
August 29, 2024 · 0 Comments
By JAMES MATTHEWS
It seems the weather has been wreaking havoc on some Mono residents’ household electrical utilities.
Mono resident Elaine Kehoe said during town council’s Aug. 20 meeting that there’s been a “substantial number” of power outages in Mono. And it isn’t even winter yet, when one could reasonably expect outages due to weather or ice buildup on power lines.
“Does anyone know the reasons why because it is causing havoc on computers,” she said. “When the power goes out it does the power surge. Does anyone know the reason why?”
“Are we having trees falling down?” Deputy Mayor Fred Nix said.
Matt Doner, the town’s public works director and roads superintendent, said there’s been some heavy rain.
“I don’t know if it’s associated with that,” he said. “That’s the only thing that can come to my mind right now.”
Councillor Elaine Capes said the municipality is concerned about such incidents, but power outages are under the purview of Hydro One. Her family lives in a rural area of Mono and the power goes out, so they’re installing a generator.
“I know what happens to the trees on our property and Hydro is about two years behind in trimming trees from the (utility) wires,” Capes said. “And I know this because they come and trim the trees in front of our house that are close to those wires, and I know that they didn’t get to them last year.”
She said branches are finally being trimmed that have encroached on the utility wires.
“There’s no accounting for people hitting poles and knocking poles out,” Capes said. “There’s no accounting for transformers going out which shuts out a whole block of area.”
She said Hydro One has the answers as to what’s been causing recent power outages. There’s a phone number available to Mono residents who would like to ask a question about the power utility’s level of service.
“You have the number to call to say you’re out and then they give you the text back to say, yeah, we’ll be there in an hour and then two days later you get your power back,” Capes said. “But anyway, Hydro is out there working on your problem.”
“A generator solves all your problems,” said Coun. Melinda Davie. “I know there have been storms that we’ve had. This has been a record year for rain.”