Sacramento Municipal Utility District offices will be closed on Monday, February 21, 2011 in observance of the Presidents’ Day holiday. The following regular business hours will resume on Tuesday, February 22: Residential customer phone service 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. 1-888-742-SMUD (7683) Commercial customer phone service 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. 1-877-622-SMUD (7683) Customer lobby service 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Customer Service Centerm 6301 S St., Sacramento Business offices 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. SMUD’s 24-hour electric outage number, 1-888-456-SMUD (7683) will continue operating throughout the holiday. If power goes out, customers should notify SMUD immediately. In the event of an electrical problem, cu

Hot Italian, having just been awarded the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), held an open house on Saturday and welcomed guests to a self-guided tour. The self-guided tour was held in order for guests to come by and see, touch and feel the green features at Hot Italian. Sacramento Municipal Utility District had several representatives to answer questions regarding energy efficiency and business services. SMUD representatives that were there spent much of their time helping customer and answering questions. One of them indicated why they were there, “We’re here to talk to people about energy efficiency. We are also here to educate people to see what they can do to conse

Sacramento Municipal Utility District offices will be closed on Monday, January 17, 2011 in observance of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday. The following regular business hours will resume on Tuesday, January 18: Residential customer phone service 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. 1 -888-742-SMUD (7683) Commercial customer phone service 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. 1-877-622-SMUD (7683) Customer lobby service 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Customer Service Center 6301 S St., Sacramento Business offices 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. SMUD’s 24-hour electric outage number, 1-888-456-SMUD (7683) will continue operating throughout the holiday. If power goes out, customers should notify SMUD immediately. In the event of an electrical proble

City Councilman Steve Cohn retired from his attorney position at the Sacramento Municipal Utility District on New Year’s Eve. Cohn, a chief assistant general counsel, was second-in-command in SMUD’s legal department. He served at SMUD for nearly 19 years. Before his career at SMUD, Cohn worked as an attorney for the California Energy Commission. Cohn, 57, will continue to serve as the District 3 city councilman representing East Sacramento and parts of the Central City. He said he chose to leave SMUD because he has a “pretty decent retirement.” Cohn also said that he has simultaneously held his SMUD job and City Council jobs for the past 16 years. “I thought it would be nice to focus o

Give your Christmas tree the proper holiday send-off. Rather than toss it in the trash, recycle it. You’ll be doing our local landfills a big favor. Bring your Christmas tree to the SMUD Corporation Yard at 6100 Folsom Boulevard on Jan. 8 from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. SMUD staff will mulch it for free. Please remove all tinsel, lights, tree stands and nails. Flocked trees will be accepted at all locations. There is a limit of five trees per vehicle. Christmas trees may also be recycled for free at the following sites and dates: In Sacramento Elder Creek Recovery and Transfer 8642 Elder Creek Road (Jackson Highway, south on Florin Perkins Road, left on Elder Creek Road) 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Jan.

Sacramento Municipal Utility District offices will close at 2 p.m. on Thursday, December 23, 2010 and be closed all day on Friday, December 24, 2010 in observance of Christmas. The following regular business hours will resume on Monday, December 27: Residential customer phone service 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. 1-888-742-SMUD (7683) Commercial customer phone service 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. 1-877-622-SMUD (7683) Customer lobby service 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Customer Service Center 6301 S St., Sacramento Business offices 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. SMUD will also be closed on Friday, December 31, 2010 in observance of the New Year’s holiday. SMUD’s 24-hour electric outage number, 1-888-456-SMUD (7683) will continue o

Developers are promising to bring new life to a blighted section of Alkali Flat following the groundbreaking ceremony Thursday for 81 units of affordable housing adjacent to the Alkali Flat/La Valentina light rail station. The site on the corner of 12th and D streets has been vacant for more than 20 years and previously housed an auto repair shop. The new construction will include 63 apartments and 18 townhouses, the latter being the first “Net Zero” site designed for Sacramento, meaning all energy consumed on the site will be produced there. “We’re here to bring, I think, the most contemporary, most cutting-edge design that we could bring to one of the oldest residential neighborhoods

More than 40 people spent a recent Saturday morning in a conference room at the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) Customer Service Center. What was so important that they would hang out for three hours indoors on such a beautiful day? They were attending SMUD’s Cooling Seminar to learn how to better cool their homes, help reduce their impact on the environment and save some money. This is one of many seminars and workshops SMUD puts on at its customer service center. The seminar was free and open to anyone who was interested by reservation. The seminar was led by SMUD employees Jeff Paull and Ken Happs. Both are energy specialists with SMUD’s Customer Programs and Services. P

  The Sacramento Art Deco Society came together Thursday evening to hear noted Art Deco photographer and historian Randy Juster at the SMUD building. Only eight people showed up for the more than 200-picture slide show of Art Deco architecture from around the world, but those eight got a wonderfully personal lecture from a man who’s been in the business of photography for 35 years. “It’s a desire to document things that are endangered,” the 56-year-old said.   The attendees were all welcomed by little cups of sparkling lemonade and halves of Entenmann’s donuts laid out on a folding table. It seemed that everyone knew one another, or were just incredibly gregarious. Sea Miller, board

Sacramento's PRIDE 2010 kicked off with Dyke Night, an evening of music and entertainment on the west Capitol steps to lead into the new location of this year's festivities on Sacramento’s Capitol Mall near between the Tower Bridge and the Capitol building. Here are some moments: Two women in the audience respond to the performers on stage. Allyn Pharo and her dog Sterling. The crowd filled the lawn in front of the west Capitol steps. Aurora (top and bottom) played to the crowd. Emcee and Organizer Hilary Hodge keep the pace going throughout the evening. Tina Reynolds, Equality Action Now, gave folks an update on Prop.8. Dancers from Hot Pot Studios (above) moved their bodi

