PROVO — The American Public Power Association will perform a series of construction, repair and weatherization projects Friday throughout the nation — including Utah County.

It's all part of the Washington, D.C.-based association's 2009 national conference held this year in Salt Lake City. The targeted cities all receive public power and are part of the nation's more than 2,000 community and state-owned electric utilities that serve 45 million customers throughout the country.

More than 100 people will join Provo city employees in the 2009 Public Power Day of Giving, said Ken Jo Mathews, director of the Utah County Habitat for Humanity.

Last year, association members assisted 11 families in New Orleans, rebuilding homes that were devastated by Hurricane Katrina. They also restored two parks.

When they descend on Utah County, 40 of them are scheduled to renovate a Habitat for Humanity home at 558 E. 300 South in Provo and frame another such home at 1997 E. 1180 South in Spanish Fork.

The service gives Habitat for Humanity a jump-start on those two projects, Mathews said.

Other Utah County Day of Giving service projects in which American Public Power Association members are scheduled to participate include working on four homes for the Housing Authority of Utah County, four homes for the Neighborhood Housing Services/NeighborWorks of Provo and several vacant lots in the Silver Lake subdivision in Eagle Mountain for the Rural Housing Development Corp.

— Rodger L. Hardy