Thursday building closures announced; openings added

The News Bulletin received the following open notices Thursday:

•Okaloosa County Sheriff's Offices open at 1 p.m.

•All Gulf Power customer offices open at noon. All collection activities are suspended through Feb. 3.  Power was restored Thursday to the rest of the utility's 47,873 customers who lost power due to the storm that started Tuesday. 

•Evening classes starting at 4:30 p.m.or later at all Northwest Florida State College campuses have resumed and normal office hours will resume at 8 a.m. Friday at all campuses.

The offices listed below have announced they will be closed Jan. 30 due to weather conditions.

OKALOOSA COUNTY

•Okaloosa County schools

•Okaloosa Board of County Commissioners office.

•The Okaloosa County Supervisor of Elections Offices in Crestview and Fort Walton Beach. Offices will reopen at 8 a.m. Jan. 31. Details: Paul Lux, plux@co.okaloosa.fl.us. •Okaloosa County Tax Collector's offices.

NORTHWEST FLORIDA

•Catholic Charities offices in Pensacola, Fort Walton Beach and Panama City.

•Day classes at Northwest Florida State College campuses. Any decisions to cancel evening classes will be announced by 2 p.m. Thursday. All college locations will be closed Jan. 30 during normal business hours. College operations, classes, and events will resume Friday. Updates available through the college website and its Facebook and Twitter sites.

UTILITIES

Additionally, to reduce the peak demand for power, Choctawhatchee Electrical Cooperative requests that customers conserve energy  5:30-8:30 a.m. Thursday morning as follows: •    Limit the use of hot water by postponing showers, baths, dishes and laundry. •    Turn off unnecessary lights and appliances. •    Lower the thermostat to 68 degrees. “Controlling peak demand can help reduce power costs,” Steve Wolfrom, CHELCO’s vice president of member services, stated."The severe cold has the potential of greatly increasing the cost of wholesale power … members can help limit peak demand for power,  which in turn limits the increase in costs,” Wolfrom said. “Controlling demand also helps long-term. Our power supplier must have adequate generating resources in place to meet our greatest demand for electricity. Reducing peak demand is a way of controlling the need to build more generating capacity.”

As of noon on Wednesday, the utility was working on on three outages affecting 21 members. Between Tuesday and Wednesday,  2,440 members were without power at one time or another. Most outages were caused by ice and downed tree limbs. 

If you know of additional closures in your area, email dates and closure times to the Crestview News Bulletin.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Thursday building closures announced; openings added