

Next year the drawing for the awards will be held at the October general meeting in Kingston Applications are always available from any shop steward or on ibewlocal320org

Management employees can sign up for text message alerts to receive

real-time power outage and wires down alerts

The new alert system which launched in May sends notifications when there are at least 500 customers without power in a district or at least 5000 affected through-out the entire service territory Alerts are also sent when there are more than 20 wires down orders district wide or more than 10 orders per district The system keeps employees aware of when outag-es begin and is updated every 30 min-utes These real-time alerts will improve Central Hudsonrsquos response diminish the length and impact of outages and will en-hance customer satisfaction

ldquoWe are trying to be proactive so em-ployees can watch whatrsquos happening to the electric grid and be prepared in case they have to respondrdquo said Customer Informa-tion Program Manager Donna Medici

ldquoIndividuals who sign up for these tex-ting alerts will be able to see impacts to the electric system in real time so they are better able to plan ahead and reactrdquo

Employees can register for one or all of the district alerts by emailing employ-eealertscenhudcom The text notifica-tions are part of the upgrade to the Storm Central outage map and Notifi text alerts Central Hudson is the first company to use text messaging alerts from KUBRA as the system was designed for Central Hud-son from scratch Since the alerts are part of already developed systems the cost was minimal The idea was originally recom-mended by Regional Director of Electric TampD Operations Basil Stewart

ldquoIt was quite challenging to develop the system and integrate it with our outage map and Notifi but through persistence and a lot of effort I believe wersquove created a useful toolrdquo Medici said ldquoIt is very grat-ifying to see all of the hard work pay off

especially during this most recent storm in which thousands of customers were without power The system performance was greatrdquo

Employees can halt the notifications for 24 hours by texting ldquoPAUSErdquo or ter-minate permanently by texting ldquoSTOPrdquo Once an employee stops the notifications he or she must re-register by emailing em-ployeealertscenhudcom

So far about 100 management em-ployees are signed up Employees can register for the alerts with any cellphone Text messaging rates do apply to personal devices

New text message alerts to keep employees informed during outages

Central Hudsonrsquos annual Winter Gala will be held on Jan 20 at the Poughkeepsie Grandview

W I N T E R G A L ASave the date

2 N O V E M B E R 3 2 0 1 7 N E W S C E N T R A L

den to 6 percent or below their household income The recipients receive monthly credits based on their type of energy ser-vice and the amount of benefits they re-ceive from the federal Home Energy As-sistance Program (HEAP) HEAP benefits are funded and administered through the Department of Social Services

What are the requirementsThere are two requirements to par-

ticipate in the new program The custom-er must receive a regular or emergency HEAP grant and he or she must enroll in Budget Billing

When a customerrsquos account receives a HEAP benefit he or she will automatically be enrolled in the Low Income Bill Dis-count Program The HEAP application period begins on Nov 13

For the first time customers who do not heat with Central Hudson are also eli-gible to receive the monthly credits Those who heat by other means such as oil coal propane wood kerosene or corn and re-ceive a HEAP benefit will automatically be enrolled in the new program once the HEAP department notifies Central Hud-son Self-enrollment is also available for these alternate fuel source customers by sending in their ldquoNotice of Decisionrdquo let-ter once itrsquos received from HEAP

Once enrolled in the Low Income Bill Discount Program customers will receive a letter advising them of their enrollment in Budget Billing and the monthly budget installment amount Customers can opt out of Budget Billing at any time

How does it workOnce HEAP is received or Central

Hudson has verified the HEAP grant a monthly credit will be applied to that ac-count for 12 consecutive months provid-ed the account remains open and active for the entire period The amount of the bill discount credit is based on the service type and amount of HEAP benefit Dis-counts range from $30 to $67 per month

on natural gas heating bills up to $3 per month on natural gas non-heating $19 to $72 per month on electric heating and $19 to $56 per month on electric non-heating A combination of any of these services could mean increased credits Customers receiving a HEAP benefit for non-utili-ty fuels for heating could receive a credit ranging from $3 to $22 per month

Central Hudsonrsquos current low-income initiative the Powerful Opportunities Pro-gram (POP) will be phased out by 2020 It serves a limited amount of customers and the new program will provide assistance to a larger number of customers

While the Powerful Opportunities Program is being phased out the existing POP customers will continue to receive the arrears forgiveness benefit as long as program requirements continue to be met along with receiving the new low-in-come program benefits

ldquoItrsquos a good start in our effort to assist those customers who need it mostrdquo said Consumer Outreach Supervisor Beth Mo-naco ldquoWe are collaborating with our part-ners throughout our service territory to find additional avenues that will provide further support to our customersrdquo

Based on its agreement with the state Public Service Commission Central Hud-son is expected to enroll 25000 custom-ers within the first three years That is a challenging task since only 8200 received HEAP benefits last year (not including emergency and minor grants) In order to reach its goal Consumer Outreach is ramping up its communication with local agencies and customers

All previous HEAP recipients were notified of the changes and are being re-minded of the new program The Compa-ny is also sharing resources and education-al materials with roughly 180 community agencies who work directly with the tar-geted population Employees within Con-sumer Outreach are conducting office presentations about the new program and it has expanded its networking opportuni-ties The Company is also reaching out to local oil propane and kerosene companies

to advise them of the changes so employ-ees can work with their representatives to get as many mutual customers enrolled in the new low-income program as possible

The department will introduce a new web page and a new low-income newslet-ter Powering Connections which will be sent to all HEAP customers Both of these platforms will provide information on the available programs energy efficiency tips and other resources to help vulnera-ble customers cut down on their energy expenses Central Hudson is also utiliz-ing social media bill inserts the website media releases radio advertisements out-bound calls and Customer Service Repre-sentatives to spread the message

ldquoOutreach is committed to working with any and all agencies to help bring awareness to the many programs that we have available to assist our low-income and senior customersrdquo said Operating Supervisor of Consumer Outreach Paula Coppin ldquoWe hope that our employees will help us get the word out to organizations for which they may volunteer such as se-nior centers churches and community agenciesrdquo

How did we get hereThe PSC began examining all state

utility low-income programs in 2015 in order to standardize them The goal was to reduce the economic burden on all low-income customers The PSC approved the Low Income Bill Discount Program in 2016 and then Central Hudson and all other energy providers submitted imple-mentation plans for how each organiza-tion would adhere to the new program

The Consumer Outreach and Infor-mation Technology departments have been collaborating for about eight months to implement an automated system that will facilitate the Low Income Bill Dis-count Program All of the programming was completed in-house led by Senior Sys-tems Analyst Janet Manfredi The program will run through the Customer Informa-tion System (CIS) in the same manner that the current HEAP credits operate

L O W I N C O M E F R O M PA G E 1

C E N T R A L H U D S O N G A S amp E L E C T R I C N O V E M B E R 3 2 0 1 7 3

Central Hudson employees networked with representatives of other energy

providers to share information on work practices equipment safety and construc-tion standards at the biennial Northeast Underground Committee meeting last week

The Northeast Underground Com-mittee is a regional organization of inves-tor-owned electric utilities located in the Northeast Middle Atlantic and East Cen-tral areas of the United States Its members exchange ideas and information on prac-tical solutions to operating construction and engineering concerns involving the underground electrical distribution sys-tem

The purpose of the organization is to develop a forum to share views and ex-periences on underground distribution systems with the intent of promoting an early awareness of potential problem areas and methods of improving reliability and productivity This was the first time that Central Hudson has hosted a Northeast Underground Committee conference

ldquoIt was a great opportunity to host this event for the first timerdquo said Assis-tant Engineer Henry Wilson-Sowah who organized the conference ldquoIt was a great networking experience We shared ideas

on underground standards and work methods with the group members and engineersrdquo

The attend-ees which includ-ed representatives from National Grid Con Edison Public Service Enterprise Group United Illu-minating and Or-ange amp Rockland discussed electric grounding in un-derground manhole systems and tech-nology used for test-ing underground ca-bles Wilson-Sowah said learning from other energy providers will help Central Hudson finalize its underground ground-ing practices and documentation

IMCORP a cable health diagnostic company presented on its methods for testing cable and locating defects Rep-resentatives from the organization were invited by Engineer Nick Conza after working with Central Hudson on a re-

search and development project over the summer IMCORP employees spent two weeks with Central Hudson to test approx-imately 30000 feet of underground resi-dential distribution cable For each section of cable tested IMCORP provided a report that identified what parts of the cable and which components had defects

IMCORPrsquos technology can determine where partial discharge is occurring as well as the severity Knowing the severity can help with prioritizing repairs Partial dis-charge is arcing and sparking that occurs at certain voltage levels around a defect in the insulation Partial discharge forms electri-cal trees in the insulation which are carbon paths that branch out over time Eventual-ly these carbon paths grow through the insulation as the cable system is subjected to lightning and switching transients at which time the cable fails at that location causing an outage

Conza said he invited IMCORP be-cause it could be beneficial for other en-ergy providers to learn about the available technology so they too can identify defects in underground cable and prioritize re-pairs based on the severity of the defect

