The Cullman Electric Cooperative announced Sunday that it is temporarily ending member access to in-office services as a precautionary response to the spread of COVID-19 coronavirus. 

The utility, which serves more than 41,000 member accounts across Cullman, Winston, Lawrence, and Morgan Counties, said it is closing the lobbies at both of its Cullman-based offices, and that access to Co-op property will be limited only to employees until further notice.

The move is intended to enact social-distancing measures that have been advised by the Centers for Disease Control as an effective means of curbing the virus’ transmission. 

While public-facing areas of the offices will remain closed to members, the change will not affect or interrupt the delivery of power services to any residential or corporate Co-op member. Billing and service requests can still be done online or over the phone, and the Co-op will continue accepting payments at its offices, at the kiosks or the drive-thru window.

The Co-op is keeping members updated about its real-time response to the effect of the pandemic via Twitter and Facebook, as well as at its main website. 

Read the Co-op’s full statement below:

CULLMAN ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE TAKING PRECAUTIONS TO PROTECT EMPLOYEES AND MEMBERS FROM COVID-19 EXPOSURE 

Effective Monday, March 16, 2020, the lobbies at both Cullman Electric Cooperative offices are closed to the public until further notice.

As a health precaution for employees and co-op members, Cullman Electric Cooperative is practicing COVID-19 social distancing guidelines recommended by the CDC.

Payments can still be made at the office using the kiosks or at the drive-thru window. As always, payments can also be made online or over the phone.

“This is a unique situation,” said Tim Culpepper, CEO of Cullman Electric Cooperative. “We have been planning for this over the past several weeks. Cullman Electric will maintain its daily business operations to ensure our members have electricity. In order to make sure that we are able to continue working we must make sure our employees, our members and their families are not unnecessarily exposed to the virus. We can do that and make sure the co-op continues to operate at the same time by limiting contact between individuals as much as possible. We are fortunate to have technology that will allow some of our employees to work from home. For those employees who need to be at the office, we are developing a modified schedule to limit the number of employees at our facilities at any one time. We are also fortunate that almost all customer transactions can be performed over the phone, thru the internet, at a kiosk or at the drive thru.”

Member Service Representatives will answer phone calls during normal business hours, Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. until 4 p.m. The dispatch center will be staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Linemen and other operations staff will work modified shifts during regular business hours, and continue with the normal schedule for storm outage response or other after-hours calls.

For updates as this situation develops, please follow us via social media @cullmanec on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, or visit our website at cullmanec.com.