Business digest - July 22

Xcel offers help deferring bills

AMARILLO — Xcel Energy is urging customers to get in touch with the company if they have any concerns about covering summer electricity costs, according to a company release.

The release notes that while electricity prices have fallen in 2020, triple-digit temperatures throughout July have increased usage.

The company offers payment arrangements on a case-by-case basis that allow customers to extend payments out over several months, and agents can connect customers facing loss of income or other hardships to local charitable agencies.

“We want to work with customers who are concerned they may not have the funds to pay their bills in full,” said Brad Baldridge, Xcel Energy director for Customer and Community Relations in Texas and New Mexico, “and we’d rather work something out now before customers fall further behind.”

Information: 800-895-4999 or xcelenergy.com.

Cummins receives job-training funds

SANTA FE — Clovis’ Cummins plant was one of nine New Mexico companies awarded funding as part of the July meeting of the Job Training Incentive Program, according to a release from the New Mexico Economic Development Department.

The funding provided 120 new trainees, with two of them at the Cummins plant.

Five of the JTIP applications were for new funding and four were amendments to previously awarded amounts, due to high rate of job expansion. The average wage of trainees at the Friday meeting was $19 an hour.

Jobs were created in industries everywhere from gourmet foods to engine manufacturing.

“New Mexico has a robust pipeline of businesses looking to expand in the state and relocate here,” Economic Development Cabinet Secretary Alicia J. Keyes said in the release. “We know JTIP and other assistance helps businesses bring new and higher paying employees on board, sooner and with more confidence.”

JTIP funds classroom and on-the-job training for new jobs in expanding or relocating businesses for up to six months and reimburses between 50% and 75% of employee wages. Trainees can be new employees, or those currently employed looking for higher-wage promotions.

Business Digest is compiled by the staff of The News. Contact Editor Kevin Wilson at 575-763-3431, ext. 320, or by email:

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