High winds, tree-damage likely cause of Dec. 29 Cheney outage

Weather is the likely cause of a power outage that left approximately 800 Cheney Light Department customers in the dark on Dec. 29.

In a Jan. 3 email to Public Works Director Todd Ableman, Light Department foreman Travis Billigmeier said feeder No. 2 from the Four Lakes substation went down about 7:30 p.m. The line supplies power to a portion of north Cheney and a department crew inspecting the line in the 2400 block of North 6th Street found a pole-mounted cutout that was open, isolating the No. 2 circuit and interrupting power.

According to electrical industry sources, a cutout is switch/fus...