Construction causes power outage at PitCo Health and Human Services

Construction work hit a buried power line at 3 p.m. on Thursday that supplied grid and backup generator power to the Pitkin County Health and Human Services building, leading to necessary repairs that will last through the weekend and into next week. 

Contractors were installing electric heat pumps outside the building when a bore hit a power line that connected the building to both the backup generator and the main grid. Because of the underground repairs, Jodie Grady, Pitkin County’s assets and project manager, expects some key services to be closed through the weekend until the backup generator can be connected to the building. Grady hopes repairs to the main line can also be repaired by early next week.

“It was like (a) one in 1,000 chance they would have hit that,” she said. “We do have to take the lines out and put new lines in, because of the damage, to make sure we’re doing it right for a long time. This is not a temporary fix.”

According to her, the outage has closed the detox center, the overnight shelter, the Harvest for Hunger food pantry and the Community Health Clinic. Some of the services that are more hybrid and online will continue in their online capacities, like the Health One Solutions for mental health, public health and adult family services.

Updated information on repairs and available services can be found at pitkincounty.com/AlertCenter.aspx?AID=The-Pitkin-County-Health-and-Human-Servi-32.