Central Hudson hosts biennial networking event

Director of electric Distribution and Standards Heather Adams (left) and engineer Nick Conza (right) discuss technology and methods used to find defects in underground cable splices and terminations with John Kreso from ImCOrP

Central Hudson hosted the biennial conference for the Northeast Underground Committee last week The three-day networking event was organized by Assistant engineer Henry Wilson-Sowah (center back row)

4 N O V E M B E R 3 2 0 1 7 N E W S C E N T R A L

Future employees interns recruitedThe strength of Central Hudsonrsquos fu-

ture depends on its ability to recruit and retain the greatest talent

This requires consistent communica-tion to make potential employees aware of the many opportunities at Central Hud-son the benefits of working in the energy industry and how their talents fit into the Companyrsquos mission to provide safe and reliable service To that end Central Hud-son employees have been attending career fairs at statewide colleges throughout the fall

ldquoThe fall career fair season has been extremely successful and we have spoken with excellent candidates for employment and the internship programrdquo said Asso-ciate Human Resources Administrator Corey Chambers ldquoPersonally I have seen some outstanding resumes and I have been impressed with the students that have done their research on Central Hud-son prior to coming to the career fair and speaking with usrdquo

Representatives from HR and other employees visited Marist Rensselaer Poly-technic Institute the State University of New York at Binghamton Clarkson Uni-versity Manhattan University and others

throughout the fall Chambers expressed grat-itude to the employees who volunteered to attend the ca-reer fairs and share their ex-periences with the students

ldquoI want to give a special thanks to the Central Hud-son employees that have vol-unteered to at-tend the career fairs with usrdquo Chambers said ldquoThese employ-ees are usually alumni of the colleges that we are attend-ing and play a pivotal part in recruiting because the students can relate to them since the Central Hudson employee was once in their shoesrdquo

Employment Coordinator Diane DrsquoAlessandro Associate Accounting Soft-ware Specialist Sean Manna and Junior Engineer Cora Juczak attended the SUNY New Paltz career fair on Oct 18 Juczak is one of 30 current employees who were formerly interns

Alicia Knights a junior studying fi-nance visited the Companyrsquos table to learn about the requirements of the sum-mer internship program She has already interned at the Walkway Over the Hud-son but wants to further her experience at Central Hudson Knights said she was drawn to Central Hudson because of its involvement in the community and be-cause the program provides tremendous opportunities to start a career

Nathan Hempel is graduating in May

and is searching for a career in econom-ics The Tivoli resident has friends who recommended Central Hudson due to its culture and values

ldquoCentral Hudson provides a valuable service to the community and it would be great to be part of that effortrdquo Hempel said

The season of career fairs coincides with the Companyrsquos recruitment of in-terns Central Hudson began sorting through resumes and applications a few months earlier than previous years to match with the timeline of other organi-zations By starting the process earlier the Company has a greater chance to attract the most qualified candidates before they commit to another business

ldquoBy recruiting earlier we have a better chance to recruit top talent for each de-partment so we can continue to bring in quality interns that will have the potential for full-time employment in the futurerdquo Chambers said

Recruitment

employment Coordinator Diane DrsquoAlessandro discusses internship and career opportunities at Central Hudson with a SUNY New Paltz student during a recent career fair

LOOKING FOr AN INTerNRequests for 2018 summer interns can be sent to Associate Human Resources Administrator Darrick Fuller at dfullercenhudcom

Please remember the request should have the group headrsquos approval and it should include an outline of the duties and projects for which the intern(s) would be responsible

Central Hudson will accept applications from students until April 13 Applicants can apply by visiting CenHudcomemployment and clicking ldquoSearch Career Opportunitiesrdquo

C E N T R A L H U D S O N G A S amp E L E C T R I C N O V E M B E R 3 2 0 1 7 5

Central Hudson and its employees raised more than $2000 to support the Alzheimerrsquos Association Walk to End Alzheimerrsquos on Oct 14

The walk benefitted the Hudson Valley chapter of the Alzheimerrsquos Association and it is part of the nationrsquos largest event to raise awareness and funds for care support and research

Central Hudsonrsquos team was organized by Associate Systems Analyst Jim Bowers (center) Order Dispatcher 1C Janine Matuk and Engineering Aide Nick Boffoli also attended the event on the Walkway Over the Hudson

Money raised to benefitAlzheimerrsquos Association

Records and Information Analyst Jen-nifer Cannella and Associate Real

Property Services Representative Lind-say Cullen are organizing Central Hud-sonrsquos annual Thanksgiving Food Drive for Dutchess Outreach

Cannella and Cullen said they vol-unteered to lead the 37th annual drive because they want to make a difference in their community The donations will provide five local families with a home cooked Thanksgiving dinner and other necessary household items to get through the holidays

ldquoItrsquos incredible to see how our entire Company can come together to provide much-needed support for our neigh-borsrdquo Cullen said

Last year Cannella and Cullen re-ceived a letter from one of the families expressing its appreciation for the do-nations Cullen said the feedback rein-forced the positive impact that employ-ees can have on their neighbors even if itrsquos through a small food or monetary donation

ldquoWe would like to thank everyone for their continued support and their willingness to donate their time and en-ergyrdquo Cannella said ldquoYou make our job easyrdquo

The team will sort donations on Nov 17 shop for perishable items on Nov 20 and deliver to the five local families on Nov 21 For more information please see Page 6

Employees can contribute by participating in the Casual for a Cause fundraiser on Nov 10 and 17 By donating at least $5 employees will be allowed to wear jeans to work on the next two Fridays To learn how to donate or to obtain more information on the Casual for a Cause fundraisers please visit the Employees Events Committee space on the CH Wiki site

OuR PeOPleTHE POWER TO MAkE A DIFFERENCE

JENNIFER cANNELLARecords and Information Analyst

ORgANizATiONDutchess Outreach

LINDSAY cULLENAssociate Real PropertyServices Representative

6 N O V E M B E R 3 2 0 1 7 N E W S C E N T R A L

HOLIDAY FOOD DrIVeCentral Hudson employees are once again coordinating the annual Thanksgiving food drive

Employees are encouraged to donate needed supplies including canned meat vegetables tuna fruit soup yams potatoes pasta sauce rice peanut butter jelly powered milk cereals and more

in addition to assisting these local families the extra donations will be given to the Dutchess Outreach food bank to help others during the holiday season

The following volunteers have set up collection boxes for non-perishable items in their work areas and will be accepting donations through Nov 17bull Corporate Communications

Tina Romainebull Human Resources

Roxanne Shepleybull Purchasing Domenick DrsquoAddonabull S1 Lisa Rundle and Rick Naccaratobull S2 Linda iovinobull Main floor Donna giametta

and Denise Hectorbull Main floor by gas and Mechanical

Engineering Joe Kobergerbull Second floor Amy Dittmar bull Second floor by Electric System

Protection zarin Mirzabull Third floor Jaime Timberlakebull Kingston Kelly Torcellobull Poughkeepsie District Carmie Ortizbull Newburgh Carrine Brownbull Eltings Corners Shannon Malakbull Catskill Jill Warnecke

Cash donations or checks (made out toldquoDutchess Outreachrdquo) may also be made to the above volunteers Cash donations will be used to purchase perishable items for five holiday meals for area families

in an effort to raise additional funds employees can also participate in ldquocasual Fridaysrdquo on Nov 10 and 17 with a $5 donation to Dutchess Outreach Volunteers are still welcome if anyone is interested in helping please contact Jen Cannella at ext 5290 or Lindsay Cullen at ext 5430

Debra KeltosAccounting Technician 1C

PoughkeepsieNov 14

40YEARS

E M P LOY E E M I L E S T O N E SService anniversaries

Gail DuncanEngineer

PoughkeepsieNov 2

25YEARS

Nicole TancrediDirector of Systems Development

PoughkeepsieNov 17

20YEARS

Dan HarkenriderService Supervisor

PoughkeepsieNov 12

15YEARS

eric ballerCommercial Representative ndash Special

FishkillNov 18

15YEARS

Sean CrossChief gas Mechanic

NewburghNov 19

15YEARS

Daniel CasellaStrategic BuyerPoughkeepsie

Nov 5

5YEARS

Dan Olivierigas Foreman

FishkillNov 30

5YEARS

C E N T R A L H U D S O N G A S amp E L E C T R I C N O V E M B E R 3 2 0 1 7 7

M A k E A D I F F E R E N C E D AY O N O C T 2 4Photo gallery

Above Central Hudson employees and other local residents volunteered at the Food bank of the Hudson Valley on Oct 24 The team worked in the warehouse in Cornwall-on-Hudson and checked the quality of the donations and sorted inventory This was part of the United Way of the Dutchess-Orange regionrsquos annual make a Difference Day

Above United Way chair brianna Peak sorts frozen meat before it is weighed and put back in the freezer Central Hudsonrsquos participation in make a Difference Day is part of the annual United Way campaign which concludes later this month

