Village Hall, Library Report Intermittent Outages as Utility Disputes Continue
HOBART, OHIO – Hobart Village Hall and the Public Library have both experienced repeated power interruptions over the past several weeks, with neither facility able to confirm a cause or provide residents with a timeline for resolution.
The outages began at Village Hall on or around July 14, six days after the Department of Civil Control and Enforcement issued a public notice reminding residents that “no entity other than the Village of Hobart or its authorized representatives may claim a general right of access to properties within Village limits.”
The notice, signed by Chief Code Enforcement Officer Raymond Doolin and dated July 8, was posted to the Village website and taped to the front door of the Hobart Municipal Utilities Commission office on N. Gallia Street. It did not name HMUC directly.
Since then, Village Hall has logged at least four additional incidents in which overhead lighting, HVAC, and desktop computers shut down without warning during business hours. The longest outage lasted approximately ninety minutes on a Tuesday afternoon, during which staff conducted business by the front windows and a clerk hand-wrote three building permits.
The Hobart Public Library, a branch of the Proctor County Public Library System housed in one of the largest Carnegie libraries ever built in a village this size, has fared worse. Head Librarian Nancy Kipp told the Herald that her facility has experienced “six or seven” outages since mid-July, some lasting only seconds and others long enough to require a full reboot of the public computer terminals. The building, which spans roughly 30,000 square feet across three levels, presents particular challenges during extended outages. Kipp noted that the interruptions have affected the library’s climate control system, which she said has resulted in “conditions that are not ideal for the collection.”
When asked whether the library’s aging wiring could be a factor, Kipp said the building’s electrical system was last inspected in 2019 and passed without issue. She added that she had submitted a maintenance request to the Hobart Municipal Utilities Commission on July 22 and had not received a response.
HMUC Executive Director Connie Frau did not return calls from the Herald. A recorded message at the HMUC office states that the Commission is “currently prioritizing field operations” and directs callers to leave a message or visit during posted hours. The office was closed on two of the three occasions a Herald reporter attempted to visit.
Relations between Village Hall and HMUC have been strained in recent months. In addition to the July 8 notice, the Herald has previously reported on a pattern of billing disputes between the two entities, including a February invoice to Village Hall totaling $11,407.16 for water usage that the Village called “either a clerical hallucination or an act of institutional hostility.” More recently, an incident at the library involving HMUC Director of Operations Merle Crutchfield and Chief Code Enforcement Officer Doolin drew attention to what some residents have described as a jurisdictional disagreement over building access. Neither party has commented publicly.
Councilman Harold Gunn (North Fork) said he was aware of the outages and had raised the matter informally with HMUC. “I asked if there was a line issue,” Gunn told the Herald. “They said they’d look into it. That was three weeks ago.”
Residents in the immediate vicinity of Village Hall and the library have not reported similar outages. A Herald survey of six businesses on Court Street found no interruptions during the same period.
HMUC’s published service area map and outage reporting procedures are available at the Utilities office on N. Gallia Street during posted business hours, which vary.
my lights been flickering too but i live on canal street so it might be ghosts
Has anyone asked Martha Elkins directly? I feel like someone on Council should be making a statement. Gene says there’s more going on than what’s in this article but he can’t say what because of “executive session” whatever that means.
Brenda maybe your husband should worry about his own tax situation before he starts talking about executive sessions at the dinner table.
This is exactly what happened with the Little League raffle money. Nobody returns calls. Nobody takes responsibility. And then six months later we find out the whole thing was mismanaged from the start. I have been saying this.
Nancy if you’re reading this please move the Merrill collection to the second floor until the climate situation is resolved. Those bindings will not survive humidity.
SIX DAYS. THE NOTICE GOES UP AND SIX DAYS LATER THE LIGHTS GO OUT. AND WE’RE ALL SUPPOSED TO SIT HERE AND PRETEND THAT’S A COINCIDENCE.. THEY DID IT TO THE FIRE HALL IN 98 AND THEY’LL DO IT AGAIN.
YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENED SHEILA
I really don’t.
Hollis what happened at the fire hall in 98.
That building has survived two floods, a coal strike, and thirty years of me. It does not have a wiring problem. Whatever is going on over there is not the building.
