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Cleveland residents, city leaders concerned about power outages, call for CPP reliability hearing

Posted at 10:42 PM, Feb 05, 2019
and last updated 2019-02-06 07:55:50-05

CLEVELAND — Some Cleveland residents and city leaders are calling for Cleveland Public Power to devote more funding to infrastructure improvements, to curb what they called chronic lighting and power outages.

Residents who contacted News 5 about CPP reliability concerns said they aren't confident the addition of 64,000 new LED lighting fixtures will be enough to substantially reduce repeated outages.

Angela Davis, with Black Lives Matter Cleveland, told News 5 a significant outage near the West Side during subzero temperatures on Jan. 30 have her concerned about resident safety.

"I am calling for Mayor Frank Jackson to regulate CPP," Davis said.

"Families could freeze to death, it could cause damage to their homes, freeze their pipes."

Cleveland safety activist Robert Carillio pointed to chronic lighting outages near major Cleveland landmarks like First Energy Stadium, and Heritage Park along the Cuyahoga River.

"Come a year later or more, same lights, same places, still out, same thing." Carillio said.

"When people report this numerous times, you shouldn't have to have the buck passed onto someone else, they should be doing this."

Cleveland Councilman Kerry McCormack told News 5 he's well aware of the chronic CPP power outages that continue hit homes and businesses in his ward.

"We can't take this as the way it's going to be, they've got to improve the system," McCormack said.

"This is my ward, this is impacting me heavily, my businesses. We've got a great thriving small business community, they are fed up with this."

"My residents, especially my vulnerable residents, are really not happy with this at all."

McCormack told News 5 he and Cleveland City Council President Kevin Kelley will hold a hearing and CPP progress report on the company's infrastructure issues.

McCormack said the installation of 64,000 new LED lights, this summer, will significantly help CPP when it comes to bulb outages, but he agrees more funding is needed to replace sections of the aging CPP infrastructure.

Cleveland Public Power responded quickly, and issued the following statement, after News 5 reported a series of lighting outrages:

"Several of these locations have been repaired. The remaining locations will be investigated and repaired as necessary."

"Any resident who notices a streetlight out should contact Cleveland Public Power’s 24-hour hotline at 216-621-5483."