Above Associate engineer Chris Gilbert checks the expiration date of donations The team unloaded pallets of donations sorted usable items from damaged products weighed acceptable donations and then re-stacked them onto pallets to be sent to the freezer

Above Tester 3C eric Palmatier prepares to bring a box of donations to the scale For more photographs from make a Difference Day visit the Corporate Communications space of the CH Wiki site The gallery can be found under the ldquoNewslettersrdquo tab

8 N O V E M B E R 3 2 0 1 7 N E W S C E N T R A L

THANKSGIVING LUNCHThanksgiving lunch will be served early this year in the South Road cafeteria The Thanksgiving meal will be served on Nov 9 and cost $699 or $799 with pumpkin apple or pecan pie Contact Chef Manager gian Stagnaro at ext 5843 for questions or more information

Employees will be able to chow down on an assortment of holiday fixingsbull turkey and gravybull sweet potato with marshmallows

and brown sugarbull Brussels sproutsbull green bean and bacon casserole bull savory mushroom and rosemary

bread pudding andbull cranberry and black pepper sauce

LOCAL 320 SCHOLArSHIPThe international Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 320 awarded five Student Achievement Awards The recipients were Daniel Boyle Connor Wylock Matt Earley Stephen DrsquoAlessandro and Katherine gallery They will each receive a $500 college scholarship from the Local 320

To be eligible for the award applicants must be enrolled full time and be attending an approved accredited college or technical institution be the son or daughter of an active iBEW Local 320 member and not be a prior Achievement Award recipient The awards are limited to one person not one per family

Next year the drawing for the awards will be held at the October general meeting in Kingston Applications are always available from any shop steward or on ibewlocal320org

Management employees can sign up for text message alerts to receive

real-time power outage and wires down alerts

The new alert system which launched in May sends notifications when there are at least 500 customers without power in a district or at least 5000 affected through-out the entire service territory Alerts are also sent when there are more than 20 wires down orders district wide or more than 10 orders per district The system keeps employees aware of when outag-es begin and is updated every 30 min-utes These real-time alerts will improve Central Hudsonrsquos response diminish the length and impact of outages and will en-hance customer satisfaction

ldquoWe are trying to be proactive so em-ployees can watch whatrsquos happening to the electric grid and be prepared in case they have to respondrdquo said Customer Informa-tion Program Manager Donna Medici

ldquoIndividuals who sign up for these tex-ting alerts will be able to see impacts to the electric system in real time so they are better able to plan ahead and reactrdquo

Employees can register for one or all of the district alerts by emailing employ-eealertscenhudcom The text notifica-tions are part of the upgrade to the Storm Central outage map and Notifi text alerts Central Hudson is the first company to use text messaging alerts from KUBRA as the system was designed for Central Hud-son from scratch Since the alerts are part of already developed systems the cost was minimal The idea was originally recom-mended by Regional Director of Electric TampD Operations Basil Stewart

ldquoIt was quite challenging to develop the system and integrate it with our outage map and Notifi but through persistence and a lot of effort I believe wersquove created a useful toolrdquo Medici said ldquoIt is very grat-ifying to see all of the hard work pay off

especially during this most recent storm in which thousands of customers were without power The system performance was greatrdquo

Employees can halt the notifications for 24 hours by texting ldquoPAUSErdquo or ter-minate permanently by texting ldquoSTOPrdquo Once an employee stops the notifications he or she must re-register by emailing em-ployeealertscenhudcom

So far about 100 management em-ployees are signed up Employees can register for the alerts with any cellphone Text messaging rates do apply to personal devices

New text message alerts to keep employees informed during outages

Central Hudsonrsquos annual Winter Gala will be held on Jan 20 at the Poughkeepsie Grandview

W I N T E R G A L ASave the date

C E N T R A L H U D S O N G A S amp E L E C T R I C N O V E M B E R 3 2 0 1 7 3

Central Hudson employees networked with representatives of other energy

providers to share information on work practices equipment safety and construc-tion standards at the biennial Northeast Underground Committee meeting last week

The Northeast Underground Com-mittee is a regional organization of inves-tor-owned electric utilities located in the Northeast Middle Atlantic and East Cen-tral areas of the United States Its members exchange ideas and information on prac-tical solutions to operating construction and engineering concerns involving the underground electrical distribution sys-tem

The purpose of the organization is to develop a forum to share views and ex-periences on underground distribution systems with the intent of promoting an early awareness of potential problem areas and methods of improving reliability and productivity This was the first time that Central Hudson has hosted a Northeast Underground Committee conference

ldquoIt was a great opportunity to host this event for the first timerdquo said Assis-tant Engineer Henry Wilson-Sowah who organized the conference ldquoIt was a great networking experience We shared ideas

on underground standards and work methods with the group members and engineersrdquo

The attend-ees which includ-ed representatives from National Grid Con Edison Public Service Enterprise Group United Illu-minating and Or-ange amp Rockland discussed electric grounding in un-derground manhole systems and tech-nology used for test-ing underground ca-bles Wilson-Sowah said learning from other energy providers will help Central Hudson finalize its underground ground-ing practices and documentation

IMCORP a cable health diagnostic company presented on its methods for testing cable and locating defects Rep-resentatives from the organization were invited by Engineer Nick Conza after working with Central Hudson on a re-

search and development project over the summer IMCORP employees spent two weeks with Central Hudson to test approx-imately 30000 feet of underground resi-dential distribution cable For each section of cable tested IMCORP provided a report that identified what parts of the cable and which components had defects

IMCORPrsquos technology can determine where partial discharge is occurring as well as the severity Knowing the severity can help with prioritizing repairs Partial dis-charge is arcing and sparking that occurs at certain voltage levels around a defect in the insulation Partial discharge forms electri-cal trees in the insulation which are carbon paths that branch out over time Eventual-ly these carbon paths grow through the insulation as the cable system is subjected to lightning and switching transients at which time the cable fails at that location causing an outage

Conza said he invited IMCORP be-cause it could be beneficial for other en-ergy providers to learn about the available technology so they too can identify defects in underground cable and prioritize re-pairs based on the severity of the defect

Central Hudson hosts biennial networking event

Director of electric Distribution and Standards Heather Adams (left) and engineer Nick Conza (right) discuss technology and methods used to find defects in underground cable splices and terminations with John Kreso from ImCOrP

Central Hudson hosted the biennial conference for the Northeast Underground Committee last week The three-day networking event was organized by Assistant engineer Henry Wilson-Sowah (center back row)

4 N O V E M B E R 3 2 0 1 7 N E W S C E N T R A L

Future employees interns recruitedThe strength of Central Hudsonrsquos fu-

ture depends on its ability to recruit and retain the greatest talent

This requires consistent communica-tion to make potential employees aware of the many opportunities at Central Hud-son the benefits of working in the energy industry and how their talents fit into the Companyrsquos mission to provide safe and reliable service To that end Central Hud-son employees have been attending career fairs at statewide colleges throughout the fall

ldquoThe fall career fair season has been extremely successful and we have spoken with excellent candidates for employment and the internship programrdquo said Asso-ciate Human Resources Administrator Corey Chambers ldquoPersonally I have seen some outstanding resumes and I have been impressed with the students that have done their research on Central Hud-son prior to coming to the career fair and speaking with usrdquo

Representatives from HR and other employees visited Marist Rensselaer Poly-technic Institute the State University of New York at Binghamton Clarkson Uni-versity Manhattan University and others

throughout the fall Chambers expressed grat-itude to the employees who volunteered to attend the ca-reer fairs and share their ex-periences with the students

ldquoI want to give a special thanks to the Central Hud-son employees that have vol-unteered to at-tend the career fairs with usrdquo Chambers said ldquoThese employ-ees are usually alumni of the colleges that we are attend-ing and play a pivotal part in recruiting because the students can relate to them since the Central Hudson employee was once in their shoesrdquo

Employment Coordinator Diane DrsquoAlessandro Associate Accounting Soft-ware Specialist Sean Manna and Junior Engineer Cora Juczak attended the SUNY New Paltz career fair on Oct 18 Juczak is one of 30 current employees who were formerly interns

Alicia Knights a junior studying fi-nance visited the Companyrsquos table to learn about the requirements of the sum-mer internship program She has already interned at the Walkway Over the Hud-son but wants to further her experience at Central Hudson Knights said she was drawn to Central Hudson because of its involvement in the community and be-cause the program provides tremendous opportunities to start a career

Nathan Hempel is graduating in May

and is searching for a career in econom-ics The Tivoli resident has friends who recommended Central Hudson due to its culture and values

ldquoCentral Hudson provides a valuable service to the community and it would be great to be part of that effortrdquo Hempel said

The season of career fairs coincides with the Companyrsquos recruitment of in-terns Central Hudson began sorting through resumes and applications a few months earlier than previous years to match with the timeline of other organi-zations By starting the process earlier the Company has a greater chance to attract the most qualified candidates before they commit to another business

ldquoBy recruiting earlier we have a better chance to recruit top talent for each de-partment so we can continue to bring in quality interns that will have the potential for full-time employment in the futurerdquo Chambers said

