The City of Kenmore and Puget Sound Energy recently concluded negotiations on a new franchise agreement and the community is invited to an informational open house on Jan. 22.

The event will be from 5:30-6:45 p.m. at Kenmore City Hall, 18120 68th Ave. N.E.

Kenmore City Council will begins its review of the proposed agreement at its Jan. 22 meeting, which begins at 7 p.m. Council is expected to take action on Jan. 29. The proposed agreement and other materials will be posted on the city’s website on Jan. 12.

A franchise, in this case, is a non-exclusive right for a utility company to operate in the city’s right of way. As a private utility provider, PSE is regulated by the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission.

Kenmore residents, businesses and city leaders have pushed for improved power reliability in recent years as the frequency and duration of outages has increased, along with disruption to households and businesses. The city contracted with technical experts who assessed the situation and recommended measures to improve reliability. PSE has initiated several capital projects in 2016-17 to address reliability in certain areas of the city, such as Circuits 26 and 27 and plans additional improvements.