The Duncan Banner

Local News

February 28, 2013

Lights go out, Velma council continues working

Megan Bristow The Duncan Banner

DUNCAN —  

Despite the loss of power, the Velma Town Council was able to continue Monday’s meeting with help from the town hall’s backup generator. 
Velma lost power for two hours Monday night during the snow and rain storm. Though the lights flickered, Mayor Shawn Enloe said they were able to make it through the meeting.
“Fortunately, we have a generator that allows us to have power,” he said.
Following the meeting, emergency personnel remained in town hall until power came back on at 10 p.m. to give Velma residents a place to come warm up if they needed to.
Cotton Electric serves the entire town of Velma, and a spokesperson said power outages began around 3 p.m. Monday. High winds and ice accumulation resulted in downed power lines and a few broken poles, CE noted. In all, 2,700 customers were affected, by 25 separate problems. Both the Velma and Skelly substations were without power, affecting Cotton Electric members for more than 2 1/2 hours. There are about 800 members in that service area. Crews from Western Farmers Electric Cooperative, a power supplier headquartered in Anadarko, assisted in the restoration. 
During the Velma council meeting, its trustees approved a bid from WW Builders, Inc. for $52,565.80 for a roof replacement. “It had some hail damage from one of the last hail storms that we had,” Mayor Shawn Enloe said. “It started getting some leaks. We had our insurance come out and take a look at it.”
Enloe said a majority of the replacement cost will be covered by insurance. Although other companies came out to examine the roof, WW Builders, Inc. was the only company to place a bid to replace the roof.
Enloe said the council also asked the fire department to meet at their next monthly meeting to discuss what is going to be considered an excused and an unexcused absence so the policy could be adapted at a future meeting.
The council also discussed the use of the sales tax that was passed in Stephens County in October. Enloe said the fire department plans to use it for utilities, equipment and any other purchases that might be needed.
The Velma Town Council’s meeting is typically scheduled for the second and fourth Tuesday of the month. However, the council met on Monday this week to allow the council to attend the Stephens County Sheriff’s Office Reserve Academy graduation from which Robert Bloodworth and Kenneth Sanner of Velma graduated.

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