The mayor of Essex understands frustration from residents following a power outage over the weekend, but says it's important for them to report it in order to make improvements.
Sherry Bondy, who is also the E.L.K. Board Chair, took to social media after power flickers and outages on Sunday caused frustration by residents in Ward 1 who posted to social media that the constant flickers, and the eventual outage, ruined some of their appliances.
The power went out early Sunday afternoon, with E.L.K. Energy stating the cause of the outage was animal contact. Power was restored, but then went out once again Sunday evening.
Bondy says flickers are inconvenient, but sometimes necessary as they actually work to keep the power on.
She adds that E.L.K. has come a long way in the last two years - increasing investment, health and safety training, staffing levels, technology, tree trimming, and more to improve service.
She says while they have done many improvements, there's a long road ahead.
"E.L.K. has traditionally been a utility that didn't have a lot of money put into it. So now we're kind of dealing with those consequences. So some of the things that we want to see going forward is we're working on switches in Harrow, in Essex, Kingsville, and in Belle River so that when power goes out at one side of the town, we'll be able to flick a switch and still have power."
Bondy says E.L.K. delivery rates are very low - limiting funding to spend.
"The delivery charge is what each utility charges you to get that hydro and power to your house. Our delivery charges in E.L.K. territory are very low - second lowest in the province. And it's going to take a long time before we see a lot more money put into the system because the rates are so low, and because increases can happen only in gradual steps."
She says it's important for residents to report flickers so that patterns can be monitored.
"The more information we have, the better, because then we can say 'okay, are we getting flickers from this area of town more than others? Okay, let's focus our next round of tree trimming on that area'. So, the more information we have, definitely the better we can help troubleshoot what the issues are."
Bondy adds that as a way to be more transparent to the community, residents can view the E.L.K. Energy Board Meeting minutes on the E.L.K. website.
She adds that E.L.K. has improved on better communication through social media so residents are up to date on incidents such as outages.