As Muscatine Power and Water (MPW) entered the new millennium, its youngest utility, communications, came into its own. Due to growing unrest over failure of the incumbent telecommunications provider to reinvest in Muscatine to provide connection to the new “world wide web,” community and business leaders approached MPW about the feasibility of starting a municipal telecommunications utility.
In 2000, not long after the introduction of MPW Cable and MachLink Internet, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) highlighted the innovativeness of the communications utility in their case study “Deployment of Advanced Telecommunications Capability.” The FCC highlighted how Muscatine, along with four other cities throughout the country, used new technologies effectively. The report highlighted how, despite Muscatine’s smaller size, it had MPW in addition to other commercial telecommunications options, creating healthy market competition and increasing interest in adopting these new technologies.
With more people connecting with MachLink internet, MPW helped nonprofit organizations and curious local residents enter the digital age with their Neighborhood Link program. A free service, Neighborhood Link helped participants get their own websites up and running with professional assistance, something that would have proven costly to do individually.
MPW also worked with the City of Muscatine and Muscatine County to debut the Muscatine Area Geographical Information Services, or MAGIC. Begun in 2000, this ambitious collaboration brought together complete photo maps of Muscatine County with overlays sharing historical information about properties, utilities data, and roadway information to help inform both city and county leaders as well as private citizens.
By 2005, MPW had already started upgrading existing services. Cable TV subscribers could purchase MPW Cable HD and experience high -definition television for the first time. They could also add DVR services, making it possible to record shows and watch them later without the use of videotapes.
100 years after opening, MPW’s first venture, the water utility, had matured in ways its founders would never even have dreamed of. From a modest utility with a single pumping station, 11 miles of watermains, and 125 fire hydrants, MPW has grown to own and maintain 26 wells along the Muscatine Island Aquifer, 158 miles of water mains, and more than 1,400 fire hydrants.
Innovation continued at the electric utility, which now held the title of the municipal utility with the largest generation capacity in the state of Iowa. In response to new environmental regulations, MPW increased monitoring of mercury, nitrogen oxide, and sulfur dioxide and began to determine what steps they would need to take to make sure their emissions fell in the target range.
MPW also debuted its first sustainability programs. Energize Muscatine, started in 2001, educated businesses and individuals about ways to save energy, provided energy audits to give more specific energy saving suggestions, and offered rebates for transitioning to more energy efficient lighting. SOLAR Muscatine, started in 2004, allowed customers to help defray the cost of installing solar panels in front of MPW’s Business Office, allowing the utility to save 5.3 tons of greenhouse gas emissions each year.
Through it all, MPW continued its tradition of giving back to the community. Across the decade, the utility erected the String of Pearls lighting along the riverfront, installed more historic looking street lighting in the downtown district, and donated additional free labor to help improve the trail system, launched the Aquatic Center, and supported the start of work on the Environmental Learning Center.
