by Geon, Bryan
West Oregon Electric Cooperative, 503-429-3021, 800-777-1276, www.westoregon.org, serves rural areas of Clatsop, Columbia, Tillamook, Washington, and Yamhill counties.
Most local utilities offer green power or renewable energy options to residential customers. PGE has two programs: Green Source and Clean Wind. (See www.greenpoweroregon.com.) Pacific Power’s version is the Blue Sky program, which offers similar options. The Clark Public Utilities program is called Green Lights. Contact your utility or visit its website for additional information and costs.
Natural Gas
Many houses and apartments in the Portland area do not use gas at all; some homes have electric furnaces and water heaters—a holdover from the days when the region’s hydropower was ridiculously cheap—and a few older homes still have oil furnaces. If your home has a natural gas furnace, stove, or water heater, NW Natural is almost certainly your provider. To activate new service, call 503-226-4211 or 800-422-4012 or visit www.nwnatural.com/service.
Heating Assistance
In Oregon, the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (503-986-2000, www.oregon.gov/OHCS/Pages/SOS_Low_Income_Energy_Assistance_Oregon.aspx) helps low-income households pay heating bills during the winter months; for details about other heating assistance options, visit Heat Oregon (503-612-6300, www.heatoregon.org). Washington has a similar program with an identical name, the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (360-725-2857, www.commerce.wa.gov/Services/individualassistance/Low-Income-Home-Energy-Assistance-Program/). Additional heating assistance programs, funded by the federal government or utility companies, may be available; visit the federal site, www.liheap.ncat.org, or call 866-674-6327.
Washington has a disconnection moratorium rule that allows low-income households that have exhausted all other alternatives to keep their heat on from November 15 through March 15. To qualify, you must follow certain procedures, including contacting the utility and trying to work out a payment plan. Contact the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (800-333-9882, www.wutc.wa.gov/consumer) for details. Oregon does not have a similar moratorium rule; if you are unable to pay your utility bills during the winter, contact your utility directly to work out a payment plan to avoid disconnection.
Telephone
Area Codes
Portland and its Oregon suburbs have two area codes, 503 and 971. The 971 area code was introduced in 2000 as an “overlay” area code for the Portland metropolitan area, and there is no geographic division between the two area codes. Telephone companies are required to exhaust their supply of 503 prefixes before assigning a 971 area code, and currently 971 numbers are mostly assigned to cell phones. As a result, the 503 area code is still by far the most common—so much so that many residents and businesses still only give out seven-digit numbers, with the “503” implied.
Because these two area codes overlap, you must dial the full ten-digit telephone number, including the area code (but not including an initial “1”), when you make a local call. To complicate matters, the 503 area code encompasses large parts of northwest Oregon outside the metro area, including Salem and the north coast; calls to these areas are toll calls, and you’ll need to dial a “1” before the area code. There is unfortunately no way to tell from the area code alone whether a 503 number is a local or distance call.
The area codes for the rest of the state are 541 and 458; in the Willamette Valley, the geographic area covered by these codes begins just south of Salem. The 458 area code is even less common than 971, which is to say you will encounter it rarely, if at all. Like callers in northwest Oregon, callers from the 541 area code region also need to dial the full ten-digit telephone number.
The area code for southwest Washington is 360. Currently, it is not necessary to dial the area code first when making local calls to a 360 number. The implementation of a proposed new 564 overlay area code for western Washington has repeatedly been delayed.
Landline Phone Service
Century Link has a virtual monopoly on local residential telephone service in Portland and much of the suburban area. You can order new residential service online at www.centurylink.com/home/phone/, or by calling 866-642-0444. Frontier Communications (www.frontier.com, 800-921-8101) is the incumbent carrier in Yamhill County, most of Washington County (except for North Plains, which is Century Link territory), Gresham, Sandy, Happy Valley, Wilsonville, and Silverton, and for much of Clark County, Washington.
A few competitors offer alternatives to the main carriers for local phone service, although these newcomers primarily serve business rather than residential customers. In addition, Comcast offers cable-based phone service (see Cable Television, below), and if you have a broadband connection you can choose to use Internet-based phone service (see VoIP, below).
