On Monday, March 16, President Trump issued guidelines for Americans, which included calling on people to avoid social gatherings of groups of 10 or more. The following day, Iowa's Governor Reynolds issued a State of Public Health Disaster Emergency to further assist with the mitigation of COVID-19.

That same Monday, ECI REC took steps to further implement our business continuity plan for such an event, taking measures to close off public access to our administrative headquarters and both operations facilities. Employees continued to report to work as usual, following the recommended social distancing and frequent hand washing guidelines put forth by the government and health officials.

Today we announce we are taking the next steps to further protect our employees, their families and our membership. Effective Monday, March 23, we will transition to a limited onsite and remote workforce strategy.

To minimize contact, personnel who report to the administrative headquarters will begin working in smaller groups on varying schedules between their homes and the office.

Line personnel, staking employees, and member service employees will continue to work out of the Independence and Vinton operations centers and report as normal following social distancing guidelines. Our service personnel will a have a set protocol to follow prior to making an onsite member call.

ECI REC’s goal is always to serve our membership effectively and efficiently, and this will remain our goal through these challenging times. We are confident we have the necessary resources to serve our membership remotely in all facets, due to the ECI REC technologies that are already in place and the handy work of IT.

These are unprecedented times, however our members can rest assured ECI REC will continue to address this challenge and we will maintain our focus on providing you safe, reliable electric service.

All communication channels remain open and available, as does SmartHub the online account portal our members can access 24/7. We are here for our members–stay healthy and safe.