Possible power outage Friday in St. Clairsville
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ST. CLAIRSVILLE -- St. Clairsville Safety and Service Director Jeremy Greenwood reported Monday that the city may be without power for a 12-hour period beginning at midnight Friday.
He said the city would have a meeting with American Electric Power at 9 a.m. today to further discuss the matter.
"They're finishing their upgrades on their substation and the ... big power lines they put through town," he said, referring to new power poles and draw lines across Interstate 70 along Reservoir Road as part of a line system coming from Glencoe. "They're getting all that transferred into their new substation."
Greenwood said AEP would connect to the city's substation.
He said he will know more after today's meeting, but the city may be able to generate sufficient power through the 12-hour period for all residents if power use is not excessive. Releases and alerts will be issued to residents, asking them to try to conserve power if possible.
"Don't run heavy appliances if you don't have to," Greenwood said. "No wash, no dry. We can't make people do that, but it's one of those things if everybody just does a little bit, there'll still be enough power that we have, that we can feed from the one substation so no one will have to be out of power. We can all still have AC. If it starts to happen where we start to drop so much, we have to drop out sections of the city and there'll be rolling blackouts in some sections.
"Our hope is that it's calm enough we don't have to cut anybody, but people aren't going to be out for 12 hours completely. They'll be out for portions of the 12 hours, but the total rolling will be 12 hours. We're going to try to rotate sections of the city if we have to. Somebody's off for a couple hours and somebody else's off for a couple hours."
Also, the issue of the 4-year-old, 500,000-gallon water tank at St. Clair Commons that council recently decided to "mothball" came up again. Greenwood reported speaking to W.E. Quicksall & Associates, the engineering firm that worked on the water tank.
"He had admitted to me that they did not get a permit for the tank at its current location, but he had also had an email that was only sent out to council members on Aug. 10 (2023) discussing permit to install, and a notice of violation, so with that I'd like to ask for an executive session later on to discuss this."
Near the end of the meeting, council went into a closed-door session for close to an hour to discuss pending litigation. No action was taken.
Afterward, Greenwood said the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency had sent the city a notice of violation because there was no permit to install.
"We were going back and forth and clarifying whether the engineer had submitted anything," he said.
Council passed a resolution authorizing Mayor Kathryn Thalman to prepare and submit an application to participate in the Ohio Public Works Commission State Capital Improvement and local transportation programs for funding to address a sinkhole in Central Park. Greenwood said the sinkhole is about 25 feet deep and poses a potential hazard due to its location and the sports and other activities involving children that go on in the area.
"It's as big as a house, 30-50 feet by 80 feet," he said.
"We've got sewer lines that come through here, we've got our force main that comes through here," he said. "This was a 48-inch galvanized culvert that just aged out. It rusted out and collapsed. It allows dirt and things to fall into it, and the water in the culvert washes it away."
Greenwood said the city would not know if it was approved until July of next year. The cost of repairs is estimated at about $700,000-$800,000. The city is seeking grants and loans and may pay a local cost of 25 percent.
In other matters, council members noted the St. Clairsville-Richland City School District has asked the city to announce seasonal events early so the school district can plan its events. Trick or treat is set for 6-7:30 p.m. Oct. 31. The Boo on the Bike Trail event is set for Oct. 26.