The City of Delaware, Ohio Wesleyan University and Main Street Delaware met in City Hall Monday morning with AEP representatives about recent power disruptions to the downtown. Per AEP’s records, there have been five such incidents in the past two weeks.
“The frequency of outages is unacceptable and needs to be addressed in a more sustained way,” Mayor Carolyn Kay Riggle said. “This negatively impacts public safety, the downtown economy, residents working from home, university students in dorms, and the overall quality of life.”
AEP reported that its crews were in Delaware Friday and Saturday working on a downtown circuit using infrared scanning equipment. It identified eight locations in need of maintenance and replaced 30 cutouts, or breakers within the circuit.
The local group requested a follow-up report from AEP on the repairs made and better communication from AEP to its customers during outages. In addition, another meeting of the group and AEP officials will take place early in 2022.
“Downtown businesses will be happy that they are being heard and that this issue is being taken seriously,” Main Street Delaware Director Susie Bibler said.
