Well, on Easter Monday we awoke to maybe 10 centimetres of snow and no electricity. The power came on close to dinner time. I’m glad I wasn’t having guests over for a fancy dinner. Throughout the day there were maybe four or five surges as repairs were undertaken. Those power fluctuations are very hard on electrical equipment like fridges, freezers, and industrial tools.
Nelson Hydro has been annually increasing rates by several percentages lately and from what I have read in the newspaper, the city has been using a healthy portion of the profits for Hall Street development and other projects. This does nothing to improve the ratepayers’ service in the outlying areas.
Why is it that such a minor spring snow storm knocks down so many trees that we are out of service for over 10 hours?
Why aren’t more of those hydro profits invested into line maintenance?
“A stitch in time saves nine” my mother used to tell me. Those hydro repair workers were likely getting double time to work on getting the electricity flowing again on the Easter weekend. Wouldn’t it have been less expensive and better customer service in the long run to do the summer tree removal program more thoroughly?
C. Burton,
Balfour