Assistance for heating available

Kootasca offers aid amidst low temps and high heating costs.

Temperatures have dropped sooner and faster this winter, a trend that is expected to continue until March according to the National Weather Service.

“The cold weather came like right at the end of October,” said Autumn O’Brien, Energy Assistance Program Coordinator at Kootasca. “Usually when it drops like this, we do have crisis scenarios of people who are either getting shut off in this extreme cold weather or they have less than twenty percent in their tank–can’t get through the weekend.”

That means higher utility costs for Itasca residents on tight budgets - and that’s especially hard on working families and seniors on fixed incomes.

“We’re hearing a lot of folks, with how quickly it got cold this season, not expecting that jump in that eclectic bill - and now that’s reducing the funds they have for food and other necessities,” O’Brien said. “We were seeing a lot of new people that we hadn’t seen before.”

Itasca families facing cold at home have options, including the Minnesota state cold weather rule to help prevent utility shut offs and other county resources.Resources available in the county include Salvation Army HeatShare and Kootasca’s Energy Assistance Program.

Meanwhile the National Energy Assistance Directors Association’s December 2025 report states that energy prices are up an average 9.2% nationally, especially for electricity and natural gas, stating that “families that rely on electricity for heating will see the steepest increases, with costs rising 12.2 percent.”

“Millions of households are being pushed deeper into utility debt and closer to shutoffs simply because they cannot afford to keep their homes warm,” said NEADA Executive Director Mark Wolfe in the December report.

To protect Minnesota residents, the state has a Cold Weather Rule which "may prevent utility service from shut off from October 1 to April 3,” but it is not automatic and subscribers must contact their utility company to trigger the rule for their account (https://mn.gov/puc/consumers/shut-off-protection/).

Kootasa’s Energy Assistance Program, which runs from October 1 to May 31, exists to help Itasca residents bridge gaps. Application information is on their website and Kootsasca employees are also available to answer questions.

“If anyone’s in doubt, go ahead and call,” O’Brien said. “Nobody wants someone disconnected in winter.”

“The cold affects us all and we can all freeze,” O’Brien said. “We can all sit in the dark and be impacted by sitting in the dark with a candle and hoping for the best,that at one point you’ll be able to get your power turned back on and dealing with that stress.”

Utility shut offs can especially affect children.

“Often kids who grow up in poverty or are exposed to that level of stress or maybe adult conversations about money, that really takes a toll on little people’s development,” O’Brien said. “The stress of this constant worry about how to survive and what’s going to go wrong next and those sorts of things

The EAP program can let an overwhelmed household catch their breath, warm up and regroup.

Since the program money goes to local contractors, it stays in the community. In the last program year, the Kootasca EAP program alone kept $2,577,659 worth of utilities payments on and the money in Itasca.

“That’s why most of these energy vendors do some contracts and work with us,” O’Brien said. “They do want to help people in the community.”

Kootasca also checks if additional services may be needed from food and cold weather clothing to education and social services.

“When one person loses, we all lose,” O’Brien said. “We’re community, we’re family, we're neighbors.