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Cordell public works director Charlie Brown shows one of the broken connectors which shorted last week, causing the afternoon power outage. Bob Henline | The Cordell Beacon
The eastern half of Cordell was without power last Thursday afternoon, as a broken line forced city officials to cut power at the substation in order to safely repair the break. The break, located just west of the Cordell High School football stadium, was repaired during the afternoon of Thursday, Oct. 24, but the repair revealed other potential issues with Cordell’s aging electricity infrastructure.
According to city administrator J.C. Moser, the repair crews located other aging lines and old connectors that could pose potential problems for electric service in the very near future. Moser said those lines would also need to be replaced soon, but doing so should not cause long power outages in the city if the repairs are done before one of the lines or connectors gives out.
Moser said the city needs to replace a couple of power poles just west of the school complex and run new electric lines to those poles, bypassing the affected area. The power would need to be shut off, he said, just long enough to connect the new bypassing lines to the main power lines. The schedule for the repairs was not yet available as of press time.