Some Holly-area residents, officials surprised by planned power outage

HOLLY, Mich. (WNEM) – There is some controversy with a planned power outage that will leave thousands in the dark Friday night in Holly.

Consumers Energy will cut the power at 11 p.m. Friday, Oct. 18, in the village and township of Holly and surrounding areas.

The outages were discussed at a community meeting on Thursday, Oct. 17.

The power outage will impact about 2,600 people.

"We all got different stories, and we didn't get specific answers," said Holly Township Supervisor George Kullis.

Holly officials shed light and cleared the air surrounding a planned power outage in the village and township.

"Every utility has to do maintenance on their substations, and this is for maintenance and service, which is going to improve in the long run less power outages. So, that's the goal," said Chief Jerry Narsh with the Village of Holly Police department.

A Consumers Energy spokesperson provided a statement to TV5 saying the planned outage is for "modernization work" in the area.

In order to do this work, electricity will be shut off from 11 p.m. Friday until 6 a.m. Saturday.

The impacted areas include about 2,600 residents and businesses in Holly and Holly Township, specifically in areas between Dixie Highway, Holly Road, Grange Hall Road, and Falk Road, as well as Dixie Highway, Holly Road, Tucker Road, and north of Rattalee Lake Road.

In the boundary is Holly High School, and officials said Friday night's football game will be pushed an hour earlier to avoid any conflict with the outage.

Meanwhile, local authorities said they're working with Consumers Energy to make sure no one is left in the dark when it comes to information.

"I want to make sure everyone has the confidence. Our public safety is aware. We're ready, our DPW, our water plant, sewer plant, lift stations, and fire and police are ready," Narsh said.

Those impacted should have received a postcard from Consumers Energy in the mail.

However, some residents and officials said they were taken by surprise by this outage.

When asked if he was aware of the outage, area resident Adam Belbeck said, "Not until the last hour."

"It's crazy, I had no idea," said another resident.

"Everybody had a different story and some individuals we contacted had no information whatsoever that an outage was planned and occurring," Narsh said.

Local leaders held a news conference Thursday after residents expressed concerns about the shut-off.

"It's a complete shocker to me," a resident said.

Some residents said they didn't see the postcards sent by Consumers.

"I mean I'm sure they gave out a notice, but unless they go door to door, putting it in our mail doesn't always mean anything," Belbeck said.

And residents like Belbeck are now scrambling to make arrangements.

"I have a CPAP machine, so at night, I really need that to sleep because I stop breathing, so having that getting shut off in the middle of the night is definitely going to impact us," Belbeck said. "Honestly, it's kind of life or death, so unless they're going to give us a generator to help me stay awake at night, it's going to be rough on us."

Kullis said he was first made aware of the outage by a concerned resident asking him questions.

"I reached out to chief, fire chief, 'cause I thought perhaps they had gotten a notification. And none of us knew," he said.

Police, fire, water, and sewer were all hearing about the outage for the first time, too.

"It's concerning when public safety does not have knowledge or information that there may be outages that could impact fire suppression ability. For us, if we have a residential or community district that's going to be out, we need have extra staffing to protect those businesses," said Narsh.

Consumers Energy provided a full statement to TV5 about the situation:

Local authorities are hopeful for an improvement on communication so no one is left in the dark on information.

"Everybody certainly understands that infrastructure needs maintenance, and we're glad they do that, we want a good power system. However, if that maintenance is going to adversely affect water and sewer abilities and treatment and public safety suppression, government agencies need to know that," Narsh said.

Police, fire, water, and sewer officials all say they're working to make sure there are no disruptions to those services while the power is off.

A second shut-off is scheduled for Oct. 25, and well as a possible outage Nov. 1.

Local officials are asking residents to direct their calls to Consumers Energy.