FirstEnergy outlines inspections, bird and tree mitigation after weeks of outages in Barberton

FirstEnergy officials told the Barberton City Council Committee of the Whole on July 7 that the utility is increasing inspections and system work in response to repeated outages affecting parts of the city this spring and summer.

At the meeting, Amy Hopkins, FirstEnergy local engagement specialist, introduced Dan Kanop, manager of reliability and asset management, who laid out actions the company is taking, including drone-based thermal and visual inspections, targeted repairs and a federally constrained plan to mitigate osprey nests that have interfered with lines. "The employees that work throughout the company also live in the communities they serve," Kanop said, noting linemen stationed in Barberton and the company’s broader investment plans.

The company described three principal causes of the recent problems: off‑right‑of‑way trees that cannot be routinely trimmed without landowner permission, nearby osprey nests that are protected and require permits before mitigation work, and storm-related damage. Kanop said FirstEnergy’s forestry team is doing targeted work where permits and rights allow and that August 8 is the first available date to schedule some nest mitigation under federal permit windows. He added the company has installed temporary insulating materials at several nest locations "trying to mitigate any type of short circuit or fault type event that would cause an outage."

Residents at the meeting pressed for faster results and more local investment. Councilor Heideck and Councilor Griffin described concentrated outage patterns on the south side and elsewhere; resident Dallas Moore said, "This is getting ridiculous. I'm speaking for 25,000 people," arguing that repeated short outages and longer interruptions this summer had harmed residents and businesses. Todd Shreve, Barberton director of public service, told the meeting he is tracking cutouts and street-repair work as crews juggle water‑loss repairs and pavement patching.

Kanop described operational steps taken after the June 23 heat‑related event that caused two transformers at the Barberton transmission substation to trip and required testing before re-energizing. He said some customers were restored quickly by staged transfer of load to redundant feeders, while others required repairs and transformer testing, which prolonged restoration. Since that event, he said, FirstEnergy has flown drone thermography inspections to identify hot spots for preemptive repairs and is advancing a multiyear rebuild of a 69 kV line (work scheduled in Barberton in 2027) and upgrades to the Barberton transmission substation beginning in 2026.

On street‑level issues, Kanop said most local outages this year resulted from trees outside the company’s regular 15‑foot trimming corridor and from protected bird nests; he emphasized that the company seeks landowner permission to trim outside the corridor and that many landowners agree after arborist review. He also said the company is still in its four‑year trim cycle for the area but performs additional inspections after storms.

FirstEnergy offered a company point of contact for follow‑ups and invited residents to send inspection ticket numbers to Amy Hopkins for direct follow-up. The mayor reported that council had signed and sent a letter to the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) seeking oversight and follow‑up. City officials and some residents urged FirstEnergy to accelerate investments and to provide clearer follow‑up on individual tree and reliability complaints.

Why it matters: repeated outages — both momentary and sustained — affect residents on medical equipment, businesses and public confidence in services. City and utility officials said they would continue coordinated follow‑up.

Sources: Remarks and answers from Amy Hopkins and Dan Kanop (FirstEnergy), Todd Shreve (City of Barberton), and multiple council members and residents during the July 7 Committee of the Whole meeting.

If you reported an outage or filed an inspection ticket and did not receive a response, FirstEnergy’s Hopkins invited residents to supply the ticket number so the company could follow up directly.