Recruitment

employment Coordinator Diane DrsquoAlessandro discusses internship and career opportunities at Central Hudson with a SUNY New Paltz student during a recent career fair

LOOKING FOr AN INTerNRequests for 2018 summer interns can be sent to Associate Human Resources Administrator Darrick Fuller at dfullercenhudcom

Please remember the request should have the group headrsquos approval and it should include an outline of the duties and projects for which the intern(s) would be responsible

Central Hudson will accept applications from students until April 13 Applicants can apply by visiting CenHudcomemployment and clicking ldquoSearch Career Opportunitiesrdquo

C E N T R A L H U D S O N G A S amp E L E C T R I C N O V E M B E R 3 2 0 1 7 5

Central Hudson and its employees raised more than $2000 to support the Alzheimerrsquos Association Walk to End Alzheimerrsquos on Oct 14

The walk benefitted the Hudson Valley chapter of the Alzheimerrsquos Association and it is part of the nationrsquos largest event to raise awareness and funds for care support and research

Central Hudsonrsquos team was organized by Associate Systems Analyst Jim Bowers (center) Order Dispatcher 1C Janine Matuk and Engineering Aide Nick Boffoli also attended the event on the Walkway Over the Hudson

Money raised to benefitAlzheimerrsquos Association

Records and Information Analyst Jen-nifer Cannella and Associate Real

Property Services Representative Lind-say Cullen are organizing Central Hud-sonrsquos annual Thanksgiving Food Drive for Dutchess Outreach

Cannella and Cullen said they vol-unteered to lead the 37th annual drive because they want to make a difference in their community The donations will provide five local families with a home cooked Thanksgiving dinner and other necessary household items to get through the holidays

ldquoItrsquos incredible to see how our entire Company can come together to provide much-needed support for our neigh-borsrdquo Cullen said

Last year Cannella and Cullen re-ceived a letter from one of the families expressing its appreciation for the do-nations Cullen said the feedback rein-forced the positive impact that employ-ees can have on their neighbors even if itrsquos through a small food or monetary donation

ldquoWe would like to thank everyone for their continued support and their willingness to donate their time and en-ergyrdquo Cannella said ldquoYou make our job easyrdquo

The team will sort donations on Nov 17 shop for perishable items on Nov 20 and deliver to the five local families on Nov 21 For more information please see Page 6

Employees can contribute by participating in the Casual for a Cause fundraiser on Nov 10 and 17 By donating at least $5 employees will be allowed to wear jeans to work on the next two Fridays To learn how to donate or to obtain more information on the Casual for a Cause fundraisers please visit the Employees Events Committee space on the CH Wiki site

OuR PeOPleTHE POWER TO MAkE A DIFFERENCE

JENNIFER cANNELLARecords and Information Analyst

ORgANizATiONDutchess Outreach

LINDSAY cULLENAssociate Real PropertyServices Representative

6 N O V E M B E R 3 2 0 1 7 N E W S C E N T R A L

HOLIDAY FOOD DrIVeCentral Hudson employees are once again coordinating the annual Thanksgiving food drive

Employees are encouraged to donate needed supplies including canned meat vegetables tuna fruit soup yams potatoes pasta sauce rice peanut butter jelly powered milk cereals and more

in addition to assisting these local families the extra donations will be given to the Dutchess Outreach food bank to help others during the holiday season

The following volunteers have set up collection boxes for non-perishable items in their work areas and will be accepting donations through Nov 17bull Corporate Communications

Tina Romainebull Human Resources

Roxanne Shepleybull Purchasing Domenick DrsquoAddonabull S1 Lisa Rundle and Rick Naccaratobull S2 Linda iovinobull Main floor Donna giametta

and Denise Hectorbull Main floor by gas and Mechanical

Engineering Joe Kobergerbull Second floor Amy Dittmar bull Second floor by Electric System

Protection zarin Mirzabull Third floor Jaime Timberlakebull Kingston Kelly Torcellobull Poughkeepsie District Carmie Ortizbull Newburgh Carrine Brownbull Eltings Corners Shannon Malakbull Catskill Jill Warnecke

Cash donations or checks (made out toldquoDutchess Outreachrdquo) may also be made to the above volunteers Cash donations will be used to purchase perishable items for five holiday meals for area families

in an effort to raise additional funds employees can also participate in ldquocasual Fridaysrdquo on Nov 10 and 17 with a $5 donation to Dutchess Outreach Volunteers are still welcome if anyone is interested in helping please contact Jen Cannella at ext 5290 or Lindsay Cullen at ext 5430

Debra KeltosAccounting Technician 1C

PoughkeepsieNov 14

40YEARS

E M P LOY E E M I L E S T O N E SService anniversaries

Gail DuncanEngineer

PoughkeepsieNov 2

25YEARS

Nicole TancrediDirector of Systems Development

PoughkeepsieNov 17

20YEARS

Dan HarkenriderService Supervisor

PoughkeepsieNov 12

15YEARS

eric ballerCommercial Representative ndash Special

FishkillNov 18

15YEARS

Sean CrossChief gas Mechanic

NewburghNov 19

15YEARS

Daniel CasellaStrategic BuyerPoughkeepsie

Nov 5

5YEARS

Dan Olivierigas Foreman

FishkillNov 30

5YEARS

C E N T R A L H U D S O N G A S amp E L E C T R I C N O V E M B E R 3 2 0 1 7 7

M A k E A D I F F E R E N C E D AY O N O C T 2 4Photo gallery

Above Central Hudson employees and other local residents volunteered at the Food bank of the Hudson Valley on Oct 24 The team worked in the warehouse in Cornwall-on-Hudson and checked the quality of the donations and sorted inventory This was part of the United Way of the Dutchess-Orange regionrsquos annual make a Difference Day

Above United Way chair brianna Peak sorts frozen meat before it is weighed and put back in the freezer Central Hudsonrsquos participation in make a Difference Day is part of the annual United Way campaign which concludes later this month

Above Associate engineer Chris Gilbert checks the expiration date of donations The team unloaded pallets of donations sorted usable items from damaged products weighed acceptable donations and then re-stacked them onto pallets to be sent to the freezer

Above Tester 3C eric Palmatier prepares to bring a box of donations to the scale For more photographs from make a Difference Day visit the Corporate Communications space of the CH Wiki site The gallery can be found under the ldquoNewslettersrdquo tab

8 N O V E M B E R 3 2 0 1 7 N E W S C E N T R A L

THANKSGIVING LUNCHThanksgiving lunch will be served early this year in the South Road cafeteria The Thanksgiving meal will be served on Nov 9 and cost $699 or $799 with pumpkin apple or pecan pie Contact Chef Manager gian Stagnaro at ext 5843 for questions or more information

Employees will be able to chow down on an assortment of holiday fixingsbull turkey and gravybull sweet potato with marshmallows

and brown sugarbull Brussels sproutsbull green bean and bacon casserole bull savory mushroom and rosemary

bread pudding andbull cranberry and black pepper sauce

LOCAL 320 SCHOLArSHIPThe international Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 320 awarded five Student Achievement Awards The recipients were Daniel Boyle Connor Wylock Matt Earley Stephen DrsquoAlessandro and Katherine gallery They will each receive a $500 college scholarship from the Local 320

To be eligible for the award applicants must be enrolled full time and be attending an approved accredited college or technical institution be the son or daughter of an active iBEW Local 320 member and not be a prior Achievement Award recipient The awards are limited to one person not one per family

Next year the drawing for the awards will be held at the October general meeting in Kingston Applications are always available from any shop steward or on ibewlocal320org

Management employees can sign up for text message alerts to receive

real-time power outage and wires down alerts

The new alert system which launched in May sends notifications when there are at least 500 customers without power in a district or at least 5000 affected through-out the entire service territory Alerts are also sent when there are more than 20 wires down orders district wide or more than 10 orders per district The system keeps employees aware of when outag-es begin and is updated every 30 min-utes These real-time alerts will improve Central Hudsonrsquos response diminish the length and impact of outages and will en-hance customer satisfaction

ldquoWe are trying to be proactive so em-ployees can watch whatrsquos happening to the electric grid and be prepared in case they have to respondrdquo said Customer Informa-tion Program Manager Donna Medici

ldquoIndividuals who sign up for these tex-ting alerts will be able to see impacts to the electric system in real time so they are better able to plan ahead and reactrdquo

Employees can register for one or all of the district alerts by emailing employ-eealertscenhudcom The text notifica-tions are part of the upgrade to the Storm Central outage map and Notifi text alerts Central Hudson is the first company to use text messaging alerts from KUBRA as the system was designed for Central Hud-son from scratch Since the alerts are part of already developed systems the cost was minimal The idea was originally recom-mended by Regional Director of Electric TampD Operations Basil Stewart

ldquoIt was quite challenging to develop the system and integrate it with our outage map and Notifi but through persistence and a lot of effort I believe wersquove created a useful toolrdquo Medici said ldquoIt is very grat-ifying to see all of the hard work pay off

especially during this most recent storm in which thousands of customers were without power The system performance was greatrdquo

