JACKSON COUNTY, Ore.- Talent has lost power more than 40 times this year, and next week, Pacific Power’s president is visiting to listen to the community.
Jackson County State Senator, Jeff Golden, says the unreliable power outages are “terrible and unacceptable,” with outages ranging from one to almost 24 hours long in 100 degree temperatures.
Golden is working alongside Pacific Power and the Oregon Public Utility Commission. He says the Talent area’s power has two main issues.
The power grid only works on a large scale, so any power loss could impact thousands of households. Also, the wiring intended to respond for immediate power restoration has sparking potential, so it endangers dry grasses.
“My expectation, and I think those of people in Talent, is that the company is doing everything it possibly can do to remedy this. That it’s top priority and they can take it as seriously as they can,” said Golden. “I said ‘are you doing what you would do for your parents or grandparents who might be medically fragile who are living out in the Talent area on 100 degree days, are you putting that level of effort into it?’ They say they are.”
Community members can get their power outage questions answered by Pacific Power’s president this Wednesday, September 11. The Q&A will be from 6:30 until 8:00 p.m. at the Talent library.
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