With an iconic new location--Sacramento's scenic Capitol Mall, expanded marketing efforts and a growing roster of prestigious corporate sponsors and exhibitors, the 26-year-old Sacramento Pride Festival is expected to break attendance records on Saturday. The June 19 Festival will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., attracting an estimated 10,000 visitors and bringing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of economic benefit to Sacramento’s downtown area. Festival admission is $10. After a number of years at South Side Park, the Festival will move to Capitol Mall in 2010, where a street-festival layout sandwiched between the Tower Bridge and the State Capitol dome is expected to add novelty

Well, it's summer again and my wife and I are dreading our electricity bills. Last summer SMUD whacked our checking account for a good $200+ per month-- to keep the house around 78 degrees. It's not like we're power abusers; we even hang dry clothes and hand wash dishes. The truth is: The cost of electricity has skyrocketed in recent years, and there is no end in sight. Add to this the fact that those in influential positions are doing little about it, and we have the recipe for a huge summer financial burden on already economically-ravished Sac County residents. Despite all the "green" talk in these parts, you'd never know there was a conservation effort afoot. Almost every fast food joi

Today, Congresswoman Doris Matsui (D-Sacramento) hosted a first of its kind forum at the Sacramento State Alumni Center for local clean technology companies to explore federal funding opportunities with representatives from the Administration. Joined by prominent representatives from the Department of Energy, the Department of Commerce, and the Export-Import Bank, Rep. Matsui’s event highlighted Federal programs that businesses can apply for to promote the use of clean technology, bolster the clean energy industry, increase exports of American-made clean energy products, and reduce both energy consumption and costs for consumers and businesses. ‪‪ “As our regional economy continues to rec

On the heels of Mayor Kevin Johnson’s proposed green initiative to establish Sacramento as a leader in the green economy, local young professionals group Metro EDGE is taking action to educate the region’s new generation of leaders about the sustainability practices of local businesses and how they can collectively help make Sacramento a cleaner, greener place. The “EDGE Insight: Green Companies” event, on Thursday, May 27 from 5:30 – 8:00 p.m., at 2600 Capitol - the first LEED Gold Certified private sector office building in Midtown Sacramento - will bring together featured speakers from local, environmentally conscious companies to discuss ways they integrate sustainability practices in

"Why the Climate Crisis Can Only be Solved by Citizen Lobbyists” Sacramento Sustainability Forum is a monthly venue for connecting businesses, non-profits, government and interested citizens in the Sacramento region in order to promote sustainability, share insights and resources, and support movement toward a more sustainable future. The May SSF event was held at SMUD Auditorium Thursday, May 20. Approximately 65 attendees filled the auditorium, including interested citizens and students as well as members of the business, nonprofit and government communities. The Keynote topic was called "Why the Climate Crisis Can Only be Solved by Citizen Lobbyists", presented by Mark Reynolds, Exec

This is not your daddy’s Sacramento Pride! Sacramento Pride is making big changes in 2010, all aimed at transforming the annual regional celebration of LGBT culture and accomplishments into an event worthy of its new tagline, California’s Capital Pride. The list of changes begins with the day-long Pride Festival’s move this year to Sacramento’s Capitol Mall. The Festival will be held Saturday, June 19, from 10 am to 5 pm. Sandwiched between the State Capitol dome on the east and the golden spans of the Tower Bridge on the west, the Festival’s move to the scenic city gateway is intended to raise visibility and emphasize the important role of the LGBT community in Sacramento and statewide.

U.S. Rep. Doris Matsui launched a collaboration Friday in an effort to make Sacramento the nation's clean-tech capital. The impetus: $127.5 million the U.S. Department of Energy awarded to Sacramento Municipal Utility District and local partners last fall to install a regional smart electric grid system. The grid collects electricity use information from generation to consumption and makes that available via the Internet. Local green-sector businesses, organizations, academics and government agencies now must team up to figure out how to use the federal funding as venture capital to stimulate economic growth through clean-tech initiatives and green energy projects, said Matsui, who repre

The City of Sacramento is negotiating a deal with Clear Channel Outdoor (CCO) to install four digital billboards along several freeways within city limits. The four proposed digital billboards would be located at Interstate 80 at Northgate, Interstate 5 at Richards Blvd., Capital City Freeway at Fulton Ave., and Highway 99 at Mack Road. The city’s goals for installing the digital billboards are to diversify and increase city funds. According to Tom Zeidner, the senior economic development project manager, the financial terms between the city and CCO are still being negotiated, and he is not able to discuss the specifics. The revenue the city is expected to earn and how it will be distr

Fairytale Town's second annual Goes Green! event is back this weekend. The family event will feature educational displays, activities and crafts aimed at promoting conservation and environmental awareness. "When the director of Fairytale Town approached me with ideas about hosting an agricultural event, I wanted to tie in a green theme," said Education and Program Manager Sharlene Lal. "But as we developed the event, we realized that going green is a big idea and a movement that needs its own outlet." Several local organizations have partnered with Fairytale Town to provide learning tools. Representatives from Solar Cookers International, the Department of Utilities, the Air Resources B

As someone who enjoys fun and festive community events, I am more than happy to report on one of the best events in the area that took place over the weekend, the Black Expo. This was my second visit to the annual expo, which is held during Black History Month and provides a means of networking and showcasing the best of black business and culture. I was eager to see what had changed between last year and this. I heard from some who can remember the expo's past, and it is heartening to learn that it has come a long way since it began 14 years ago. No longer an obscure event with little fanfare or sponsorship, the Black Expo welcomed thousands of people over the weekend. More than 100 spo