Edison to tell Corona plans to halt power outages

Residents and businesses could get some explanations for repeated power outages plaguing the city at today's 7 p.m. Corona City Council meeting.

Two months after dozens of angry residents complained to the city about the Labor Day power outages that left many in the dark for days, Southern California Edison will offer explanations and plans for fixing the infrastructure failures.

Within 30 days of the Labor Day heat storms, Edison workers made all the necessary repairs in the neighborhoods affected by the blackouts, said Edison spokesman Luis Davis.

He asked for patience from the community as Edison works to improve service in Corona.

"We realize that in some places there needs to be improvement," Davis said. "It's coming, but it won't happen overnight."

Also, Davis said he will explain at the council meeting the cause of repeated outages at The Crossings and Dos Lagos shopping centers.

However, at a study session last month, City Council members were unimpressed with Edison's report.

"It is a shame that Edison, which provides the city with power, is unable to deliver a steady stream of electricity," Mayor Eugene Montanez wrote in an e-mailed interview Oct. 30. "We are now in the year 2007, getting power a few miles from their main substation is definitely not rocket science," he wrote.

"We have residents who have experienced outages year after year. They have been patient with Edison. Yet when they were without power over four days, all some asked for in return was a couple of hundred dollars to compensate for lost food in their refrigerators," Montanez said by telephone. "All Edison did was throw denied claims back in their faces."

Davis said the company could not comment on customers' private claims.

But some residents who were originally denied reimbursement by the company have since received checks, said Assistant City Manager Greg Irvine.