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PO Box 769Cedar Falls, IA 50613

Cedar Falls Utilities • 1 Utility Parkway • PO Box 769 • Cedar Falls, IA 50613

Investing in solar energy is a step toward sustainable living. Sign up this month for Simple Solar shares from CFU. It’s easy to purchase affordable and flexible solar energy.

Simple Solar is a community solar project, or a large collection of solar panels that CFU will build and maintain near Prairie Lakes Park. The clean energy from the panels will be used in our community.

Through the end of July, residential and business customers can subscribe to a share of the energy output from the panels. Your share purchases will make community solar happen in Cedar Falls! Solar shares cost $399 and payment can be spread into 12 installments.

Each share is expected to generate 2.5% of an average home’s annual electric usage. You will receive a monthly credit on your CFU bill for the electricity generated by your share of the project.

Don’t wait - sign up today! CFU will determine soon if the project has enough support and can be built.

Sign Up for Solar Simple Shares

Iowa State Football Schedule

CFU Phone Service Update Get Help When the Power is OutJuly 18th Food and Fun

Why Simple Solar?Renewable energy at an affordable price. You choose your investment level. When you purchase community solar project shares, you don’t have the large up-front cost of adding solar panels to your roof.

No ongoing maintenance costs. CFU will maintain the equipment and solar arrays. No worry or hassle for you.

No rooftop required. Great for customers whose rooftops are shaded by trees and an option for customers who live in condos or apartments.

Easy to move. Your solar project shares move with you to another residence in CFU’s service territory and buyouts are available if you relocate outside our territory.

Your purchase pays off. You will receive a monthly credit on your bill for the electricity generated by your share of the project. CFU will pay the credit for 20 years. Our estimate is a subscription will be paid back in 15 years. If CFU’s cost to purchase electricity increases in the future, the solar bill credit will also go up, making the pay-back time shorter.

Have you seen Simple Solar signs around Cedar Falls? Our customers are supporting community solar. For more information, visit cfu.net/solar or call 319-266-1761.

Cedar Falls Utilities Newsletter • July 2015

IN THIS ISSUE

We love the community we serve, and we want to say thank you for your support. Join CFU July 18 at the Cedar Falls Overman Park Farmers Market for a customer appreciation day.

Visit Overman Park from 8:30 a.m. to noon. Help support the local businesses at the market while you learn about CFU services, entertain your kids and grab a slice of pizza.

Our Energy Services team will be on hand to tell you about rebates available for home upgrades. The first 200 families to stop by our booth will get a free LED light bulb. You can also register to win $500 towards an energy efficient home update.

CFU staff will be available to answer your questions about utility services, community solar and a new way to notify CFU if your lights go out.

We’ll have lots of activities to keep kids busy. They can climb in the cab of a red CFU truck, learn about utility safety, decorate a hard hat to take home and play in an inflatable.

Come hungry, because we’re serving pizza in the park, including breakfast pizza for the early risers.

Join Us! CFU Day at the Farmers Market at Overman Park

Food & FunSaturday, July 18th

8:30 a.m. to NoonOverman Park

CFU to Launch Phone Service Next YearCFU will provide telephone service for businesses and homes starting early next year.

Customer testing will start late this year, and service will be widely available during the first half of 2016. All customers will be notified when CFU is ready to start installing telephone services.

“Many businesses and homeowners have asked us to provide telephone service,” said Jim Krieg, CFU General Manager. “With our investment in fiber to the home, we have the network in place to provide a low cost and highly reliable product, so we’ve decided to move forward.”

A range of service plans will be offered, from low-cost residential telephone to enterprise solutions for businesses. For more information and to sign up for phone service updates, visit cfu.net. If you sign up, we’ll email you with telephone service plan information when it becomes available.

Why is CFU adding landline telephone service?CFU has two main reasons:

• Customer requests: CFU has received many requests for telephone service from residential and business customers.

• Existing infrastructure: CFU’s fiber-to-the-premises network already has the capability to support telephone service. Offering telephone service is another way to make use of the network that is already in place throughout Cedar Falls.

Aren’t landlines in decline due to adoption of mobile phones?It’s true that the number of active landlines has declined in recent years. It’s also true that about half of Cedar Falls’ households and the majority of businesses continue to use and value landline telephone service.