Employees can halt the notifications for 24 hours by texting ldquoPAUSErdquo or ter-minate permanently by texting ldquoSTOPrdquo Once an employee stops the notifications he or she must re-register by emailing em-ployeealertscenhudcom

So far about 100 management em-ployees are signed up Employees can register for the alerts with any cellphone Text messaging rates do apply to personal devices

New text message alerts to keep employees informed during outages

Central Hudsonrsquos annual Winter Gala will be held on Jan 20 at the Poughkeepsie Grandview

W I N T E R G A L ASave the date

4 N O V E M B E R 3 2 0 1 7 N E W S C E N T R A L

Future employees interns recruitedThe strength of Central Hudsonrsquos fu-

ture depends on its ability to recruit and retain the greatest talent

This requires consistent communica-tion to make potential employees aware of the many opportunities at Central Hud-son the benefits of working in the energy industry and how their talents fit into the Companyrsquos mission to provide safe and reliable service To that end Central Hud-son employees have been attending career fairs at statewide colleges throughout the fall

ldquoThe fall career fair season has been extremely successful and we have spoken with excellent candidates for employment and the internship programrdquo said Asso-ciate Human Resources Administrator Corey Chambers ldquoPersonally I have seen some outstanding resumes and I have been impressed with the students that have done their research on Central Hud-son prior to coming to the career fair and speaking with usrdquo

Representatives from HR and other employees visited Marist Rensselaer Poly-technic Institute the State University of New York at Binghamton Clarkson Uni-versity Manhattan University and others

throughout the fall Chambers expressed grat-itude to the employees who volunteered to attend the ca-reer fairs and share their ex-periences with the students

ldquoI want to give a special thanks to the Central Hud-son employees that have vol-unteered to at-tend the career fairs with usrdquo Chambers said ldquoThese employ-ees are usually alumni of the colleges that we are attend-ing and play a pivotal part in recruiting because the students can relate to them since the Central Hudson employee was once in their shoesrdquo

Employment Coordinator Diane DrsquoAlessandro Associate Accounting Soft-ware Specialist Sean Manna and Junior Engineer Cora Juczak attended the SUNY New Paltz career fair on Oct 18 Juczak is one of 30 current employees who were formerly interns

Alicia Knights a junior studying fi-nance visited the Companyrsquos table to learn about the requirements of the sum-mer internship program She has already interned at the Walkway Over the Hud-son but wants to further her experience at Central Hudson Knights said she was drawn to Central Hudson because of its involvement in the community and be-cause the program provides tremendous opportunities to start a career

Nathan Hempel is graduating in May

and is searching for a career in econom-ics The Tivoli resident has friends who recommended Central Hudson due to its culture and values

ldquoCentral Hudson provides a valuable service to the community and it would be great to be part of that effortrdquo Hempel said

The season of career fairs coincides with the Companyrsquos recruitment of in-terns Central Hudson began sorting through resumes and applications a few months earlier than previous years to match with the timeline of other organi-zations By starting the process earlier the Company has a greater chance to attract the most qualified candidates before they commit to another business

ldquoBy recruiting earlier we have a better chance to recruit top talent for each de-partment so we can continue to bring in quality interns that will have the potential for full-time employment in the futurerdquo Chambers said

Recruitment

employment Coordinator Diane DrsquoAlessandro discusses internship and career opportunities at Central Hudson with a SUNY New Paltz student during a recent career fair

LOOKING FOr AN INTerNRequests for 2018 summer interns can be sent to Associate Human Resources Administrator Darrick Fuller at dfullercenhudcom

Please remember the request should have the group headrsquos approval and it should include an outline of the duties and projects for which the intern(s) would be responsible

Central Hudson will accept applications from students until April 13 Applicants can apply by visiting CenHudcomemployment and clicking ldquoSearch Career Opportunitiesrdquo

C E N T R A L H U D S O N G A S amp E L E C T R I C N O V E M B E R 3 2 0 1 7 5

Central Hudson and its employees raised more than $2000 to support the Alzheimerrsquos Association Walk to End Alzheimerrsquos on Oct 14

The walk benefitted the Hudson Valley chapter of the Alzheimerrsquos Association and it is part of the nationrsquos largest event to raise awareness and funds for care support and research

Central Hudsonrsquos team was organized by Associate Systems Analyst Jim Bowers (center) Order Dispatcher 1C Janine Matuk and Engineering Aide Nick Boffoli also attended the event on the Walkway Over the Hudson

Money raised to benefitAlzheimerrsquos Association

Records and Information Analyst Jen-nifer Cannella and Associate Real

Property Services Representative Lind-say Cullen are organizing Central Hud-sonrsquos annual Thanksgiving Food Drive for Dutchess Outreach

Cannella and Cullen said they vol-unteered to lead the 37th annual drive because they want to make a difference in their community The donations will provide five local families with a home cooked Thanksgiving dinner and other necessary household items to get through the holidays

ldquoItrsquos incredible to see how our entire Company can come together to provide much-needed support for our neigh-borsrdquo Cullen said

Last year Cannella and Cullen re-ceived a letter from one of the families expressing its appreciation for the do-nations Cullen said the feedback rein-forced the positive impact that employ-ees can have on their neighbors even if itrsquos through a small food or monetary donation

ldquoWe would like to thank everyone for their continued support and their willingness to donate their time and en-ergyrdquo Cannella said ldquoYou make our job easyrdquo

The team will sort donations on Nov 17 shop for perishable items on Nov 20 and deliver to the five local families on Nov 21 For more information please see Page 6

Employees can contribute by participating in the Casual for a Cause fundraiser on Nov 10 and 17 By donating at least $5 employees will be allowed to wear jeans to work on the next two Fridays To learn how to donate or to obtain more information on the Casual for a Cause fundraisers please visit the Employees Events Committee space on the CH Wiki site

OuR PeOPleTHE POWER TO MAkE A DIFFERENCE

JENNIFER cANNELLARecords and Information Analyst

ORgANizATiONDutchess Outreach

LINDSAY cULLENAssociate Real PropertyServices Representative

6 N O V E M B E R 3 2 0 1 7 N E W S C E N T R A L

HOLIDAY FOOD DrIVeCentral Hudson employees are once again coordinating the annual Thanksgiving food drive

Employees are encouraged to donate needed supplies including canned meat vegetables tuna fruit soup yams potatoes pasta sauce rice peanut butter jelly powered milk cereals and more

in addition to assisting these local families the extra donations will be given to the Dutchess Outreach food bank to help others during the holiday season

The following volunteers have set up collection boxes for non-perishable items in their work areas and will be accepting donations through Nov 17bull Corporate Communications

Tina Romainebull Human Resources

Roxanne Shepleybull Purchasing Domenick DrsquoAddonabull S1 Lisa Rundle and Rick Naccaratobull S2 Linda iovinobull Main floor Donna giametta

and Denise Hectorbull Main floor by gas and Mechanical

Engineering Joe Kobergerbull Second floor Amy Dittmar bull Second floor by Electric System

Protection zarin Mirzabull Third floor Jaime Timberlakebull Kingston Kelly Torcellobull Poughkeepsie District Carmie Ortizbull Newburgh Carrine Brownbull Eltings Corners Shannon Malakbull Catskill Jill Warnecke

Cash donations or checks (made out toldquoDutchess Outreachrdquo) may also be made to the above volunteers Cash donations will be used to purchase perishable items for five holiday meals for area families

in an effort to raise additional funds employees can also participate in ldquocasual Fridaysrdquo on Nov 10 and 17 with a $5 donation to Dutchess Outreach Volunteers are still welcome if anyone is interested in helping please contact Jen Cannella at ext 5290 or Lindsay Cullen at ext 5430

Debra KeltosAccounting Technician 1C

PoughkeepsieNov 14

40YEARS

E M P LOY E E M I L E S T O N E SService anniversaries

Gail DuncanEngineer

PoughkeepsieNov 2

25YEARS

Nicole TancrediDirector of Systems Development

PoughkeepsieNov 17

20YEARS

Dan HarkenriderService Supervisor

PoughkeepsieNov 12

15YEARS

eric ballerCommercial Representative ndash Special

FishkillNov 18

15YEARS

Sean CrossChief gas Mechanic

NewburghNov 19

15YEARS

Daniel CasellaStrategic BuyerPoughkeepsie

Nov 5

5YEARS

Dan Olivierigas Foreman

FishkillNov 30

5YEARS

C E N T R A L H U D S O N G A S amp E L E C T R I C N O V E M B E R 3 2 0 1 7 7

M A k E A D I F F E R E N C E D AY O N O C T 2 4Photo gallery

Above Central Hudson employees and other local residents volunteered at the Food bank of the Hudson Valley on Oct 24 The team worked in the warehouse in Cornwall-on-Hudson and checked the quality of the donations and sorted inventory This was part of the United Way of the Dutchess-Orange regionrsquos annual make a Difference Day

Above United Way chair brianna Peak sorts frozen meat before it is weighed and put back in the freezer Central Hudsonrsquos participation in make a Difference Day is part of the annual United Way campaign which concludes later this month

