ATHENS, Tenn. - In the wake of multiple electric power outages and interruptions in recent weeks in Englewood, management representatives from Athens Utilities Board (AUB) will host a public information session on Tuesday, July 3, at Englewood City Hall.

The public meeting will begin at 6 p.m. and will take place in the City Hall conference room. AUB General Manager Eric Newberry and Communications Director Wayne Scarbrough will offer short presentations about the recent problems and then will open the floor for discussion, comments, questions and answers. Power Superintendent Nick Fortson will be on hand to field questions and meet with customers as well.

“I have spoken with many Englewood residents in the past few weeks about the power interruptions and I know my co-workers here at AUB have fielded just as many calls.” Scarbrough said. “Clearly, our customers in Englewood are frustrated, and understandably so. They want information, they want to know the reasons for the interruptions, and that is perfectly reasonable. But even though they're frustrated, most everyone has been understanding once we get a chance to talk about the causes for the problems and the actions AUB is taking to try to improve service.”

According to AUB, almost all of the recent outages have been caused by things that are not under AUB control, such as lightning strikes, animals, vehicles hitting power poles, and wind damage. “But we’ve also gotten reports about daily interruptions that are very brief and that happen at specific times each day,” Scarbrough said. “They aren’t long outages, but you still have to re-set VCRs and clocks. It’s frustrating. More important is that these are the type of “spot” interruptions where information from the customers is critical in investigating root causes that aren’t apparent on the surface. We hope that the public meeting will generate good information for us and our customers alike.”