Citizens Utilities Elects Scott N. Schneider as Vice President, Strategic Planning and Development and President of Its New Ventures Unit.

STAMFORD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 1, 1999--

Citizens Utilities (NYSE: CZN, CZNPr) announced today that it has elected Scott N. Schneider to the post of vice president, strategic planning and development and president of Citizens Capital Ventures, a subsidiary formed to take advantage of telecommunications business opportunities in e-commerce and the Internet.

Most recently, Schneider was senior vice president and chief financial officer of Century Communications Corp., which was merged with Adelphia Communications in October 1999. Over the prior decade, Schneider held various senior management positions with Century, as well as with Centennial Cellular Corp., which was merged with CCW Acquisition Corp. in January 1999. Schneider was also a director of Century and Centennial.

"I am extremely pleased that Scott is joining the Citizens management team," said Leonard Tow, the company's chairman and chief executive officer. "He brings to us a wealth of experience in finance, planning and business development. We look forward to his contributions in developing and implementing Citizens' corporate strategy, as well as his leadership of our exciting new Capital Ventures subsidiary."

Citizens Utilities provides telecommunications services and public services including gas distribution, electric distribution, water distribution and wastewater treatment services to approximately 1.9 million customers in 22 states. Citizens also owns 82% of Electric Lightwave, Inc. (NASDAQ: ELIX), a facilities-based, integrated communications provider that offers a broad range of services to telecommunications-intensive businesses throughout the United States. Earlier this year, Citizens announced that it was acquiring 800,000 telephone access lines in 11 states from GTE and U S WEST, and that it was divesting its public services businesses. Citizens plans to use the proceeds from the divestitures to fund the acquisitions.

This document contains forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the statements. These and all forward-looking statements are only predictions or statements of current plans that are constantly under review by the company. All forward-looking statements may differ from actual results because of, but not limited to, changes in the local and overall economy, changes in market conditions for debt and equity securities, the nature and pace of technological changes, the number and effectiveness of competitors in the company's markets, success in overall strategy, weather conditions, changes in legal or regulatory policy, changes in legislation, the company's ability to identify future markets and successfully expand existing ones and the mix of products and services offered in the company's target markets. These important factors should be considered in evaluating any statement contained herein and/or made by the company or on its behalf. The foregoing information should be read in conjunction with the company's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission including, but not limited to, reports on Forms 10-K and 10-Q. The company does not intend to update or revise these forward-looking statements to reflect the occurrence of future events or circumstances.