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August 10, 2004LELAND: County without power, againByRecord-Eagle staff writer LELAND - A Consumers Energy problem left the county seat and other portions of Leelanau County powerless for at least the second time this year. Consumers spokesman Tim Pietryga said a pole carrying a primary electric distribution line north of Bingham Township broke just before 11 a.m. Monday leaving 4,440 customers without power most of the day. Robert Hawley, chair of the Leelanau County Board of Commissioners, said the outage wasn't the first time the county's employees left work early. "It doesn't happen as frequently now as it used to, but this spring it was a transformer and power was out a couple of hours," he said. "You can't operate any entity these days without electricity ... being able to be open to the public is just not possible." But Hawley said the jail and other emergency services, including central dispatch, have back-up energy sources. The power outage not only socked government operations, but also several businesses along the peninsula. Joe Burda, co-owner of Leland Mercantile Co., said his business was one of the few in town to remain open because they installed a generator to combat outages. Burda said his store even had perishable items from other businesses in its freezers Monday afternoon. "We installed it about five years ago because of these reasons," he said. "It seems to happen quite a bit up here, at least four or five times a year." But Pietryga said Leelanau residents face an unique problem because Consumers has few options for re-routing power as it makes repairs. "It is one of the problems they face on a peninsula. If it goes out, it goes out," he said. "Because the lines run up one way, we don't have a lot of alternative ways to re-route and restore it during repairs." Hawley said the county made arrangements to install a back-up generator at the new law enforcement center in Suttons Bay - the site of the future county seat. Until then, the county will have to grin and bear it. "A couple years from now we will be able to carry on during outages," said Hawley. "Today, we weren't able to."
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