MORAN Electric customers in and around Moran may be without power for up to six hours next week, to accommodate repairs to the citys electric substation.
Westar officials notified the city earlier this month about the planned outage.
The substation has a faulty bushing, City Clerk Lori Evans said.
Its not a problem now, but it could become one in the future that causes a disruption in service, she said. They want to get it taken care of now.
Customers are being warned the outage could run from 11 p.m. next Thursday to as late at 5 a.m. the next morning. Original plans to do the repairs this week were changed this morning, Moran city officials announced.
Still, area merchants are preparing for the extended outage.
Kirk Dwyer, owner of Chanceys Grill and Shake, said he has instructed employees to keep all coolers and freezers closed during the outage, which shouldnt be a problem because the restaurant is closed those hours, anyway.
His morning staff will arrive around 5 a.m..
The first thing theyll do is call me to find out if its OK, Dwyer said.
Dwyer compared the repairs to other outages from storms, which can come about suddenly.
Having several days advance notice allows him and others to properly prepare.
Seth Bolling, whose family owns the Moran Locker, said they are being more proactive.
The Bollings have a generator set up to power the lockers five freezers three smaller units, and two commercial-grade units and a pair of large coolers.
It could get pretty expensive for us to run the generators if the outage lasts very long, Bolling said.
Those who power up generators during the outage must ensure the devices are kept isolated from Morans electric system, Evans warned.
