The buildings along the end of Waltham Street in Lexington Center have experienced three separate hours-long power outages since the beginning of June.
“Having spent a lifetime in the Center, power has always been a bit of an issue,” Jeff Lyon, who owns many of the buildings that businesses rent in the town’s Center, told the Observer. “We usually have one of these power outages each season…but not three in [about] 30 days.”
Without power, employees at Rancatore’s had to throw out melting ice cream and turn away customers. And Webster Bank has had to call in guards since its security system powered off.
“It was so bad,” an employee at Webster Bank told the Observer. “It was a nightmare, it was not fun.”
Business owners and employees tried to get in touch with Eversource, which supplies their power, but could not get through. The Webster employee said none of the branch’s workers got notifications from Eversource saying they lost power.
“We’ve gotten nowhere with Eversource…they just say ‘oh it happens’,” Lyon said.
After much follow up, LexObserver got through to Eversource to learn what caused the recent outages.
The first, which took place on June 5 from about 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. was a result of equipment issues, Olessa Stepanova, a communications manager from Eversource, told the Observer.
“Our crews responded to equipment issues in the area that led to service interruptions for several businesses,” she said.
The outage on June 20, which lasted from about 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., was a result of “storm-related damage,” said Stepanova.
But the weather on that day was 82 degrees and mostly sunny.
“We had 100 people an hour coming up to the door [that day] and we couldn’t let them in because the power was out,” said Ranc’s owner Joe Rancatore.
The last of the three outages, which was on July 8 from about 2 a.m. to 9 a.m., was “the result of a thunderstorm that brought down a tree on [Eversource’s] lines, requiring both line and tree crews to safely make repairs,” said Stepanova.
Because of the outages, Webster Bank’s security systems wouldn’t turn on.
“We weren’t able to close the branch, there were no alarms, no cameras,” the Webster employee said.
The bank’s employees had to call in security workers to guard the branch in place of the cameras and alarms that usually keep it secure. During the third power outage, outsourced security had to stand guard overnight.
A few doors down, Racentore had to immediately close his doors each time the power went out.
He didn’t have to throw away a lot of product during the first two power outages because they kept their walk-in freezer latched shut. But the third power outage was a different story.
“For that one we had to throw away a lot of product,” he noted. The ice cream and cakes in the storefront’s display freezers all had to be tossed in the trash.
In outages past, Rancatore has filed insurance claims for reimbursement.
“The deductible is so high it isn’t worth it” this time around, he said.
When trees fall on power lines or severe weather hits Massachusetts, causing residents and business owners to lose power, the conversation of ‘why don’t we move the power lines underground’ often resurfaces. The idea is that the power lines are safe from severe weather if they’re moved below the surface.
Many Massachusetts towns, including Concord, Wellesley, Bedford, Duxbury, Nantucket, Holden, and Needham, have moved some, if not all, of their power lines underground.
The drawback of making the switch? Cost, of course.
It would cost roughly $2 million to $6 million per mile for Eversource to convert the 11,000 miles of overhead lines it has in Massachusetts underground, Chris McKinnon, a spokesperson for Eversource, told CBS news in 2023. In the past, former Gov. Deval Patrick estimated it would take $1 trillion to move all of the overhead lines in the state underground.
Lexington requires new developments to put utilities underground. It does not, however, have plans to move existing power lines below the surface.
Nevertheless, Lexington Center businesses persist — Rancatore’s has plenty of inventory to serve cups and cones to customers all summer long.