Thursday's Internet Edition, September 09, 2010.
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| El Paso Electric's Kerry Lore (L), Vice President of Customer Care, and Hector Puente (R), Vice President of Power Generation, at Tuesday's meeting with City Council and citizens. |
- El Paso Electric Company, at the request of Mayor Ben Flanagan, sent two representatives to Van Horn for Tuesday evenings city council meeting.
Kerry Lore, Vice President for Customer Care and Hector Puente, P.E., Vice President for Power Generation, got the call to attend Tuesdays meeting. It would have been much better had a company decision maker been there, someone like for instance the CEO.
It did not take long for the crowded Convention Center audience to begin to make their feelings known. And, the locals who spoke did not mince words.
Besides Mayor Flanagan, some 14 others from various walks of life, took to the podium to pour out their anger and disgust with El Paso Electric over the prolonged power outages which have plagued the city. Outages which have not only inconvenienced individuals, businesses and customers, but have also cost thousands of dollars.
Robert Morales said, “The response from El Paso Electric to this problem has historically been dismal.” He went on to say, “When has El Paso experienced outages of this magnitude?” Morales concluded by saying, “Expend the dollars need to fix the problem. Take it seriously and do something!”
Phyllis Taylor, representing the local Texas Department of State Health Services, told the representatives, “Your power outages are creating a very real health problem here because of lost vaccines that get to warm during the outages.”
Bill Addington, of Sierra Blanca, said, “The outages have occurred so often that it has almost become a way of life for us. Businesses are suffering. Please take this problem to heart and seek a solution.”
Randy Cowell, a new comer to Van Horn said, “I’m a retired military man and in all my years in the military, I never experienced outages lasting longer than a few minutes. Your allowing us to be out of power for as much as 10 hours, without a backup system, is totally unacceptable.”
Cheri Friday, told the representatives, “Have you looked at your own web site? It states that you are required to provide service to your customers. One of those services is the capacity to handle 4,000 calls, yet no one ever gets through when they attempt to call.”
Bill Larson, manager of the Eagles Nest RV Park told them, “When we’re outta power, we’re outta business! Someone has dropped the ball and it sure isn’t us!”
Ray Reyes, manager of Van Horn’s Pueblo Market, told the reps, “Every prolonged outage costs us dearly in lost refrigerated equipment and the food that is in them. Just the three outages we’ve had this year have cost us over $95,000 in equipment and food losses. Who pays for this? The cost to our grocery store during these prolonged outages is prohibitive.”
Bill Story, owner of Van Horn’s McDonald’s, said “These outages are not a new problem. They have existed for years. The problem is every outage cost me thousands of dollars in lost business and lost employee time, not to mention equipment and food losses. You need to fix the problem!”
Lupe Ibarra, manager of the Holiday Inn Express, said, “These prolonged outages cost us as much as $15,000 each time we have one, and this year alone, we have lost a $4,700 electric water heater because of the outages. Something must be done about this problem!”
Sharon Rust, Director of Nursing Services at the local hospital, said “I’m speaking to day as a grandmother of twins who deserve to have air conditioning and lights and not be scared to death because its dark. We pay our bills and if we don’t, you don’t hesitate to cut us off. Yet, when we’re without electricity, we can’t cut you off. Fix the problem or we’ll take you to small claims court until you do fix the problem.”
Pete Torres told the representatives, “I just moved back to Van Horn and when I told my friends I was moving back, they laughed and told me you’d better et a generator because the power goes out there too much. Please do something for our town. You’re ruining our economy!”
Jeff McCoy, speaking on behalf of the Van Horn Economic Development Corporation, said “These prolonged power outages have a very real and detrimental effect on our economic development efforts here.”
And, Mayor Flanagan commented, “Whenever we have one of these outages, two phones numbers get called....the sheriff’s office and mine! I have four numbers listed for El Paso Electric. Two are for the local guys Ernie and Mario, and two are El Paso Electric’s offices in El Paso. Mario and Ernie always return my call as soon as possible. But I’m still waiting on someone to call me from El Paso about the outages.”
Flanagan than gave the floor to the El Paso Electric representatives who acknowledged that “El Paso Electric had done and is doing a poor job of communicating with local customers.” Kerry Lore told those at the meeting that she’ll do “whatever is in her power to correct customer care and communication problems.”
Hector Puente, Vice President for Power Generation, told the audience, “We apologize to you for not communicating with you. For not letting you know that you are not step customers of the company.”
He went on to say, “By way of explanation let me say that Van Horn is served by a 69KV main transmission line that is some 90 miles long. When an outage occurs, the problem is not knowing that it is out or even where it is, the problem is getting to the site of the problem. To alleviate this, the company has been working on a plan to upgrade the transmission line with steel poles. But this presents problems because the line must be worked while it is hot, which means we work it at times when the load is not peaked.”
Puente said, “The Van Horn to Allamoore section is already converted to steel poles and the rest of the transmission line will be done as money and time are available.” He also noted, “We’re working on a 24KV line which can ultimately be used to provide backup service to Van Horn but that line requires upgrading and installation of automated equipment before it can be up and running.
Puente concluded his remarks by stating, “At no time do we ever say Van Horn can wait! We are committed and dedicated to keeping the lights on here. Van Horn on the tail end of our distribution system and we have no other source of backup power to draw from out here. The outages are almost exclusively caused by weather systems and we get on them as fast as humanly is possible. We do care about you! You deserve quality service and we’re dedicated to provide that service to you.”
Mayor Flanagan noted, in conclusion, “I thank you for coming to Van Horn and for listening to our concerns. Please take them back to your decision makers in El Paso because we are going to keep the heat on until the problem is corrected!”
Veterans Fair to be held here on July 11th
The El Paso Vet Center is hosting a Veterans Informational Fair here in Van Horn this Saturday, July 11th, beginning at 9 a.m.
The event will be held at the Culberson County Senior Citizen’s Nutrition Center located at 1206 W. Broadway.
According to Tony Ortiz, of the El Paso Vet Center, participating agencies in this Fair include: El Paso Veterans Affair Benefits Office, OEF/OIF Program & Suicide Prevention; Ft. Bliss Cemetery; Texas Veterans Land Board; Social Security Administration; Del Sol Medical Center; Texas Workforce Commission; Texas Veterans Commission; and the El Paso Vet Center.
Displays will be open at 9 a.m. on Saturday, and will remain in place until 1 p.m.
Tony Ortiz, of the El Paso Vet Center, is in Van Horn twice a month at City Hall.
If you have any questions regarding this Veterans Fair, please give him a call at (915) 772-0013.