Funny how nobody wants to talk about what Merle was doing in that basement. You don’t send your Director of Operations to check a water line. That’s a journeyman job. Whatever’s down there they wanted their top guy on it.
Dale you don’t even know what a Director of Operations does. You think everyone at HMUC is running covert missions in library basements.
I know what a utility corridor is Marvin. Do you.
My grandmother donated $200 to the Carnegie fund in 1903 and that building was supposed to stand for a hundred years without this kind of nonsense. If Connie Frau can’t return a phone call maybe she shouldn’t be running anything.
I taught in that building for fourteen years when it was still used for summer school. The lights never flickered once. Not during the ice storm in 2004. Not during the flood. Not once. Something has changed and it is not the wiring.
The article says six businesses on Court Street had no outages. So the grid is fine. The lines are fine. It’s only the two buildings that happen to be in a jurisdictional dispute with the entity that controls their power. I’m not saying anything. I’m just reading the article.
Russell that is literally saying something.
I said what the article said Marvin. Take it up with Victor Harlan.
I WILL SAY THIS ONE TIME. IN 1998 THE FIRE HALL REQUESTED A METER AUDIT AND TWO WEEKS LATER THEIR BACKUP GENERATOR STOPPED WORKING.. HMUC SAID IT WAS UNRELATED,,THE GENERATOR WAS TWELVE YEARS OLD AND HAD NEVER MISSED A START.DRAW YOUR OWN CONCLUSIONS.
So you do remember.
Power outages can cause real damage to sensitive equipment. We installed a backup generator at Kline Family Dental three years ago for exactly this reason. If you haven’t had your teeth cleaned in six months this is a good reminder that some things shouldn’t wait.
My dad says HMUC has been like this since before he started with the sheriff’s office. They answer to nobody and they know it. The county tried to audit them in 2011 and they locked the office for a week.
2011. That’s the year they replaced the meters on the whole south end without telling anyone. People got bills for usage that hadn’t happened yet. Nobody talks about that either.
Tammy Jo I don’t appreciate being spoken to like that. Gene is a public servant and he takes his responsibilities seriously. All I said was that people deserve to know what’s going on.
Then maybe Gene should say it himself instead of having you post it on the Herald website at 9 o’clock at night.
update the ghosts are back
For the record, the Merrill collection is 340 volumes of county land records and survey maps dating to 1819. It is irreplaceable. It is in a building with no functioning climate control. I am asking politely.
I want to be clear about something since I’m quoted in this article. I called HMUC. I asked a direct question. I got a non-answer. That was three weeks ago and nothing has changed. I don’t have the authority to compel them to do anything and frankly neither does Council. That’s the problem.
Then what exactly is Council for Harold.
That is a fair question Birdie and I don’t have a good answer for you tonight.
Everybody in here acting surprised that Utilities does whatever it wants. They ran new pipe under my uncle’s property in 2007 and didn’t tell him until the yard caved in. He called their office and they said it was a pre-existing easement. The easement was from 1931. For a rail spur. That hasn’t existed since Korea.
Not defending HMUC but I will say my power has been fine on Gallia Street. Hasn’t gone out once. Whatever’s happening it’s not the grid. Might be the buildings themselves.
I taught in that library. The building is not the problem. I said what I said.
The article already covers this. Six businesses on Court Street had no outages either. The question isn’t whether the grid is fine. The question is why two specific buildings are losing power and nobody at HMUC will talk about it.
CONNIE FRAU MAKES 58 THOUSAND DOLLARS A YEAR TO NOT ANSWER THE PHONE. THAT IS PUBLIC RECORD. LOOK IT UP.
Gary please stop yelling on the internet. You’re making the family look bad.
I WILL YELL WHEREVER I WANT CALVIN !!THIS IS A PUBLIC FORUM.
This might be a stretch but has anyone looked into whether the library’s electrical system runs through the same utility corridor that HMUC claims jurisdiction over? Because if the power lines and the disputed access point are in the same basement that would explain a lot about why only that building is affected.
Now we’re getting somewhere
my grandma used to take me to that library when i was little and it was the biggest building i ever been in. felt like a church. hate to hear its having problems.
I just want to pay my water bill and have my lights work. I don’t care who’s feuding with who. Can someone just fix it.
That’s what we said about the raffle money Connie Lou. Nobody fixed that either.