Vandalism to cause power outage for HWC customers

By Joseph Cyr
Staff Writer
    HOULTON — Vandalism to one of the utility’s substations has caused the Houlton Water Company to initiate a power outage on Thursday from 2-6 a.m. for some of its customers.
    According to HWC President John Clark, the Cook’s Brook substation on the Foxcroft Road was recently damaged by unknown individuals. The affected area includes the junction of Pleasant Street and Foxcroft Road north along the entire Foxcroft Road, including the Maliseet Village, Foxcroft Court as well as the Smith, Lowery and Crawford roads.
    “We discovered someone had been throwing rocks at the transformer and they cracked the insulators on top of the transformer,” Clark explained. “We are going to take some time to change the transformer out. It is kind of abnormal, otherwise we wouldn’t be doing it.”
    Clark said he could not recall a transformer ever being vandalized in this manner and added that it was both dangerous and disruptive for the electricity customers in that area.
    He estimated between 300-400 customers will be without power while the work is being performed.