WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES MARCH 26, 2020 5
Photo via Flickr/Con Edison
Con Edison halts onsite
meter reading
BY BENJAMIN MANDILE
EDITORIAL@QNS.COM
@QNS
Con Edison announced on March
23 that it will stop all meter
readings and installation of
smart readers due to concerns of the
growing coronavirus pandemic.
Despite this change of service, the
energy company, which serves 3.5
million customers locally, remains
committed to keeping New Yorkers
safe with reliable services.
“Nothing is more important than
health and safety,” said Tim Cawley,
president of Con Edison.
Workers of Con Edison will only
enter customer’s homes for emergencies,
safety-related inspections,
customer-requested service connections
and enhancements.
A Con Edison spokesperson said
that if a customer is in need of a new
connection, the energy company
will be available to address that and
it is up to the customer if they will
allow workers onto the premises to
complete the work.
All Con Edison employees needing
to enter homes will carry proper
identification, according to the
investor-owned energy company that
delivers natural gas, electricity and
steam to 3.5 million customers in New
York City and Westchester County.
The company requests that customers
with appointments for service
advise workers if anyone on the
premises is quarantined due to the
COVID-19 virus.
Con Edison has previously taken
other steps to keep customers and its
employees safe.
These steps include stopping shutoff
s of electric, natural gas or steam
service due to non-payment related
to the health crisis; waiving new latepayment
charges and suspending the
fee charged to customers for being unable
to grant access to their property;
temporarily shutting down customer
walk-in centers; and temporarily stopping
energy effi ciency service visits
to homes and businesses in NYC and
Westchester County.
The company will continue to
shut off service when a safety issue
arises and has said that residential
customers can pay their bill in “other
convenient ways” including paying
online at coned.com, by mail with a
check or money order and by phone
at 888-925-5016. Fees associated with
making payments with credit and
debit cards are being waived as of
Monday night.
A spokesperson told QNS on
March 24 that while the company is
not sure how many customers are
unable to pay due to the virus, they
will not be terminating service to
anyone at this time due to inability
to pay in the wake of the coronavirus
crisis.
Administrative employees have
been instructed to work from home
with about 6,500 employees out
of 15,000 working remotely. Field
personnel conduct pre-job briefi ngs
in smaller groups and are dividing
workers into teams.
Information about Con Edison
and its decisions related to the novel
COVID-19 virus can be found at www.
coned.com/en/about-us/mediacenter/
news/coronavirus/updates.
“While many of our work activities
have been put on hold, we are focusing
on system infrastructure work
that ensures safety and reliability,”
said Cawley.
HIGHER ED TODAY
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In times of crisis, institutions like
CUNY that are integral to the life of New
York and its future have an especially
important role to play.
CUNY’s responsibility in these extraordinary
times is both to protect
the safety of our community members
and to ensure that all of our students,
regardless of their circumstances, are
able to continue their education. But we
are also called to step up, to put the country’s
premier urban public university at
the service of the state and city we call
home.
I have been moved by the resilience,
fortitude and innovation that have been
on display across the university in the
face of this unprecedented health emergency.
CUNY’s 275,000 students and
nearly 50,000 faculty and staff have been
at their best.
In a five-day recess, CUNY accomplished
the Herculean task of transitioning
to distance learning most classes
across 25 campuses and five boroughs.
By the time classes resumed, on March
19, up to 95 percent of CUNY’s 50,000
course sections had moved to distance
learning instruction, and 95 percent of
its nearly 50,000 faculty and staff to working
remotely. Today, those numbers are
closer to 100 percent. My most sincere
thanks to all the faculty and staff who
keep the University going while facing
disruption, fatigue and anxiety in their
personal lives.
Our efforts are also aimed at doing
our part to aid the widespread campaign
to slow the coronavirus spread and help
those in need.
Just as we made our services available
following Superstorm Sandy and
the 9-11 attacks, CUNY facilities including
cafeterias, gyms and some dorms
are available to the State and City to
increase health care capacity, when
and where needed, in the fight against
COVID-19.
Essential campus services like food
pantries remain open in our campuses
to serve our most in need students. Child
care centers are operating with low demand
but they remain open so they can
be fully activated as part of Governor
Cuomo’s efforts to support the needs of
families of medical first responders.
Responding to the need for personal
protective equipment for frontline workers
and other essential employees, several
of our colleges have combined to
donate N-95 masks, nitrile gloves, shoe
covers, disposable lab coats and bottles
of 70% isopropyl alcohol.
Working with Memorial Sloan Kettering
Cancer Center, we have helped
establish a testing site on universityowned
property on Manhattan’s Upper
East Side. The Graduate School of Public
Health and Health Policy is releasing
a weekly survey that provide a datadriven
picture of the pandemic’s effects.
Queensborough Community College is
in discussions to manufacture, through
3D-printing, much-needed equipment
for hospitals through its Advanced Manufacturing
Lab.
As we move forward with the critical
effort to preserve the health and wellbeing
of our city, I am grateful to the professionals
and unsung heroes who have
marshaled their services to ensure that
CUNY remains a stabilizing, reassuring
force.
Our response to this global pandemic
is yet another way that CUNY is going to
bat for all New Yorkers. It is yet another
reminder of why I couldn’t be prouder to
be CUNY’s chancellor.
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