BURRILLVILLE – A 17 year employee with the Pascoag Utility District was recognized for her dedication to the job, and for going above and beyond to provide outstanding service to customers.
Desarae Dolan, supervisor of administration for the quasi-municipal utility company received the Carol A Tracy Customer Service Award from the Northeast Public Power Association.
Dolan was hired as an executive assistant for the Pascoag Utility District in 2007. She completed the non-profit certificate program at Rhode Island College in 2010 and also attended the University of Rhode Island, earning a master’s in public administration in 2013. Dolan was promoted to supervisor of administration at PUD in 2016 and earned an energy efficiency management certificate from the American Public Power Association in 2018.
Her work on the company’s annual Green Festival helped to earn PUD the Rhode Island Environmental Council’s Senator John Chafee Outstanding Conservation Project Award in 2013. She has been a key player in projects from addressing changes to lead law and bringing LED lighting to Burrillville’s Hauser Field, to the merger of PUD with the Harrisville Water District to create the soon-to-launch Clear River Energy.
But it was also Dolan’s day-to-day involvement with utility operations, from improving communications to setting up a system for online bill payment that earned her the honor.
“She’s very modest about it,” said Burrillville Town Councilor Dennis Anderson in noting the award at a recent meeting. “In the nomination it talked about what an asset she is to the district, how dedicated she is, how many different initiatives she has taken on herself to improve customer service relations.”
The award, named after a longtime employee of NEPPA who succumbed to cancer in 2003, recognizes employees of member utilities who deliver outstanding service to their customers, either through sustained, exceptional performance in serving their customers, or the development of new and/or innovative programs to meet customer needs.
Dolan received the honor at NEPPA’s annual Energy Connect Conference.
“I think we’re just always privileged when someone in our town sheds a positive light on Burrillville and Desarae Dolan has done that in the northeast power environment,” Anderson said.