A few Clackamas County communities are served by independent telecom companies:
Beaver Creek Cooperative Telephone Company, 503-632-3113, www.bctelco.com, provides telephone, wireless, cable television, and Internet service in Oregon City and Beavercreek.
Canby Telecom, 503-266-8111, www.canbytel.com, provides telephone, Internet, and digital television (via DSL) service in Canby.
Colton Telephone & Cable TV, 503-824-3211, www.colton.com, offers the services its name suggests, along with Internet service, in Colton.
Molalla Communications Company, 503-829-1100, molalla.net, offers a similar range of services in Molalla.
In Washington, local telephone service is open to competition. Although Century Link and Frontier are the dominant local carriers in Clark County, consumers can use one of several other companies for residential phone service; check the listings in the front of the phone book or go to the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission website, www.wutc.wa.gov/telecom, to find authorized telecommunications companies.
Long-Distance and International Service and Prepaid Calling Cards
You are under no obligation to use your local phone company for long-distance service. Many companies now offer unlimited long-distance calls for a flat fee, which can be a good deal if you make lots of long-distance calls. (Local phone companies often offer their customers “bundle” discounts on unlimited long-distance plans.) Otherwise, analyze your typical calling patterns and select a plan that offers the best deal based on the time of day and average duration of your calls. You can research and compare long-distance plans at websites such as www.saveonphone.com and www.tollchaser.com.
While the ubiquity of mobile phones (and the decline in public pay phones) has made prepaid calling cards largely obsolete, some convenience stores and corner markets still sell these cards in denominations of $5 and up. Some of these card companies advertise rates as low as 1.2 cents a minute. Those rates apply to actual talking time, though—with per-call charges and surcharges for using a pay phone, you’ll deplete the card balance rapidly if you make lots of short calls. Still, prepaid cards can be cheaper than many long-distance plans if you tend to make only a few long calls.
Making international calls from your home phone can be shockingly expensive. Most long-distance companies offer general or country-specific international calling plans; there is often a monthly charge, so these plans work best for people who make frequent international calls, especially to a single country. For occasional international calling, consider an international prepaid calling card. Alternatively, sign up for a web-based calling program such as Skype (www.skype.com), which offers very low international rates.
VoIP
Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, allows people with broadband connections to make voice telephone calls over the Internet, including international calls, for a flat monthly fee. The biggest players in this market have traditionally been Skype (www.skype.com) and Vonage (www.vonage.com), but most major and some minor telephone, cable, and Internet providers now offer VoIP service, and a host of standalone VoIP providers has arisen. VoIP may be a good value if you make many long-distance calls. However, VoIP has some downsides: it won’t work during a po
wer failure or if your broadband connection goes down, it can suffer from poor sound quality, and your location cannot always be identified if you call 911 (although this last issue is slowly being resolved). Given these pitfalls, it may be advisable to keep a conventional landline or a cell phone for emergencies or power outages.
Wireless Phone Service
Portlanders, like urbanites around the world, increasingly view cell phones as a necessity. A growing number of residents have dropped their traditional long-distance service, or have even abandoned landlines entirely, preferring to rely instead on their cell phones (and their carriers’ national rate plans) for all voice communication. This approach has potential pitfalls—for example, wireless reception in hilly neighborhoods can be spotty or nonexistent, and service can be inconsistent even in areas with otherwise adequate coverage—but it may be a good solution if you plan to get a mobile phone anyway. Keep in mind that vast swaths of the rural Northwest lack any coverage at all, and Oregon is one of the only states in the country where analog-compatible phones are still necessary in some remote areas. To be sure that you’re not stuck with a cell phone that won’t work where and when you need it, confirm that your provider will allow you to test the phone for a trial period after you start service and to return the phone if reception is unacceptable. (Not all carriers accept returns, and some who do charge a restocking fee.)
