When a manager at the pizza shop "Citizen Pie" on West 25th Street called owner Claudia Young because the lights went out, it was a frustrating problem, but it wasn't a new one.
"This had happened about three times in the past four or five weeks," said Young.
The shop had to close it's doors, losing customers, about $25,000 worth of food, and stealing hours on the clock from employees.
"It's everything we don't want to happen," said Young.
An employee makes a pizza Sunday after the restaurant closed early on Saturday during a power outage.
First Energy tells News 5:
"Yesterday, the Illuminating Company experienced an equipment issue at a substation that feeds CPP's system. However, the outage experienced by CPP's west side customers could have been avoided completely if CPP had maintained an existing, alternate line it has in place to serve those customers. This line has been out of service for a long time, and depending on a single line instead of maintaining a redundant system creates an avoidable and unnecessary risk for customers."
Cleveland Public Power hasn't responded to News 5's requests for comment since the outage on Saturday, but they've told us in the past that they maintain, "50 miles of transmission lines and over 900 miles of distribution lines which offers our customers redundancy in restoring power quickly."
Citizen Pie owner Claudia Young speaks outside her restaurant about the hardship interruptions her electric service creates for her business.
"It's a perfect summer night," said Young. "It's not a winter storm, it's not trees falling on power lines. It's just these utility companies not taking care of their end of the deal."
Young says she's reached out to Cleveland Public Power in the past and will again on Monday, but she's skeptical about if she'll make any progress this time around.
"Without them, how am I going to pay my people? How am I going to pay my bills," asked Young. "How am I going to offer up a product that we can be proud of?"
