The Block Island Utility District held its second annual meeting on Saturday, August 22 via Zoom. Despite being held late in the afternoon of what was a beautiful Saturday, the Board of Commissioners and Block Island Power Company President Jeffery Wright were joined by about a dozen curious ratepayers.
By now, many are aware of the efforts of management and staff in dealing with the Covid-19 crisis. All employees volunteered to forgo annual raises in pay, and any and all nonessential expenditures were curtailed.
The good news was that the expected financial hit from the pandemic did not play out as expected. Wright said they “were prepared for a much worse financial crisis,” adding that “it was a good exercise.”
After taking a 23 percent hit to revenues in May, there was a sudden uptick in activity towards the end of June. Revenues for that month were down only six percent. July, expected to be down 20 percent, was only down one percent, and August, so far, is on track with previous years. “We should all consider ourselves fortunate,” Wright said. He likened the current situation to “a bad weather year.”
Still, some projects had to be put
