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Oakland’s Fairyland Park Celebrates Arbor Day with Help from PG&E
PG&E joined members of the community in sponsoring and celebrating Arbor Day on March 14th at Children’s Fairyland Park in Oakland. The event focused on the importance of trees in the urban ecosystem as volunteers planted new trees throughout the park. Members from the West Coast Arborist Association trimmed over 100 of the park’s large trees to ensure their long term health and safety. After the park opened, over 13,000 guests were treated to demonstrations of tree care, and given a chance to build a birdhouse or bee hotel.
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PG&E has implemented important changes in our gas safety operations including the maintenance and inspection of our 6,750 miles natural gas transmission pipeline system. Pipeline Pathways was initiated to ensure the integrity of the pipeline and make it easily accessible to first responders who need to access the pipeline from above ground. As part of this effort, trees and structures over pipeline were identified to be cleared from the pipeline right-of-way.
The program got off to a rocky start and we are going back to the drawing board. We know that each city shares our commitment to ensuring the safety of the people who live and work in the community. We are committed to working collaboratively with our city leaders to develop solutions that enable us to keep the pipeline safe and respect each city’s appreciation for the trees that give the community its character. Therefore, we have paused the Pipeline Pathways program until we can reach agreement with each city on how to move forward.
In the meantime, you can find an online map of PG&E’s natural gas transmission pipelines atwww.pge.com/pipelinelocationsand to learn more about our survey and our efforts to maintain ready access to the pipeline go towww.pge.com/pipelineaccess.
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New Lights at Salvation Army Shelter Make Neighborhood Safer
PG&E awarded the Salvation Army Garden Street Center in Oakland, which provides shelter for 16 homeless families as well as an on-site preschool and place to worship, with a Community Investment Grant to replace and update the infrastructure of the center’s parking lot lights. Nearly all of the lights were burned out leading to loitering, and an unsafe environment for employees, neighbors, and residents of the shelter. In just one day PG&E’s LED Street Light Turnkey Replacement Service replaced the shelter’s sixteen outdated and inefficient fixtures with new energy efficient LED fixtures. With the new lighting in place female employees no longer need to be escorted to their cars in the evening, and neighbors feel more comfortable being out in the community after dark. PG&E’s street light replacement service has already led to more than 50,000 new lights in the community in the past four years.
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Pacific Gas and
Electric Company
1330 Broadway
Oakland, California 94612
510-437-2555
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National Safe Digging Month
Call 811 before Digging
Underground gas pipelines and other utilities can be closer than you think. April is National Safe Digging Month and PG&E would like to remind you to call 811 before you dig, plant, landscape, or build. PG&E will come out and mark pipes and transmission lines for free.
No project is too small — whether it’s planting a tree, installing a sprinkler system, or building a fence. Calling 811 is important to avoid dangerous accidental contact with utility lines, which can potentially cause injuries, and lead to costly fees and service outages.
Calling 811 will put customers in direct contact with Underground Service Alert (USA), a free utility notification service for anyone who plans any type of excavation project. USA will notify local utility companies to go out and mark the approximate location of their underground facilities in and around the excavation site. Customers can call 811 from 6:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M., Monday through Friday, except on holidays.
California law requires customers to notify utilities at least two working days before digging. Once customers call 811 they will receive a list of notified utilities that may have underground lines in the area.
If there is ever any damage to PG&E electric or gas lines near you move to a safe location, call 911, and call PG&E at 1-800-743-5000.
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PG&E Donates New Lighting at ‘Remember Them’ Monument in Oakland
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| The “Remember Them: Champions for Humanity” monument in Henry J. Kaiser Memorial Park in downtown Oakland added a new lighting installation made possible by a donation from PG&E. |
The “Remember Them: Champions for Humanity” monument in Henry J. Kaiser Memorial Park in downtown Oakland added a new lighting installation made possible by a donation from PG&E. The monument is the only one in the country dedicated to civil rights and memorializes 25 world leaders.
The new lighting system contains high efficiency fixtures to increase long-term energy savings and reduce environmental impact. The new lighting gives the monument a natural look and feel, and provides a safe public gathering space for members of the community.
The lighting system will run at only 25% of the wattage used for a traditional outdoor lighting system, and be controlled by motion and dimming sensors to further increase its efficiency and energy savings.
Two of PG&E’s core values are diversity and service. Providing the lighting of this celebrated monument truly captures the power and beauty of diversity.
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PG&E Employee and Veteran Shares His Struggles with Unemployment at the White House
Erick Varela, a veteran of the Iraq war and PG&E apprentice electrician, introduced President Obama at the White House on January 31st for an event on long term unemployment. After returning home from war, Erick struggled to find work and was even homeless for a time.
Erick’s life turned around when PG&E accepted him for its PowerPathway Bridge to Utility Worker program, a program offered at local community colleges designed to strengthen participants’ candidacy for employment and increase their knowledge of the energy and utility industries. Once Erick completed the program PG&E hired him as an apprentice electrician.
In addition to supporting veterans with employment opportunities, PG&E established a Veterans Employee Resource Group in 2011 designed to support PG&E employees with military experience. Its commitment to military veterans has led it to being named one of the top 100 military friendly employers by G.I. Jobs Magazine, the third time the utility has been included in the annual rankings.
Watch the video here.
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