Oh nuts! Squirrels cause power problems for Wellington residents

WELLINGTON — Squirrels have gone a little nuts this fall, causing power problems for some village residents. They may be cute little rodents, but they've been getting into electrical equipment and causing breakers to trip for weeks, according to Village Manager Steve Dupee. "This is not uncommon with electric utilities," he said. Dupee said squirrels haven't put residents in the dark for hours at a time. Instead, they've caused "instantaneous events" that knock the power out for less than a second at a time. That's caused headaches, especially for those working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Outside of storms, the two biggest problems for Wellington's electrical lines are falling tree branches and squirrels, Dupee said. It becomes more of a problem when it's time to stock up on acorns for the winter. So anywhere there's significant tree coverage — particularly oaks — outages are going to happen, he said. Wellington has what Dupee considers an "aggressive" tree-trimming program to reduce the likelihood of electrical problems. But the village is tree-friendly. Its workers plant a lot of new trees each year, and don't believe clear-cutting older trees is the answer. The better solution is to put equipment on poles and transformers that keeps squirrels from causing trouble, Dupee said. "We always have this problem in the fall. But there may be some years that it's been less extensive than this year," he said. Contact Jason Hawk at (440) 329-7122 or news@lcnewspapers.com.