Above Associate engineer Chris Gilbert checks the expiration date of donations The team unloaded pallets of donations sorted usable items from damaged products weighed acceptable donations and then re-stacked them onto pallets to be sent to the freezer

Above Tester 3C eric Palmatier prepares to bring a box of donations to the scale For more photographs from make a Difference Day visit the Corporate Communications space of the CH Wiki site The gallery can be found under the ldquoNewslettersrdquo tab

8 N O V E M B E R 3 2 0 1 7 N E W S C E N T R A L

THANKSGIVING LUNCHThanksgiving lunch will be served early this year in the South Road cafeteria The Thanksgiving meal will be served on Nov 9 and cost $699 or $799 with pumpkin apple or pecan pie Contact Chef Manager gian Stagnaro at ext 5843 for questions or more information

Employees will be able to chow down on an assortment of holiday fixingsbull turkey and gravybull sweet potato with marshmallows

and brown sugarbull Brussels sproutsbull green bean and bacon casserole bull savory mushroom and rosemary

bread pudding andbull cranberry and black pepper sauce

LOCAL 320 SCHOLArSHIPThe international Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 320 awarded five Student Achievement Awards The recipients were Daniel Boyle Connor Wylock Matt Earley Stephen DrsquoAlessandro and Katherine gallery They will each receive a $500 college scholarship from the Local 320

To be eligible for the award applicants must be enrolled full time and be attending an approved accredited college or technical institution be the son or daughter of an active iBEW Local 320 member and not be a prior Achievement Award recipient The awards are limited to one person not one per family

Next year the drawing for the awards will be held at the October general meeting in Kingston Applications are always available from any shop steward or on ibewlocal320org

Management employees can sign up for text message alerts to receive

real-time power outage and wires down alerts

The new alert system which launched in May sends notifications when there are at least 500 customers without power in a district or at least 5000 affected through-out the entire service territory Alerts are also sent when there are more than 20 wires down orders district wide or more than 10 orders per district The system keeps employees aware of when outag-es begin and is updated every 30 min-utes These real-time alerts will improve Central Hudsonrsquos response diminish the length and impact of outages and will en-hance customer satisfaction

ldquoWe are trying to be proactive so em-ployees can watch whatrsquos happening to the electric grid and be prepared in case they have to respondrdquo said Customer Informa-tion Program Manager Donna Medici

ldquoIndividuals who sign up for these tex-ting alerts will be able to see impacts to the electric system in real time so they are better able to plan ahead and reactrdquo

Employees can register for one or all of the district alerts by emailing employ-eealertscenhudcom The text notifica-tions are part of the upgrade to the Storm Central outage map and Notifi text alerts Central Hudson is the first company to use text messaging alerts from KUBRA as the system was designed for Central Hud-son from scratch Since the alerts are part of already developed systems the cost was minimal The idea was originally recom-mended by Regional Director of Electric TampD Operations Basil Stewart

ldquoIt was quite challenging to develop the system and integrate it with our outage map and Notifi but through persistence and a lot of effort I believe wersquove created a useful toolrdquo Medici said ldquoIt is very grat-ifying to see all of the hard work pay off

especially during this most recent storm in which thousands of customers were without power The system performance was greatrdquo

Employees can halt the notifications for 24 hours by texting ldquoPAUSErdquo or ter-minate permanently by texting ldquoSTOPrdquo Once an employee stops the notifications he or she must re-register by emailing em-ployeealertscenhudcom

So far about 100 management em-ployees are signed up Employees can register for the alerts with any cellphone Text messaging rates do apply to personal devices

New text message alerts to keep employees informed during outages

Central Hudsonrsquos annual Winter Gala will be held on Jan 20 at the Poughkeepsie Grandview

W I N T E R G A L ASave the date

C E N T R A L H U D S O N G A S amp E L E C T R I C N O V E M B E R 3 2 0 1 7 5

Central Hudson and its employees raised more than $2000 to support the Alzheimerrsquos Association Walk to End Alzheimerrsquos on Oct 14

The walk benefitted the Hudson Valley chapter of the Alzheimerrsquos Association and it is part of the nationrsquos largest event to raise awareness and funds for care support and research

Central Hudsonrsquos team was organized by Associate Systems Analyst Jim Bowers (center) Order Dispatcher 1C Janine Matuk and Engineering Aide Nick Boffoli also attended the event on the Walkway Over the Hudson

Money raised to benefitAlzheimerrsquos Association

Records and Information Analyst Jen-nifer Cannella and Associate Real

Property Services Representative Lind-say Cullen are organizing Central Hud-sonrsquos annual Thanksgiving Food Drive for Dutchess Outreach

Cannella and Cullen said they vol-unteered to lead the 37th annual drive because they want to make a difference in their community The donations will provide five local families with a home cooked Thanksgiving dinner and other necessary household items to get through the holidays

ldquoItrsquos incredible to see how our entire Company can come together to provide much-needed support for our neigh-borsrdquo Cullen said

Last year Cannella and Cullen re-ceived a letter from one of the families expressing its appreciation for the do-nations Cullen said the feedback rein-forced the positive impact that employ-ees can have on their neighbors even if itrsquos through a small food or monetary donation

ldquoWe would like to thank everyone for their continued support and their willingness to donate their time and en-ergyrdquo Cannella said ldquoYou make our job easyrdquo

The team will sort donations on Nov 17 shop for perishable items on Nov 20 and deliver to the five local families on Nov 21 For more information please see Page 6

Employees can contribute by participating in the Casual for a Cause fundraiser on Nov 10 and 17 By donating at least $5 employees will be allowed to wear jeans to work on the next two Fridays To learn how to donate or to obtain more information on the Casual for a Cause fundraisers please visit the Employees Events Committee space on the CH Wiki site

OuR PeOPleTHE POWER TO MAkE A DIFFERENCE

JENNIFER cANNELLARecords and Information Analyst

ORgANizATiONDutchess Outreach

LINDSAY cULLENAssociate Real PropertyServices Representative

6 N O V E M B E R 3 2 0 1 7 N E W S C E N T R A L

HOLIDAY FOOD DrIVeCentral Hudson employees are once again coordinating the annual Thanksgiving food drive

Employees are encouraged to donate needed supplies including canned meat vegetables tuna fruit soup yams potatoes pasta sauce rice peanut butter jelly powered milk cereals and more

in addition to assisting these local families the extra donations will be given to the Dutchess Outreach food bank to help others during the holiday season

The following volunteers have set up collection boxes for non-perishable items in their work areas and will be accepting donations through Nov 17bull Corporate Communications

Tina Romainebull Human Resources

Roxanne Shepleybull Purchasing Domenick DrsquoAddonabull S1 Lisa Rundle and Rick Naccaratobull S2 Linda iovinobull Main floor Donna giametta

and Denise Hectorbull Main floor by gas and Mechanical

Engineering Joe Kobergerbull Second floor Amy Dittmar bull Second floor by Electric System

Protection zarin Mirzabull Third floor Jaime Timberlakebull Kingston Kelly Torcellobull Poughkeepsie District Carmie Ortizbull Newburgh Carrine Brownbull Eltings Corners Shannon Malakbull Catskill Jill Warnecke

Cash donations or checks (made out toldquoDutchess Outreachrdquo) may also be made to the above volunteers Cash donations will be used to purchase perishable items for five holiday meals for area families

in an effort to raise additional funds employees can also participate in ldquocasual Fridaysrdquo on Nov 10 and 17 with a $5 donation to Dutchess Outreach Volunteers are still welcome if anyone is interested in helping please contact Jen Cannella at ext 5290 or Lindsay Cullen at ext 5430

Debra KeltosAccounting Technician 1C

PoughkeepsieNov 14

40YEARS

E M P LOY E E M I L E S T O N E SService anniversaries

Gail DuncanEngineer

PoughkeepsieNov 2

25YEARS

Nicole TancrediDirector of Systems Development

PoughkeepsieNov 17

20YEARS

Dan HarkenriderService Supervisor

PoughkeepsieNov 12

15YEARS

eric ballerCommercial Representative ndash Special

FishkillNov 18

15YEARS

Sean CrossChief gas Mechanic

NewburghNov 19

15YEARS

Daniel CasellaStrategic BuyerPoughkeepsie

Nov 5

5YEARS

Dan Olivierigas Foreman

FishkillNov 30

5YEARS

C E N T R A L H U D S O N G A S amp E L E C T R I C N O V E M B E R 3 2 0 1 7 7

M A k E A D I F F E R E N C E D AY O N O C T 2 4Photo gallery

Above Central Hudson employees and other local residents volunteered at the Food bank of the Hudson Valley on Oct 24 The team worked in the warehouse in Cornwall-on-Hudson and checked the quality of the donations and sorted inventory This was part of the United Way of the Dutchess-Orange regionrsquos annual make a Difference Day

Above United Way chair brianna Peak sorts frozen meat before it is weighed and put back in the freezer Central Hudsonrsquos participation in make a Difference Day is part of the annual United Way campaign which concludes later this month

