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'Brown Outs' Having Large Impacts On Businesses Near Uptown

By Makenzie O'Keefe

DENVER (CBS4) - Numerous power outages are causing problems for people in the Swallow Hill Historic District in Denver. Xcel Energy says since June, they have responded to several outages in the neighborhood.

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Xcel said the affected area is a six block radius near Uptown between Colfax Avenue to 16th Avenue and Clarkson Street to Downing Street.

Business owners in the area say the continuous "brown outs" are having a large impact on their business.

"If it went out today, it would have been the fourth day in a row," said Stoney Jesseph, the owner of Stoney's Uptown Joint.

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Jesseph and Will Trautman opened up their restaurant on 17th Avenue five months ago. They told CBS4 since then, they have had to close up 12 times because of the power outage issues.

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"The hoods in the kitchen are off, and the TVs are off," Trautman explained. "Nothing is working. The refrigeration is down so we have to ice everything down and close up."

Jesseph said the numerous closures have caused them to lose tens of thousands of dollars in sales. Two times, they had to throw out all the food they had in the building.

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The restaurant owners said while all of that is frustrating, their biggest concern is their customers.

"Now we're really worried about the trust we are losing by every time they come, we're closed," Jesseph said.

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Xcel Energy said they are aware of the problem. Mark Stutz, an Xcel spokesman released this statement"

Xcel Energy has dedicated additional crews to the Swallow Hill neighborhood to continue work to improve electric service in the community. The area has experienced recurring power outages in the summer months, and we know that it is intensely frustrating for our customers. At this point, repairs and replacement of equipment that usually address these types of outages have not been successful; however, we will continue to allocate extra resources and work to resolve this issue as quickly as possible. Serving customers is at the heart of what we do, and we appreciate the community's patience.

They are asking people in the area to keep an eye out for anything unusual, such as branches hitting a wire or even someone who may have backed their car into a power pole. If you have any reports, you can reach Xcel at 800-955-4999.

Makenzie O'Keefe joined the CBS4 team as a reporter in 2017. Read her bio, connect with her on Facebook, follow her on Twitter at @makenziepokeefe or email her your story ideas.

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