Check the Yellow Pages for a complete list of cellular providers, and research the latest deals on service plans between companies. Be prepared to swallow a one- to three-year contract for the best monthly rates; if you don’t need a free or subsidized phone, and you don’t make lots of calls, a pay-as-you-go plan may be a better deal. The largest cellular carriers in the Portland area are:
AT&T Wireless, 888-333-6651, www.wireless.att.com
Cricket Wireless, 800-274-2538, www.mycricket.com
Sprint, 866-866-7509, www.sprint.com
T-Mobile, 800-866-2453, www.t-mobile.com.
Verizon Wireless, 800-256-4646, www.verizonwireless.com
Most of these carriers have stand-alone stores as well as mall-based kiosks throughout the Portland area. Some electronics and office supply stores, large retailers like Fred Meyer, Target, Costco, and Walmart, and online merchants like Amazon.com sell phones and service plans on behalf of one or more carriers. In addition, Century Link and Frontier offer discounts for bundling cell and landline services; check with your prospective carrier for details.
Internet Service
Your telephone or cable provider should be annoyingly eager to also provide you with Internet service. The bundled services they offer can often be good deals; however, it’s worth shopping around for an Internet Service Provider (ISP) that will best support your particular needs (for web hosting, for example, or national dial-in access if you travel frequently). Be sure to check out local ISPs as well as the big national providers; local companies sometimes offer less expensive (and more responsive) service than big players like MSN, AOL, or Earthlink.
If you’re deciding between DSL and cable broadband service, be sure to compare the speeds of the services available in your specific neighborhood. Ask your neighbors about their experiences, and consider whether the room in which you plan to place your modem already has a phone or cable jack in place. (It can be expensive to add new jacks.)
Wi-Fi (f)
Portland’s experiment in free municipal Wi-Fi ended badly in 2008 when MetroFi, the private company that had a contract to provide Wi-Fi access across 95 percent of the city, pulled the plug, citing high costs and lower-than-expected ad revenue. In a rare display of fiscal restraint, the city refused to pay MetroFi $9 million to keep what was a pretty mediocre service going. Wi-Fi service is now fairly ad hoc: coffee shops, bars, libraries, and other establishments throughout the metropolitan area are Wi-Fi hotspots that provide free or paid wireless access to their patrons. A few sites like www.wifipdx.com provide lists of Portland Wi-Fi hotspots. The Personal Telco Project (www.personaltelco.net) is an all-volunteer effort to create a public (as opposed to municipal) Wi-Fi network in Portland; check their website for hotspot listings.
Cable and Satellite Television
Cable Television
Comcast (800-934-6489, www.comcast.com) has a monopoly on traditional cable television service in Portland and most suburban areas. Frontier has the cable franchise in east Multnomah County, and also offers FiOS television service over fiber-optic lines to many of its telephone subscribers in Washington County. (See Landline Phone Service, above, for contact and service area information.) There are several small franchises in outlying areas, and Beavercreek, Colton, and Molalla, have municipal cable systems; Canby offers digital television over its municipal DSL lines.
Satellite TV
Satellite television is available throughout the region from Direct TV (855-852-4388, www.directv.com) and Dish (855-852-4388, www.dish.com).
Water and Sewer
Portland takes great pride in its drinking water system, although the system’s reputation took a hit in 2014 when a system-wide boil-water alert was issued due to potential bacterial contamination. Generally speaking, though, the city boasts some of the highest-quality tap water in the country because its primary source is the protected Bull Run watershed near Mount Hood. (The city’s backup source is drinkable but somewhat less pristine groundwater from a well field near the Columbia River.) Most Portlanders drink water directly from the tap; some people filter their water, which is a wise practice, especially if you live in an older home that may have lead in the water lines.
To set up water service in the city of Portland, contact the Portland Water Bureau (503-823-7770, www.portlandonline.com/water). Residential bills come every three months, with a monthly billing option for customers who sign up for electronic billing. Water bills include sewer and stormwater utility charges. The stormwater charge is based on the estimated volume of runoff from roofs and paved areas on your property. Through the Clean River Rewards program, homeowners and businesses can qualify for a discount on the stormwater charge if they take certain steps to prevent rainwater from flowing into streets or sewers. Visit www.cleanriverrewards.com for details.
