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Through no fault of Westario's, it has been announced that there will
be a major power outage for all of Port Elgin on November 30th, from
6:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. and, basically, anyone who receives a Westario
power bill will be without power during that time.
Hydro One must replace rotting power poles before winter sets in and,
while most of the town could probably have lived with the temporary
outage scheduled by Hydro One, it is coincidental with one of the
busiest winter weekends in Saugee Shores. There will be over 1,000
people staying in the community to attend the Women's Silver Stick
hockey tournament and, what's more, according to the Chamber of Commerce
and Town Council, no-one from Hydro One consulted on the date before
arbitrarily choosing it.
Mayor Mike Smith has been attempting to intervene with a view to having
the date changed but, to no avail.
While the Town has generators so that the Plex will have power, Deputy
Mayor Doug Freiburger expressed his concerns. "In a time when we are all
trying to cut back on emissions, we are now in the position of having to
run a generator for hours in order to accommodate this annual
pre-planned major tournament. Hydro One could not have picked a more
inopportune time to do this."
(next column)
13/01/2009 04:22 PM |
(continued)
According to sources, Westario usually consults with the
business community prior to making a major decision such as this, but no
effort was made by Ontario Hydro to involve either Westario or the
community in the planning stages. The first notice received was by the
Chamber of Commerce on November 7th.
Councillor Fred Shildroth expressed his ire at the situation at Town
Council on Monday. "This is entirely unacceptable that Ontario Hydro
will not even make an effort to change this. There will be 1,000 to
1,200 people in this community, who will have stayed two and three
nights and who will have nowhere to eat or shower during the outage.
This tournament brings a lot of money into the community. Hydro One
should be mandated to at least discuss the issue as this is not
palatable in the least."
"My concern too," said Deputy Mayor Doug Freiburger, "is who is going to
be required to pick up additional costs for this? Perhaps, we should
send an invoice to Hydro One to show we are not in favour of what they
are doing. We know they probably won't pay it but it will let them know
that there should be full consultation. I am very upset and want people
to know that this is not at all Westario's doing but is a Hydro One
decision."
Mayor Mike Smith also expressed his views. "The most disappointing part
of this whole situation is the total disregard and lack of consultation
with the municipality."
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