By Patrick Crowley
Enquirer staff writer

COVINGTON - A busy customer-service center operated by Cinergy will move in September from Covington to Newport.

The power company occupies only a small part of the building housing its Covington District office at 111 W. Fourth St. To achieve greater efficiency, the office is being relocated to the Newport Shopping Center on U.S. 27 in south Newport, said Cinergy spokeswoman Kathy Meinke.

The new office is scheduled to open Sept. 20, she said.

The office employs 13 and handles about 12,000 transactions a month. About 10,000 of those transactions are bill payments from customers who prefer to pay in person, Meinke said.

"It's a very busy place," she said.

Customers who have used the office in the last three months will be notified by mail about the change in location. Signs announcing the move are also posted in the center.

"We were able to work an agreement with a location that met our needs as well as accommodated the needs of the people who do business with us," Meinke said.

Covington Mayor Butch Callery said the city worked with the company in trying to find a new location. But sites available were for sale and Cinergy wanted to lease instead of buy property, Callery said.

Callery said another company is interested in the Cinergy property, but he would not name the company "until the deal is done."

"It would bring some new jobs to the city. We just can't talk about it yet," he said.

E-mail pcrowley@enquirer.com