HOLLY, Mich. (WNEM) – There is some controversy over a planned power outage that will leave thousands in the dark Friday night in Holly.

Consumers Energy will shut off power to the Village, Holly Township and surrounding areas on Friday, October 18th at 11 p.m.

The outages were discussed at a community meeting on Thursday, October 17th.

The power outage will affect around 2,600 people.

“We’ve all heard different stories, but we haven’t gotten any concrete answers,” said Holly Township Supervisor George Kullis.

Holly officials shed light on the situation surrounding a planned power outage in the village and community.

“Every utility needs to perform maintenance on its substations for maintenance and service, which will result in fewer power outages in the long run. So that’s the goal,” said Chief Jerry Narsh of the Village of Holly Police Department.

A spokesperson for Consumers Energy issued a statement to TV5 saying the planned outage was for “modernization work” in the area.

In order to be able to carry out this work, the electricity will be switched off from Friday 11 p.m. to Saturday 6 a.m.

Affected areas include approximately 2,600 residents and businesses in Holly and Holly Township, particularly in areas between Dixie Highway, Holly Road, Grange Hall Road and Falk Road, as well as Dixie Highway, Holly Road, Tucker Road and north of Rattalee Lake Road.

Holly High School is on the border, and officials said Friday night’s football game would be moved an hour earlier to avoid conflicts with the cancellation.

Meanwhile, local authorities said they are working with Consumers Energy to ensure no one is left in the dark about information.

“I want to make sure everyone has the confidence. Our public safety department is aware of this. We are ready, our DPW, our water plant, sewer plant, lift stations and fire and police are ready,” Narsh said.

Those affected should have received a postcard from Consumers Energy in the mail.

However, some residents and officials said they were caught off guard by the outage.

When asked if he was aware of the outage, resident Adam Belbeck said: “Only in the last hour.”

“It’s crazy, I had no idea,” said another resident.

“Everyone had a different story and some people we contacted had no information that an outage was planned and taking place,” Narsh said.

Local leaders held a news conference Thursday after residents raised concerns about the lockdown.

“It’s a complete shock to me,” said one resident.

Some residents said they had not seen the postcards sent by consumers.

“I’m sure they put out a notice, but if they don’t go door-to-door it doesn’t always mean sending it to us in the mail,” Belbeck said.

And residents like Belbeck are now scrambling to take precautions.

“I have a CPAP machine so I really need it to sleep at night because I stop breathing. So if the device is turned off in the middle of the night, it will definitely impact us,” Belbeck said. “Honestly, it’s a matter of life and death. So if they don’t give us a generator to help me stay awake at night, it’s going to be hard for us.”

Kullis said he was first alerted to the outage by a concerned resident who asked him questions.

“I reached out to the chief, the fire chief, because I thought maybe they had received a notification. And none of us knew,” he said.

Police, fire departments, water and wastewater services also heard about the outage for the first time.

“It is concerning when public safety does not have knowledge or information that outages may occur that could impact the ability to fight fires. If we have a residential or community district that is going to be closed, we need additional staff to protect those businesses,” Narsh said.

Consumers Energy gave a full statement to TV5 on the situation:

We understand and apologize for the confusion these planned outages have caused. To support modernization work in the region, two separate outages were planned for October 18 and 25, respectively. Because only a few customers in the region were affected by both outages, some households received multiple customer contact cards. This is one of our common practices when planning for an outage. We have been in direct communication with local authorities since this morning to ensure essential services are not impacted. We are reviewing our internal processes for notification of planned outages to ensure this situation does not occur again and are grateful for the understanding and patience of Holly Township emergency departments and leaders.

Local authorities hope to improve communication so that no one is left in the dark about information.

“Everyone certainly understands that the infrastructure needs to be maintained and we are glad that they are doing that, we want a good power system. However, if this maintenance will affect water and wastewater capacity and treatment and suppress public safety, government authorities need to know that,” Narsh said.

Police, fire, water and sewer authorities say they are working to ensure there are no disruptions to these services during a power outage.

A second shutdown is scheduled for October 25th, with a possible shutdown on November 1st.

Local officials are asking residents to direct their calls to Consumers Energy.

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