Much of PUC's big move completed over weekend (7 photos)

“It went excellent. It went very, very well, no hitches.”

That’s how Sault Ste. Marie PUC president and CEO Brian Curran described the utility company’s move from its Queen Street location to its new home at 500 Second Line East.

The downtown office location closed at 1 p.m. Friday and operations at the new, state-of-the-art office officially began at 1 p.m. Monday.

Curran told SooToday.com Tuesday morning that the move was in progress over the weekend.

“It was a lot of work. We moved customer service, the locates people, our health and safety people from the service centre. That was done starting Friday afternoon and everything was moved in over the weekend.”

Curran said staff was still working up until around 8 p.m. Sunday night getting everything set up.

Staff members, including PUC Manager of Finance Mark Faught and Jennifer Greco, shown in our photo gallery, were busily engaged in their duties and enthusiastic about their new digs.

The move was meticulously planned, Curran said.

“We’ve had probably about a year of weekly planning meetings, going over what had to be done, the steps we needed to take to accomplish everything. It’s been a long, intensive planning process. Everyone in the company has been involved in some fashion, from where they want to have their desks, and so on.”

The front part of the building is fully occupied, and in the back, Curran said, health and safety, locates personnel and marketing staff are in place. 

Curran added: “We haven’t moved our linemen and water people or our stores yet. That won’t happen until next week, likely. There weren’t any major power outages, there were minor ones which we have from time to time, we had water breaks which we responded to as normal, but no hitch in terms of service to customers.”

Have there been many calls from customers as to where to go to pay their bills or make other customer service inquiries?

“Not that I’m aware of,” Curran said.

“The public was pretty well informed about the move. We left one of our boxes downtown in front of the post office on Queen Street so that people who can’t make it up here still have a place where they can drop off their bill payments.”

Upon entering the front lobby of the new building, one is impressed by the height and brightness of the area, where the bill payment counter and customer service desks are clearly located.

Speaking to us in his office, Curran said: “The offices are built to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards. One of the requirements is to minimize energy consumption.”

Curran pointed to the lighting in his own office and the adjacent boardroom as examples. 

The lights automatically adjust to the level of light coming in from outside. 

The lights automatically turn right down on a bright, sunny day, and automatically compensate on overcast days.

As for the PUC’s old Queen Street location, put up for sale for $1.5 million, Curran told us: “We have a buyer. It’s all I can say right now, but hopefully we will close the sale April 30.”

Curran will be retiring Thursday, to be succeeded as president and CEO by Dominic Parrella.

Curran moved to Sault Ste. Marie from Saskatchewan in 2000 and directed the PUC since then.

“It’s been great,” Curran said, adding he plans to stay and enjoy retirement in Sault Ste. Marie.