Outside Portland, most incorporated cities provide municipal water and sewer service to their residents (in some cases, using Portland water). To sign up or for more information, contact your city hall or visit your city’s website (see the Useful Phone Numbers and Websites chapter). Many unincorporated areas obtain water service from nearby municipal systems or from special water districts. The largest of the latter, Tualatin Valley Water District (503-642-1511, www.tvwd.org), serves nearly 200,000 residents in eastern Washington County, including parts of Beaverton, Hillsboro, and Tigard.
If you’re concerned about the quality of your local tap water, or if you just want more information about it, you can contact your water utility and ask for a copy of their annual report (which is usually posted online); alternatively, contact the Environmental Protection Agency (call the safe drinking water hotline, 800-426-4791, or go to www.epa.gov/safewater).
Consumer Protection–Utility Complaints
Try to resolve billing or other disputes with your phone, gas, or electric company on your own. If a problem persists, contact the Consumer Services Section of the Oregon Public Utility Commission (PO Box 1088, Salem, OR 97308-1088, 503-378-6600 [Salem], 800-522-2404 [Oregon outside Salem], www.puc.state.or.us/Pages/consumer/index2.aspx). OPUC’s website includes an explanation of the complaint procedure and a complaint form that you can submit online.
In Washington, contact the consumer affairs staff of the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (P.O. Box 47250, 1300 South Evergreen Park Drive SW, Olympia, WA 98504, 800-333-9882), or visit www.wutc.wa.gov/fileacomplaint to use their online complaint form. Note that these agencies only regulate investor-owned utilities, so if you have a dispute with a public utility district or municipal utility, you’ll have to work out the problem with the utility.
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sp; Trash and Recycling
If you’re renting, you can skip much of this section—Oregon law requires landlords to provide garbage and recycling collection—but if you’re buying a home you’ll need to arrange for trash pickup.
Oregon
Trash
Metro, the Portland area’s regional government, coordinates solid waste disposal and supports programs to increase recycling and reduce waste across the region. Local cities and counties franchise actual garbage pickup to a host of private companies. To find your garbage hauler, visit Metro’s “Find your garbage hauler” page at www.oregonmetro.gov/hauler or call 503-234-3000. Contact your hauler directly to set up garbage hauling service and to find out about available container sizes and monthly charges.
If you need to dispose of a large item—like that moldy, squirrel-infested sofa that the old owner of your new house “forgot” to take off the front porch—you can load it in your car, truck, or trailer, cover it with a tarp, and haul the thing to one of Metro’s transfer stations:
Metro Central Station, 6161 NW 61st Ave, Portland
Metro South Station, 2001 Washington St, Oregon City
For directions and hours, call Metro Recycling Information at 503-234-3000 or visit www.oregonmetro.gov/tools-living/garbage-and-recycling. Alternatively, you can have a private company deliver (and take away) a large drop box; do a web search or look in the Yellow Pages under “Garbage & Rubbish Collection.” Rates are generally uniform between companies for the same services, and depend on the size of the box and the type of waste you plan to put inside. If you’re looking to expend less effort but more money, call a service like 1-800-GOT-JUNK, which will send a crew to clean up your mess for you and whisk it away.
If you live in Washington County, two other privately operated locations might be more convenient. The Forest Grove Transfer Station (1525 B Street, Forest Grove, 503-992-1212) accepts the same kinds of materials for disposal and recycling as Metro’s transfer stations. Visit www.wmnorthwest.com/transferstation/forestgrove.htm for hours and fee information. The Hillsboro Landfill (3205 SE Minter Bridge Road, Hillsboro) accepts only “dry waste” (i.e., no kitchen waste or other materials that could decompose rapidly and cause odor or vector problems) and some recyclables. Call 503-640-9427 or visit www.wmnorthwest.com/landfill/Hillsboro.htm for hours, fees, and details about what kinds of waste the landfill will accept.