How much will CFU charge for telephone service?CFU’s Board of Trustees will set rates for phone service in late 2015. CFU will offer a range of service plans for home and business users, and all plans will be competitively priced.

Phone Service FAQs

Let Us Know If Your Lights Go OutElectric outages are more likely to occur in the summer during severe weather events. When your lights go out, we want you to let us know!

Soon you’ll have three ways to quickly and easily alert CFU when you have an outage.

Call CFU at 268-6999 Report an outage by phone by calling 268-6999. Your outage call is more helpful when we have your phone number in our records and we can match it to your service address. If you’ve updated your phone number or use a cell phone, please call customer service at 268-5280 to add the number to your customer record.

If you call CFU during an outage you may be directed to our updated answering system. The system will alert you if we know of an outage in your area.

Online at cfu.net If you’d like to tell us about an outage with your computer, tablet or mobile device, visit www.cfu.net and click “Report an Outage” on our homepage. On the website, you’ll walk though an easy process to identify the outage location.

CFU2Go App Starting this summer, you will be able to report an outage with just two clicks on the CFU2Go app. The app will be available for Android and Apple devices. Check your mailbox in July for information and a magnet with emergency numbers.

Mark Your Calendar: UNI Football Watch Party in the Dome October 10

Now Available Online

Visit cfu.net/ccr to read the 2014 report on Cedar Falls drinking water.

Now Available Online

2015 Water Consumer Confidence Report

Visit cfu.net/ccr to read the 2015 report on Cedar Falls drinking water.

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Cheer on the Panthers October 10! Watch UNI football at North Dakota State on the 100’ HD video board in the UNI-Dome. Bring your blanket to sit on the turf or choose a seat in the stands and enjoy complimentary food and beverages.

At the game, you can enter to win UNI and CFU Cable prize packs. There will be activities for kids on the Dome floor.

Free parking will be available west of the Dome. Enter through west side or south side lower plaza doors. To protect the UNI-Dome turf, no chairs or outside food/beverages are allowed.

City Sewer Rates Beginning with your August 2015 bill, you will notice a 5% increase in your sewer charge. The increase is necessary to fund various federally mandated projects in our sewer system.

Sewer services are provided the City of Cedar Falls. Cedar Falls Utilities bills for these services as a convenience for our customers. If you have questions regarding your sewer bill, please contact the City of Cedar Falls Public Works Dept. at 319-273-8629.

Please Share Your Community PhotosEach year, CFU produces a calendar that features local events and energy saving tips.

CFU would like to feature photos from Cedar Falls artists in the 2016 calendar.

You don’t need to be a professional photographer to participate. We are looking for a variety of perspectives and photos from locations around Cedar Falls.

To submit your photo for possible inclusion in the 2016 calendar, email a copy to photos@cfu.net. Photos must be high resolution images to be included in the calendar.

Emergency Alert SystemHOW IT AFFECTS YOUR TV PROGRAMSHave emergency alerts interrupted shows on your TV this season? We want you to know why those alerts happen and what you can expect.

The national Emergency Alert System (EAS) was designed to distribute information involving all types of emergencies, including severe weather and missing children. We are required by law to share these alerts and also test the system periodically. EAS alerts and tests automatically interrupt regular programming on all TV channels. On CFU Cable, analog channels (if you watch without a set-top box or EZ HD tuner) are interrupted with a tone and a message about the alert.

If you are watching using a set-top box, DVR or EZ HD tuner, your program will be interrupted when your equipment automatically tunes to the Weather Channel (channel 10). The emergency

alert information is displayed on this channel.

If you are recording when the channel changes during an alert, the DVR will stop recording and tune to channel 10.

When the channel changes back to the previous program, recording should resume, but it will be a separate recording. You will miss the portion of your recorded program that occurs during the test or emergency alert.

Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do to prevent EAS program interruptions. Thank you for your understanding and patience with these important alerts.

Customer Service 268-5280MON-FRI 7:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.

Help Desk (TV & Internet) 268-5221Tech Support: MON-FRI 7:30 a.m. – 9 p.m. SAT-SUN 9 a.m. – 9 p.m.

Get Cable TV/Internet 268-5283Other Departments 266-1761 Gas Emergency 268-5340Electric or Water Emergency/Outage 268-6999

CONTACT CORNER W W W.C F U. N E T

E-mail: cfu@cfunet.net (general) or customerservice@cfunet.net