by Mary Rupert
The community has helped get a 96-year-old woman’s electrical meter fixed on the back of a house in Kansas City, Kansas, this morning, but as of last reports, the electricity was still not turned on.
This morning, although a master electrician came by and signed off that the meter has been fixed, there appeared to be another snag involving getting the power back on at Mary Winchell’s home on North 81st, as the local authorities say the wiring needs upgrading.
Earlier today, Winchell said she just wanted to get her power back on, that’s all. The power has been off for more than two weeks at her home. She said a truck drove through her back yard, damaging the meter.
Volunteers working with Winchell asked Unified Government Commissioner Mike Kane’s help. He visited Winchell today at the request of the volunteers and said he wanted to get the power back on, and he wanted it to be safe. He said he would make some phone calls today about it.
Kane said he wants to see what can be done to get the issue resolved and get the electricity back on. He said every issue like this should be resolved as fast as possible. He also said he wanted to see what was happening here for himself.
Unified Government Commissioner Melissa Bynum, who knows Winchell, said she was happy to see the community volunteers’ response in coming forward to help Winchell.
Janice Witt of the Reola Grant Center helped with the volunteer effort to get power restored at the home, and there are Kansas City, Kansas, businesses that have said they will help to pay for some improvements for Winchell. Another volunteer, who remembers Winchell from years ago, also has been very active in arranging for electrical service, plus some neighborhood residents have come over to help.
Witt said a master electrician looked at the box and wiring inside the home today, said it was fine, there were no problems, nothing was burned out in the fuse box and no changes were needed. The house just uses lights and no refrigerator, no television or radio. Witt said the master electrician told her no permit was needed because the only repairs needed were outside, and the master electrician approved the meter outside today. Witt said she believes the house is safe.
However, the BPU says a permit is needed.
A BPU spokesman told the Wyandotte Daily that the meter was removed after it was damaged because it was a fire hazard.
David Mehlhaff, BPU spokesman, today said that all the necessary repairs haven’t been done yet. He said the BPU sent personnel and a UG staff member handling electrical codes over to the house this morning with the information on what needs to be done.
Apparently the house is an older one, wired for 60 amps, and the UG’s code for new structures requires 100 amps.
“A licensed electrician needs to secure an electric permit, and that hasn’t been done yet,” Mehlhaff said. The paperwork is important, he said, because then “we know they’re certified and gives us a flag to follow up on.” They wouldn’t want an unlicensed electrician working on a project.
“That house isn’t ready to be energized, and it won’t be until it’s safe to be energized,” Mehlhaff said.
Mehlhaff said when the electricians get all the wiring completed, the UG will do a quick inspection, and the BPU will restore the power. He said they would expedite it once the permit is in place and the wiring work is completed.
Winchell, who is a former Sunday School teacher, said today she didn’t know how much longer she will continue to live at the small house on her property, and is thinking about moving. She has two older homes on her property, and there is already working electricity at the other home, but she has been living for some time in the smaller home, which she prefers. She has natural gas heat and water at her smaller house. She never had problems before with the electricity.
“I pray every night, God tell me what to do,” Winchell said today. She earlier said that this situation for the past few weeks has tried her patience.
Witt echoed some other comments heard throughout the community in remarking that the BPU could have fixed the meter itself on the day it pulled the meter off the house, but because of various rules and policies, it didn’t.
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Bpu is a crappy business and I guarantee I won’t vote for anyone on the BPU board nesxt election Also the Mayor and city officials need to step up and get this ladies power on or I vote be voting for any in those offices either
excuse my terrible typing but I’m mad. BPU has raised rates and then want to play these games.
With such a limited draw on the electrical service (refrigerator, lights and possibly a blower motor for the gas furnace), a 60 amp service seems ample for this small home. Considering the UG’s Code, 100 amp service requirements for “new structures”, I fail to see where that applies to this older home as it is not new, nor is it a new service.
Perhaps the “service entrance” and “meter base” were pulled from this home and thusly, possibly, stretched or pulled connections inside to her fuse box. If this is not the case and no new wiring to her fuse box is necessary from the outside meter base, does she really need to upgrade her home to a 100 amp service at an additional cost to her in order to have her power restored?
Certainly the BPU and its’ representatives are attempting to avoid any possible future responsibility should an electrical fire of any sort happen. Of course, fees for the supposed, necessary permit are an additional charge for someone that is quite possibly living on a limited income.
Pardon me, but what the hell are they thinking, dragging their feet on restoring her electricity? They can tell just by looking that it’s okay to re-install her meter and restore her power. Undoubtedly the BPU will attempt to charge her a reconnect fee when they do reestablish power to her home.
Forecast low temperature tonight is 47 degrees, Wednesday night 44. Not quite freezing but when I get to be 96 years old, I hope that I have power, water and heat and nobody accidentally snags my power line.
This is an absolute embarrassment to our city, our community, the BPU and our elected representatives.
Exactly! The Unified Governments Building Inspector (Codes) Jeff Hollingshead was sent out. He inspected the fuse box and the riser/box connection and approved it to be “energized.” He stated that “Since this is an EXISTING home and NO damage was done to the interior wiring. That he has approved it to be turned on. If it were new this would be different…this was NOT the homeowners fault, she wasn’t asking for any changes or upgrades othrwise he would want to see a 100 amp service in the house-but this is not the case so he approved it. The issue is not a certified electrician … we have that. The issue is that they want him to pull a permit designed for work to be done inside when he feels that will open the door to force her to upgrade a system that should not be subject to “New Build Codes.” Once he pulls that permit she is subject to the new guidelines which will cost in the thousands to rewire this old home completely. That is unnecessary and we certainly cannot afford to pay thousands of dollars since there will inevitably be additional work and repairs both cosmetic and electrical once they start tearing out walls and putting in new lines. They start talking about they want her safe? She is safe. She was safe and where have they been for the last 3 weeks when they caused her to be in a house with no power and didn’t bother to inform anyone that she was in this condition. The sad part is that people outside of this community are making plans to solve this problem. Shame! Shame! Shame! Shame! There is an election coming … pay attention! Just sad!
Politics is in the way! They said they were displeased that the media was now involved. Well…they should’ve fixed the problem. Mrs. Mary took matters into her own hands since she was left sitting there with no power and no instruction or compassion from BPU. Thank you Mary Rupert for breaking this story.