Above Associate engineer Chris Gilbert checks the expiration date of donations The team unloaded pallets of donations sorted usable items from damaged products weighed acceptable donations and then re-stacked them onto pallets to be sent to the freezer

Above Tester 3C eric Palmatier prepares to bring a box of donations to the scale For more photographs from make a Difference Day visit the Corporate Communications space of the CH Wiki site The gallery can be found under the ldquoNewslettersrdquo tab

8 N O V E M B E R 3 2 0 1 7 N E W S C E N T R A L

THANKSGIVING LUNCHThanksgiving lunch will be served early this year in the South Road cafeteria The Thanksgiving meal will be served on Nov 9 and cost $699 or $799 with pumpkin apple or pecan pie Contact Chef Manager gian Stagnaro at ext 5843 for questions or more information

Employees will be able to chow down on an assortment of holiday fixingsbull turkey and gravybull sweet potato with marshmallows

and brown sugarbull Brussels sproutsbull green bean and bacon casserole bull savory mushroom and rosemary

bread pudding andbull cranberry and black pepper sauce

LOCAL 320 SCHOLArSHIPThe international Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 320 awarded five Student Achievement Awards The recipients were Daniel Boyle Connor Wylock Matt Earley Stephen DrsquoAlessandro and Katherine gallery They will each receive a $500 college scholarship from the Local 320

To be eligible for the award applicants must be enrolled full time and be attending an approved accredited college or technical institution be the son or daughter of an active iBEW Local 320 member and not be a prior Achievement Award recipient The awards are limited to one person not one per family

Next year the drawing for the awards will be held at the October general meeting in Kingston Applications are always available from any shop steward or on ibewlocal320org

Management employees can sign up for text message alerts to receive

real-time power outage and wires down alerts

The new alert system which launched in May sends notifications when there are at least 500 customers without power in a district or at least 5000 affected through-out the entire service territory Alerts are also sent when there are more than 20 wires down orders district wide or more than 10 orders per district The system keeps employees aware of when outag-es begin and is updated every 30 min-utes These real-time alerts will improve Central Hudsonrsquos response diminish the length and impact of outages and will en-hance customer satisfaction

ldquoWe are trying to be proactive so em-ployees can watch whatrsquos happening to the electric grid and be prepared in case they have to respondrdquo said Customer Informa-tion Program Manager Donna Medici

ldquoIndividuals who sign up for these tex-ting alerts will be able to see impacts to the electric system in real time so they are better able to plan ahead and reactrdquo

Employees can register for one or all of the district alerts by emailing employ-eealertscenhudcom The text notifica-tions are part of the upgrade to the Storm Central outage map and Notifi text alerts Central Hudson is the first company to use text messaging alerts from KUBRA as the system was designed for Central Hud-son from scratch Since the alerts are part of already developed systems the cost was minimal The idea was originally recom-mended by Regional Director of Electric TampD Operations Basil Stewart

ldquoIt was quite challenging to develop the system and integrate it with our outage map and Notifi but through persistence and a lot of effort I believe wersquove created a useful toolrdquo Medici said ldquoIt is very grat-ifying to see all of the hard work pay off

especially during this most recent storm in which thousands of customers were without power The system performance was greatrdquo

Employees can halt the notifications for 24 hours by texting ldquoPAUSErdquo or ter-minate permanently by texting ldquoSTOPrdquo Once an employee stops the notifications he or she must re-register by emailing em-ployeealertscenhudcom

So far about 100 management em-ployees are signed up Employees can register for the alerts with any cellphone Text messaging rates do apply to personal devices

New text message alerts to keep employees informed during outages

Central Hudsonrsquos annual Winter Gala will be held on Jan 20 at the Poughkeepsie Grandview

W I N T E R G A L ASave the date

6 N O V E M B E R 3 2 0 1 7 N E W S C E N T R A L

HOLIDAY FOOD DrIVeCentral Hudson employees are once again coordinating the annual Thanksgiving food drive

Employees are encouraged to donate needed supplies including canned meat vegetables tuna fruit soup yams potatoes pasta sauce rice peanut butter jelly powered milk cereals and more

in addition to assisting these local families the extra donations will be given to the Dutchess Outreach food bank to help others during the holiday season

The following volunteers have set up collection boxes for non-perishable items in their work areas and will be accepting donations through Nov 17bull Corporate Communications

Tina Romainebull Human Resources

Roxanne Shepleybull Purchasing Domenick DrsquoAddonabull S1 Lisa Rundle and Rick Naccaratobull S2 Linda iovinobull Main floor Donna giametta

and Denise Hectorbull Main floor by gas and Mechanical

Engineering Joe Kobergerbull Second floor Amy Dittmar bull Second floor by Electric System

Protection zarin Mirzabull Third floor Jaime Timberlakebull Kingston Kelly Torcellobull Poughkeepsie District Carmie Ortizbull Newburgh Carrine Brownbull Eltings Corners Shannon Malakbull Catskill Jill Warnecke

Cash donations or checks (made out toldquoDutchess Outreachrdquo) may also be made to the above volunteers Cash donations will be used to purchase perishable items for five holiday meals for area families

in an effort to raise additional funds employees can also participate in ldquocasual Fridaysrdquo on Nov 10 and 17 with a $5 donation to Dutchess Outreach Volunteers are still welcome if anyone is interested in helping please contact Jen Cannella at ext 5290 or Lindsay Cullen at ext 5430

Debra KeltosAccounting Technician 1C

PoughkeepsieNov 14

40YEARS

E M P LOY E E M I L E S T O N E SService anniversaries

Gail DuncanEngineer

PoughkeepsieNov 2

25YEARS

Nicole TancrediDirector of Systems Development

PoughkeepsieNov 17

20YEARS

Dan HarkenriderService Supervisor

PoughkeepsieNov 12

15YEARS

eric ballerCommercial Representative ndash Special

FishkillNov 18

15YEARS

Sean CrossChief gas Mechanic

NewburghNov 19

15YEARS

Daniel CasellaStrategic BuyerPoughkeepsie

Nov 5

5YEARS

Dan Olivierigas Foreman

FishkillNov 30

5YEARS

C E N T R A L H U D S O N G A S amp E L E C T R I C N O V E M B E R 3 2 0 1 7 7

M A k E A D I F F E R E N C E D AY O N O C T 2 4Photo gallery

Above Central Hudson employees and other local residents volunteered at the Food bank of the Hudson Valley on Oct 24 The team worked in the warehouse in Cornwall-on-Hudson and checked the quality of the donations and sorted inventory This was part of the United Way of the Dutchess-Orange regionrsquos annual make a Difference Day

Above United Way chair brianna Peak sorts frozen meat before it is weighed and put back in the freezer Central Hudsonrsquos participation in make a Difference Day is part of the annual United Way campaign which concludes later this month

Above Associate engineer Chris Gilbert checks the expiration date of donations The team unloaded pallets of donations sorted usable items from damaged products weighed acceptable donations and then re-stacked them onto pallets to be sent to the freezer

Above Tester 3C eric Palmatier prepares to bring a box of donations to the scale For more photographs from make a Difference Day visit the Corporate Communications space of the CH Wiki site The gallery can be found under the ldquoNewslettersrdquo tab

8 N O V E M B E R 3 2 0 1 7 N E W S C E N T R A L

THANKSGIVING LUNCHThanksgiving lunch will be served early this year in the South Road cafeteria The Thanksgiving meal will be served on Nov 9 and cost $699 or $799 with pumpkin apple or pecan pie Contact Chef Manager gian Stagnaro at ext 5843 for questions or more information

Employees will be able to chow down on an assortment of holiday fixingsbull turkey and gravybull sweet potato with marshmallows

and brown sugarbull Brussels sproutsbull green bean and bacon casserole bull savory mushroom and rosemary

bread pudding andbull cranberry and black pepper sauce

LOCAL 320 SCHOLArSHIPThe international Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 320 awarded five Student Achievement Awards The recipients were Daniel Boyle Connor Wylock Matt Earley Stephen DrsquoAlessandro and Katherine gallery They will each receive a $500 college scholarship from the Local 320

To be eligible for the award applicants must be enrolled full time and be attending an approved accredited college or technical institution be the son or daughter of an active iBEW Local 320 member and not be a prior Achievement Award recipient The awards are limited to one person not one per family

Next year the drawing for the awards will be held at the October general meeting in Kingston Applications are always available from any shop steward or on ibewlocal320org

Management employees can sign up for text message alerts to receive

real-time power outage and wires down alerts

The new alert system which launched in May sends notifications when there are at least 500 customers without power in a district or at least 5000 affected through-out the entire service territory Alerts are also sent when there are more than 20 wires down orders district wide or more than 10 orders per district The system keeps employees aware of when outag-es begin and is updated every 30 min-utes These real-time alerts will improve Central Hudsonrsquos response diminish the length and impact of outages and will en-hance customer satisfaction

ldquoWe are trying to be proactive so em-ployees can watch whatrsquos happening to the electric grid and be prepared in case they have to respondrdquo said Customer Informa-tion Program Manager Donna Medici

ldquoIndividuals who sign up for these tex-ting alerts will be able to see impacts to the electric system in real time so they are better able to plan ahead and reactrdquo

