PEMBERVILLE, Ohio — On Monday, the nearly 1300-person population of Pemberville will experience a total power outage for around eight hours, according to Mayor Carol Bailey.
"It's just going to take a bit longer," Bailey said.
Bailey says the village will be without power during the day on Monday, between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m., because a substation, located on College Avenue and powered by FirstEnergy, is opening up again.
"The whole goal is getting this power plant rebuilt and is to make our power sustainable and much more reliable," she said.
Last December, there was a three-hour outage for the substation to undergo repairs.
This year is the last planned outage at the substation, according to Bailey.
But businesses will be affected, so some are pivoting, like Front Street Cafe, which will be closed and is planning ahead.
We're going to use the ice that we have to offset the outage, so we'll load our coolers down with ice in tubs, that way it kind of keeps (the food) that ambient temperature and keeps it down nice and low," said Brent Neff, a managing partner with the restaurant.
Just a few steps down the sidewalk from the cafe, Beeker's General Store owner Todd Sheets says he'll still have the doors open.
"It'll just be myself," Sheets said. "Of course we won't be as glorified and lit up as normal, but thank god we have quite a few windows here with the front windows in the store, so we'll try to carry on as much as possible."
Operating without a credit card machine or use of store phone is not ideal though, he added, especially during the holidays. Beeker's will only be accepting cash.
"That's probably the most frustrating thing for us is that we will not be able to help our customers," Sheets said. "If they get here to the door, we'll certainly try to help them, but this time of year there's a lot and you kind of forget how much you actually use electricity."
Bailey says that the Bowling Green Senior Center and the Luckey Branch Library will both be providing heat and electrical assistance for residents in need during the outage.
