GIRARD — City officials say they are going to contact their state representative about what can be done on the continual problem of power outages in Girard.

Councilwoman at-Large Lily Martuccio told city council Monday she is sending a letter to state Rep. Michael Loychik, R-Bazetta, explaining the situation of numerous outages since May and also several late last year.

“We need to start asking questions and getting answers and I feel we should reach out to our state representative to look into this and see what can be done,” Martuccio said,

Martuccio said they wants answers from FirstEnergy-Ohio Edison and is hopeful a state lawmaker can get them.

She had a letter prepared and asked other council members to sign it.

First Ward Councilman Keith Schubert, who serves on the utilities committee, said the power has been going off in the city much more often in the past few months.

“In the past few weeks the power has gone out three or four more times. We want to get a straight answer on why this keeps happening,” he said.

Schubert said what often happens is, power goes on and off quickly several times. He said there were at least 14 times the power went off in a month or more.

“We are looking for accountability and reliability on why this keeps happening,” Schubert said, indicating the infrastructure needs to be updated.

“It has become a real nuisance and an inconvenience. You’d think the power wouldn’t be going out the way it has been,” Schubert said.

Officials said they have been told problems have been caused by a squirrel eating a line, or tree branch or a breaker line.

Council President Reynald Paolone said the power outages cause concerns for residents.

“I’m not talking fixing clocks and washing machines. We have people on oxygen, working on computers, babies with baby formula, and air conditioners in the heat. The horror stories are out there. Some of these are expensive electronics. We are not going to quit until we get answers. So far we are getting nothing,” Paolone said.

Paolone said the issue is not just a power outage due to a storm like many communities but the constant on and off on a regular basis.

In May, Lisa Taddei, regional external affairs consultant, and Andrew Lubich, director of operations, met with officials to discuss power outages.

Safety / Service Director Jerry Lambert said he received a letter from FirstEnergy-Ohio Edison about projects being worked on with a new grid and other technology to detect locations and get power restored quicker.

Officials with FirstEnergy indicate grid modernization and creating additional circuit lines along power lines would restore outages faster.

Lubich said while weather, vehicles hitting poles, animal contact, and trees and limbs are reasons for many power outages, work is being done to make improvements and put in preventive measures. Trees are also being trimmed along those same lines.

Lubich said infrastructure improvements will be done this summer. He said the current Niles-McKinley Heights circuit line, which serves a section of northern Girard, has had issues and is being removed and replaced with new lines and backup substations in the Salt Springs and Riverbend areas.

Officials have said when the new lines and improvements are done, it will make it much easier to pinpoint outages and isolate the location and then find the cause, while also utilizing the backup substations to get the power back on as quickly as possible.