LAKEWOOD, Ohio — After FirstEnergy held a town hall to address power outages in Lakewood and unveiled a multi-million-dollar plan, some residents say they won’t believe the promises until the outages stop.
Back in January, it was the fear of sitting in the cold. Now, Cheyenne Burke tells News 5 she worries she’ll suffer through the high summer temperatures.
“I have a daughter, she doesn't do well in the heat. I have pets and animals that also don't do very well in the heat,” said Burke.
Though the seasons have changed, the power problems haven’t.
RELATED: Lakewood residents want to know why their power keeps going out
“It has been even less consistent. I feel we started off real strong with, I want to say, like, four or five outages in a week,” said Burke.
But Monday night, FirstEnergy came to the table with plans for change. During a town hall with the Lakewood community, the company announced a $12.5 million investment plan to address equipment failures that have affected Lakewood for months.
The breakdown is as follows:
- $5,000+ towards transformer repairs and upgrades
- $4 million towards transformer replacements
- $1.6 million towards breaker replacements
- $6.9 million towards smart meter installations
“What commitments can you make to reduce the number of outages and the duration of outages?” Councilman Tom Bullock asked during the meeting Monday night.
But Bullock says the root of the problem still wasn’t addressed.
“They did announce some investments, but we don't know what it will take to fix it. And there they have a legal filing right now that asks permission to have longer outages, not shorter. So we're going in the wrong direction,” said Bullock.
He’s calling for better communication, reimbursements for residents for food losses and for the city to consider legal action.
“We could file and pursue our rights before state government, and not just talk to corporate customer service, but talk to the state of Ohio,” said Bullock.
Lakewood Mayor Meghan George agrees that communication has been lacking. She says legal action is still on the table.
“We did speak with the law firm here recently. We are going to pursue any and all options to ensure that FirstEnergy is hold it, held accountable,” said George.
As for Burke, she’s preparing for the next outage — just in case. And until she sees real results, she’s not buying FirstEnergy’s promises.
“I think I need to see actual consistent power, like i consistently for a year,” said Burke.
In the last month, we told you about the Office of the Ohio Consumers' Counsel requesting a formal investigation by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO). While PUCO has not yet responded, FirstEnergy has filed an opposition to the request.
