Dodgingtown Fire Co., Electricity Supplier Team up

Instead of giving away toasters and other incentives to lure customers to its service, Community Power & Utility LLC will pledge donations to the Dodgingtown Fire Co. for every household that signs up under a new program that recently began, officials said.

"It's kind of a unique program," Dodgingtown Fire Chief Mark White said. "What's kind of nice about this is they're putting back money into the community."

As part of the electricity deregulation that began years ago, customers can choose from a list of electricity suppliers, often saving money by switching from one provider to another. The choice has led to competition among electricity suppliers.

As a way to distinguish itself, Community Power & Utility, has started a program where it has pledged to donate $2 every month to Dodgingtown Fire Co. for every resident or business that switches to Community Power & Utility for as long as the program remains in continuation, White said.

The company, on its website, says donating to local Connecticut charities is one way it distinguishes itself from other electric suppliers. This latest program is unique in that the customer can choose to have the charitable contributions going to a specific fire department.

Dodgingtown is the first fire company in the program, though more are expected to soon join, White said.

Bob Schrijver, the managing director at Community Power & Utility, apparently lives in the fire district, which was one reason the electric supplier approached Dodgingtown.

"Mark White and the Dodgingtown Volunteer Fire Company were the first firefighting group we approached when we developed this program," Schrijver said in a press release White issued. "To their credit, Dodgingtown was the first group to understand the potential value of the program idea and the first to work with us to bring that idea to their Fire District".

About 70 people in Dodgingtown have signed up for the program, and the fire company has begun mailing letters to local residents to let them know about it, White said.

In order to switch to Community Power & Utility and direct donations to Dodingtown, residents or businesses must visit the website, www.firedepartmentenergy.com, where they will be asked select their zip code and "Dodgingtown," before entering their CL&P account information.