By Lara Fominoff @LaraFominoff on Twitter

City electric utility urges homeowners not to obstruct transformers

Dec 5, 2018 | 12:38 PM

LETHBRIDGE – The City’s Electric Operations Manager is urging homeowners not to obstruct transformers in alleys or other areas, after an ominous sign and some wire was found restricting access to a transformer in a north side neighborhood Wednesday.

The sign, which reads “CAUTION HIV + AREA” almost completely obscures the warning sign on the front of the transformer. Wires were then criss-crossed across it and secured to opposite sides of a fence, preventing anyone from accessing the sides or the back of the large device.

Burns Hill says there are many areas of the city where transformers are located in the front yard, and there is rarely a problem with them. But those located in alleys can be havens for illicit drug activity, or a place for those who are homeless to take shelter and warm up.

“The fence kind of gets built into the rear property so the transformer can sit back, and there’s always space between the fence and the transformer that people like to crawl behind and sleep, because the transformer can get warm as it’s feeding houses… and so that can make it a nice place to sleep or to do drugs. So, we always have trouble with those and residents tend to get frustrated with people walking behind there.”

Clothes, needles and other biohazards are also frequently found in and around those areas which can present a danger to crews responding to complaints.

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However, he says that does not mean a homeowner or concerned citizen can restrict access to them. Not only is it against the law to do so, it is also dangerous for the crews that must ultimately remove such barricades.

“There’s obviously the danger of covering up the sign. People need to know what it is. It’s a transformer. It’s not just some other green box that happens to be sitting there. So people need to see that. Putting wires on a transformer is always a bad idea. Electricity and wires, you know, if something happens, that wire could carry electricity across whatever it’s tied to. That’s very bad.”

He adds that they always need to have access to the transformer – one metre on each side- and 3-4 metres in front, because they have specialized equipment they need to use when they open it to work on it or in case of an emergency.

Hill understands that homeowners are becoming increasingly frustrated and there are only so many things they can do, but if they do have chronic problems, they should contact the city for help and to find safe solutions.

“The thing they shouldn’t do, is what’s happened here; start putting up signs or tying wires. If they see any funny activity going on, the best thing to do is call the electric department and we might be able to deal with that occurrence.

“If it’s happening over and over again, we may be able to work with that homeowner to actually put up a fence or something across the transformer that will stop any future traffic behind there and that sort of thing.”

But he adds that would be up to the electric department to determine, not the homeowner.

Hill emphasizes that homeowners are not authorized to take matters into their own hands and to potentially put others unnecessarily at risk. That includes children or other neighborhood residents who may frequent the alley at any given time.

If anyone has concerns, contact the electric utility at 403-320-3940.