NIPSCO Closing Warsaw Station
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
Is a cost-cutting measure by Northern Indiana Public Service Company a prudent business decision, or one that could affect the safety of Warsaw customers?
The answer depends on who you ask, but for the men who work most closely with the electric and gas lines, customer service, if not safety, will definitely be affected with the planned closing of the Warsaw Service Office April 1.
"They're cutting costs," said Dan McDonald a 25-year lineman with NIPSCO. "The employees at the Warsaw station have been told we'll be moving to the Goshen office on April 1.
"My biggest complaint is that we're supposed to be a company that is customer service oriented," he said. "But if we're going to have to be coming down from Goshen, especially for a gas leak or other emergency, it's going to be less safe because the response time will be longer."
According to McDonald, the response times to power outages after severe weather also will be adversely affected.
"When we have a storm come through, they're (NIPSCO) not going to release any trucks to come down here to Warsaw until they get Goshen cleaned up," he said.
McDonald's assertions are disputed by NIPSCO, however. According to NIPSCO spokes-woman Kim Lahman, the closing of the Warsaw office will actually improve service in the area and the company will continue to follow their standard procedures of dealing with the aftermath of severe storms.
"The service will remain essentially the same, even with the Warsaw station closing," she said. "By pooling the Warsaw employees with the Goshen employees, we think we'll be able to improve our services.
"In dealing with storm damage, we look at how to get as many customers back up as quickly as we can," she added. "After that, we dispatch crews to the areas we receive the most calls from."
Additionally, the linemen currently servicing Warsaw will continue to service the city and surrounding area; they will just be working out of the Goshen office, she said.
"We've been consolidating offices since 1990 and this is just another step in that process," Lahman said. [[In-content Ad]]
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Is a cost-cutting measure by Northern Indiana Public Service Company a prudent business decision, or one that could affect the safety of Warsaw customers?
The answer depends on who you ask, but for the men who work most closely with the electric and gas lines, customer service, if not safety, will definitely be affected with the planned closing of the Warsaw Service Office April 1.
"They're cutting costs," said Dan McDonald a 25-year lineman with NIPSCO. "The employees at the Warsaw station have been told we'll be moving to the Goshen office on April 1.
"My biggest complaint is that we're supposed to be a company that is customer service oriented," he said. "But if we're going to have to be coming down from Goshen, especially for a gas leak or other emergency, it's going to be less safe because the response time will be longer."
According to McDonald, the response times to power outages after severe weather also will be adversely affected.
"When we have a storm come through, they're (NIPSCO) not going to release any trucks to come down here to Warsaw until they get Goshen cleaned up," he said.
McDonald's assertions are disputed by NIPSCO, however. According to NIPSCO spokes-woman Kim Lahman, the closing of the Warsaw office will actually improve service in the area and the company will continue to follow their standard procedures of dealing with the aftermath of severe storms.
"The service will remain essentially the same, even with the Warsaw station closing," she said. "By pooling the Warsaw employees with the Goshen employees, we think we'll be able to improve our services.
"In dealing with storm damage, we look at how to get as many customers back up as quickly as we can," she added. "After that, we dispatch crews to the areas we receive the most calls from."
Additionally, the linemen currently servicing Warsaw will continue to service the city and surrounding area; they will just be working out of the Goshen office, she said.
"We've been consolidating offices since 1990 and this is just another step in that process," Lahman said. [[In-content Ad]]