MAHONING COUNTY Austintown official seeks probe of power outages

The debris from the storms forced closure of some township roads.
By IAN HILL
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
AUSTINTOWN -- Township Trustee David Ditzler is asking Ohio Edison to investigate reports of repeated power outages on Cumberland Drive, Dunbar Avenue, Woodhurst Boulevard and Ohltown Road.
At Monday's trustees meeting, Ditzler said he wrote a letter to Paul Harkey, Ohio Edison area manager, asking him to determine if the outages were the result of power grid problems or downed trees.
Ohio Edison has found reports of repeated outages have come from neighborhoods with older trees that are prone to falling over or breaking apart and hitting power lines during storms, Ditzler said.
He said he learned of the reports of repeated outages on the four streets named in the letter when talking to residents after Friday's thunderstorm.
Ditzler added that he received calls from about a dozen residents over the weekend concerned that Ohio Edison's automated phone system had not recorded their addresses when they reported outages.
He said Harkey responded to his subsequent calls about the residents' concerns, and in his letter, he thanks Harkey for working to restore power to Austintown after Friday's storm.
Road closings
Trustee Bo Pritchard also expressed disappointment that Mahoning County closed a section of Ohltown Road for at least a day over the weekend because of a tree that had fallen during the storm.
Police Lt. Mark Durkin noted a section of Four Mile Run Road also was closed for about a day because of a fallen tree.
Pritchard said he wants to talk to the county engineer about using township road department workers or private contractors to remove fallen trees in the future so that roads won't be closed for so long.
Fire Chief Andrew Frost said township firefighters responded to about 35 reports of fallen trees Friday night, and Durkin noted that police witnessed four or five near car accidents after the storm because of drivers who did not stop at intersections where stoplights had been shut off by the power outages.
Township Administrator Michael Dockry added that a tree crashed through the roof of a home on Bexley Drive during Friday's storm.