Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Utilities Reliability topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Councilman seeks resolution asking FirstEnergy for $100 residential credit, criticizes reliability and response
Summary
Councilman Thomas Heideck asked the City Utilities Committee to sponsor a resolution condemning FirstEnergy’s reliability and to request a $100 credit to residential customers; he also described delays in SNAP reimbursements tied to FirstEnergy verification and criticized utility vegetation and substation maintenance.
Councilman Thomas Heideck presented a request to the City Utilities Committee for a resolution condemning FirstEnergy for poor reliability and asking the company to provide a $100 credit to Barberton residential customers. Heideck said the request, partly drawn from the mayor’s earlier letter and local news reports, seeks a public response from FirstEnergy and a concrete credit as a show of good faith.
Heideck described multiple operational concerns: frequent outages that resulted in food loss among SNAP recipients seeking reimbursement, delays in Johnson Family Services processing because FirstEnergy had not verified outage dates and times, and recurring vegetation and substation issues that he said contribute to outages. He criticized the company’s right-of-way clearing practices and said trees on private property touching service lines were not being addressed quickly enough.
Heideck urged stronger action, saying a $100 credit per residential account would be a proportionate response and would be noticeable to residents. During the committee discussion Law Director Miller and other staff members confirmed the committee would call the measure forward; the committee later moved the item to call for legislation, and a motion to call for that request passed by voice vote.
Committee members discussed next steps for formally drafting the resolution and the timeline for any responses from FirstEnergy. The transcript records the committee’s request for legislation and the committee’s intent to refer the measure for full council consideration.
