COEUR d'ALENE - Avista Corp. is offering more than 900 of its utility employees the option to leave the company for good as part of a severance program.

The employees, 919 of them, are scheduled to get paperwork on Monday detailing the severance program, said Avista spokesman Dan Kolbet. The utility has 1,550 employees.

The employees will have until Dec. 14 to decide whether or not they want to accept this rare offer from Avista. Their last day, if they take the severance, would be the end of the year.

It will be offered to non-union, full-time and regular part-time employees, Kolbet said.

"This is not a position that any of us want to be in," Kolbet said.

The company is trying to save money.

"While growth has been relatively stagnant, costs continue to rise," he said. Growth has been about 1 percent annually since 2005, he said.

"When businesses do well, they use more energy," he said. When the economy stalls, energy use is lower.

Meanwhile, the company has been spending money modernizing its power grid, and operation and maintenance costs have increased.

The company's rough target is to save about $14 million, but Avista is unlikely to save that much through the severance program alone, he said.

Avista doesn't know how much the severance program will save because it's not clear how many people will take the money and leave.

Many employees are likely to receive two weeks of pay for every year of employment.

"There are a number of employees nearing retirement," Kolbet said. "It might fall in line with their plans already. They would probably take a harder look at this than the other groups."

If not enough employees take the severance and leave, the company will have to re-evaluate next year.

Union workers, such as linemen, service crews and dam operators won't have the option. Avista utility officers will keep employees who are difficult to replace and are vital for reliable service, he said.

"I don't know that our customers will see much of an impact from this" severance offer, he said.

On Monday, Avista reported income for the most recent nine-month period.

The preliminary results reflect net income attributable to Avista of $62.4 million, compared with $75.6 million for the year-earlier period.

The company said forecasted results for the remainder of the year are below expectations.