Summer weather brings an increased chance of storms, which can result in downed trees and limbs on power lines. These events can cause outages or create potential hazards for our members. 

When outages occur, our crews work efficiently to restore power with the least amount of disruption to our members. However, we sometimes face challenges reaching fallen lines and equipment on members’ properties.   

The ground above and below utility lines and equipment are commonly known as distribution easements or rights-of-way. Trees, shrubs or objects that grow into or near power lines can not only cause power outages but may delay the restoration of power. The Cooperative’s Service Rules & Regulations inform members about access rights:

The member agrees that the Cooperative will have right of access to member’s premises at all times to read meters, testing, repairing, removing, maintaining or exchanging any or all equipment and facilities which are the property of the Cooperative. 

With more and more closed-off properties, “it becomes necessary to take down fences, break locks and chains, cut down vegetation, and sometimes even move equipment out of the way to repair or restore power lines. Our crews try to minimize damage from access needed to make repairs to the lines but lots of times it is not preventable,” states Wil Ortiz, manager of vegetation management. 

Help us ensure safety and reliability for you as well as our workers. Please allow proper clearance for working on power lines and equipment in and around your property.