Employees can register for one or all of the district alerts by emailing employ-eealertscenhudcom The text notifica-tions are part of the upgrade to the Storm Central outage map and Notifi text alerts Central Hudson is the first company to use text messaging alerts from KUBRA as the system was designed for Central Hud-son from scratch Since the alerts are part of already developed systems the cost was minimal The idea was originally recom-mended by Regional Director of Electric TampD Operations Basil Stewart

ldquoIt was quite challenging to develop the system and integrate it with our outage map and Notifi but through persistence and a lot of effort I believe wersquove created a useful toolrdquo Medici said ldquoIt is very grat-ifying to see all of the hard work pay off

especially during this most recent storm in which thousands of customers were without power The system performance was greatrdquo

Employees can halt the notifications for 24 hours by texting ldquoPAUSErdquo or ter-minate permanently by texting ldquoSTOPrdquo Once an employee stops the notifications he or she must re-register by emailing em-ployeealertscenhudcom

So far about 100 management em-ployees are signed up Employees can register for the alerts with any cellphone Text messaging rates do apply to personal devices

New text message alerts to keep employees informed during outages

Central Hudsonrsquos annual Winter Gala will be held on Jan 20 at the Poughkeepsie Grandview

W I N T E R G A L ASave the date

C E N T R A L H U D S O N G A S amp E L E C T R I C N O V E M B E R 3 2 0 1 7 7

M A k E A D I F F E R E N C E D AY O N O C T 2 4Photo gallery

Above Central Hudson employees and other local residents volunteered at the Food bank of the Hudson Valley on Oct 24 The team worked in the warehouse in Cornwall-on-Hudson and checked the quality of the donations and sorted inventory This was part of the United Way of the Dutchess-Orange regionrsquos annual make a Difference Day

Above United Way chair brianna Peak sorts frozen meat before it is weighed and put back in the freezer Central Hudsonrsquos participation in make a Difference Day is part of the annual United Way campaign which concludes later this month

Above Associate engineer Chris Gilbert checks the expiration date of donations The team unloaded pallets of donations sorted usable items from damaged products weighed acceptable donations and then re-stacked them onto pallets to be sent to the freezer

Above Tester 3C eric Palmatier prepares to bring a box of donations to the scale For more photographs from make a Difference Day visit the Corporate Communications space of the CH Wiki site The gallery can be found under the ldquoNewslettersrdquo tab

8 N O V E M B E R 3 2 0 1 7 N E W S C E N T R A L

THANKSGIVING LUNCHThanksgiving lunch will be served early this year in the South Road cafeteria The Thanksgiving meal will be served on Nov 9 and cost $699 or $799 with pumpkin apple or pecan pie Contact Chef Manager gian Stagnaro at ext 5843 for questions or more information

Employees will be able to chow down on an assortment of holiday fixingsbull turkey and gravybull sweet potato with marshmallows

and brown sugarbull Brussels sproutsbull green bean and bacon casserole bull savory mushroom and rosemary

bread pudding andbull cranberry and black pepper sauce

LOCAL 320 SCHOLArSHIPThe international Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 320 awarded five Student Achievement Awards The recipients were Daniel Boyle Connor Wylock Matt Earley Stephen DrsquoAlessandro and Katherine gallery They will each receive a $500 college scholarship from the Local 320

To be eligible for the award applicants must be enrolled full time and be attending an approved accredited college or technical institution be the son or daughter of an active iBEW Local 320 member and not be a prior Achievement Award recipient The awards are limited to one person not one per family

Next year the drawing for the awards will be held at the October general meeting in Kingston Applications are always available from any shop steward or on ibewlocal320org

Management employees can sign up for text message alerts to receive

real-time power outage and wires down alerts

The new alert system which launched in May sends notifications when there are at least 500 customers without power in a district or at least 5000 affected through-out the entire service territory Alerts are also sent when there are more than 20 wires down orders district wide or more than 10 orders per district The system keeps employees aware of when outag-es begin and is updated every 30 min-utes These real-time alerts will improve Central Hudsonrsquos response diminish the length and impact of outages and will en-hance customer satisfaction

ldquoWe are trying to be proactive so em-ployees can watch whatrsquos happening to the electric grid and be prepared in case they have to respondrdquo said Customer Informa-tion Program Manager Donna Medici

ldquoIndividuals who sign up for these tex-ting alerts will be able to see impacts to the electric system in real time so they are better able to plan ahead and reactrdquo

Employees can register for one or all of the district alerts by emailing employ-eealertscenhudcom The text notifica-tions are part of the upgrade to the Storm Central outage map and Notifi text alerts Central Hudson is the first company to use text messaging alerts from KUBRA as the system was designed for Central Hud-son from scratch Since the alerts are part of already developed systems the cost was minimal The idea was originally recom-mended by Regional Director of Electric TampD Operations Basil Stewart

ldquoIt was quite challenging to develop the system and integrate it with our outage map and Notifi but through persistence and a lot of effort I believe wersquove created a useful toolrdquo Medici said ldquoIt is very grat-ifying to see all of the hard work pay off

especially during this most recent storm in which thousands of customers were without power The system performance was greatrdquo

Employees can halt the notifications for 24 hours by texting ldquoPAUSErdquo or ter-minate permanently by texting ldquoSTOPrdquo Once an employee stops the notifications he or she must re-register by emailing em-ployeealertscenhudcom

So far about 100 management em-ployees are signed up Employees can register for the alerts with any cellphone Text messaging rates do apply to personal devices

New text message alerts to keep employees informed during outages

Central Hudsonrsquos annual Winter Gala will be held on Jan 20 at the Poughkeepsie Grandview

W I N T E R G A L ASave the date

8 N O V E M B E R 3 2 0 1 7 N E W S C E N T R A L

THANKSGIVING LUNCHThanksgiving lunch will be served early this year in the South Road cafeteria The Thanksgiving meal will be served on Nov 9 and cost $699 or $799 with pumpkin apple or pecan pie Contact Chef Manager gian Stagnaro at ext 5843 for questions or more information

Employees will be able to chow down on an assortment of holiday fixingsbull turkey and gravybull sweet potato with marshmallows

and brown sugarbull Brussels sproutsbull green bean and bacon casserole bull savory mushroom and rosemary

bread pudding andbull cranberry and black pepper sauce

LOCAL 320 SCHOLArSHIPThe international Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 320 awarded five Student Achievement Awards The recipients were Daniel Boyle Connor Wylock Matt Earley Stephen DrsquoAlessandro and Katherine gallery They will each receive a $500 college scholarship from the Local 320

To be eligible for the award applicants must be enrolled full time and be attending an approved accredited college or technical institution be the son or daughter of an active iBEW Local 320 member and not be a prior Achievement Award recipient The awards are limited to one person not one per family

Next year the drawing for the awards will be held at the October general meeting in Kingston Applications are always available from any shop steward or on ibewlocal320org

Management employees can sign up for text message alerts to receive

real-time power outage and wires down alerts

The new alert system which launched in May sends notifications when there are at least 500 customers without power in a district or at least 5000 affected through-out the entire service territory Alerts are also sent when there are more than 20 wires down orders district wide or more than 10 orders per district The system keeps employees aware of when outag-es begin and is updated every 30 min-utes These real-time alerts will improve Central Hudsonrsquos response diminish the length and impact of outages and will en-hance customer satisfaction

ldquoWe are trying to be proactive so em-ployees can watch whatrsquos happening to the electric grid and be prepared in case they have to respondrdquo said Customer Informa-tion Program Manager Donna Medici

ldquoIndividuals who sign up for these tex-ting alerts will be able to see impacts to the electric system in real time so they are better able to plan ahead and reactrdquo

Employees can register for one or all of the district alerts by emailing employ-eealertscenhudcom The text notifica-tions are part of the upgrade to the Storm Central outage map and Notifi text alerts Central Hudson is the first company to use text messaging alerts from KUBRA as the system was designed for Central Hud-son from scratch Since the alerts are part of already developed systems the cost was minimal The idea was originally recom-mended by Regional Director of Electric TampD Operations Basil Stewart

ldquoIt was quite challenging to develop the system and integrate it with our outage map and Notifi but through persistence and a lot of effort I believe wersquove created a useful toolrdquo Medici said ldquoIt is very grat-ifying to see all of the hard work pay off

especially during this most recent storm in which thousands of customers were without power The system performance was greatrdquo

Employees can halt the notifications for 24 hours by texting ldquoPAUSErdquo or ter-minate permanently by texting ldquoSTOPrdquo Once an employee stops the notifications he or she must re-register by emailing em-ployeealertscenhudcom

So far about 100 management em-ployees are signed up Employees can register for the alerts with any cellphone Text messaging rates do apply to personal devices

New text message alerts to keep employees informed during outages

Central Hudsonrsquos annual Winter Gala will be held on Jan 20 at the Poughkeepsie Grandview

W I N T E R G A L ASave the date