LAKEWOOD, Ohio — Power outages have been a constant headache for residents in Lakewood and West Park. But on Tuesday, FirstEnergy said relief is finally on the way with new transformers being installed.
Whether it’s winter or summer, nearly two years after severe storms knocked out power, Cheyenne Burke is still dealing with outages.
"We are all paying for the service. I want us to actually experience an interruption-free service,” said Burke.
But on Tuesday, FirstEnergy said that the problem should soon go away.
"I would say that this is a permanent fix here,” said Sally Thomas, who is the vice president of distribution engineering planning for FirstEnergy.
We were there as one of two transformers was delivered, part of FirstEnergy’s multi-million-dollar plan promised to residents during a town hall nearly a year ago.
RELATED: FirstEnergy pledges $12.5M to fix Lakewood outages. But residents question if it will work.
"These transformers here are really a backbone to really improve a more reliable resiliency,” said Thomas.
The transformer, scheduled to go into service in September, will serve homes in Lakewood and West Park. Other upgrades include four breakers replaced at the Grovewood Substation, new smart meters across the area, and crews trimming trees at 100 locations.
"We're doing a lot of things in this community to really improve, and what we've seen already in the last 12 months is an improvement,” said Thomas.
"This is not a small step, and so the fact that the company is following through is significant,” said Lakewood council member Tom Bullock.
Bullock welcomes the progress but said he’ll be watching closely to make sure it works and that the company prevents future problems.
"Well, I’d like to see the top leadership at the company be less reactive and more plan ahead, because everything on that list, it's eight or nine steps, could have been done over the last 10 years,” said Bullock.
However, Burke said she questions the solution's effectiveness.
"It sounds like a really positive thing to be happening, but is this really going to fix the problem?” Burke continued. “I'm still very apprehensive about it. I want this to be the solution to the problem, but I don't really have that much trust in them at this point.”
Burke said she needs to see it to believe it — and believes the issues are bigger than infrastructure alone.
"I would like them to improve the communication with their customers. I would like us to have a little bit more information on our end,” said Burke.
FirstEnergy said it knows there’s still work ahead.
"We've got a lot to do to really show this community that they can trust us, and we're, we're bound to do that,” said Thomas.
Nadeen Abusada is a Cuyahoga County and immigration reporter at News 5 Cleveland. Follow her on Instagram NadeenAbusada or email her at Nadeen.Abusada@wews.com.
