Zelienople

For the Log Cabin Inn, the Lancaster Township-based restaurant that is open seven days a week, closing the business is unusual.

A planned West Penn Power outage Sunday, Dec. 3, comes during the restaurant’s busiest day of the week in the busiest time of the year, and the prospect is not welcomed by staff.

A power outage planned for between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. Sunday in the Zelienople area will affect 2,973 West Penn Power customers in Butler and Beaver counties, West Penn Power representatives said. If the weather is rainy, the outage will be postponed to Dec. 10.

“It’s gonna affect us a ton,” Tim Houk, assistant manager of the Log Cabin Inn, said.

Houk said having the outage “up in the air” is frustrating.

Originally, Houk said the outage was planned for 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and the restaurant had planned to close for lunch.

Now, they may or may not be closed for the entirety of the day and will likely wait until Sunday to see if there’s rain, and whether staff will work or not.

“It’s the holiday season,” Houk said. “It’s frustrating because we’re not in the know. Especially, I feel bad for my staff — they’re tip-based employees … to not tell them for sure if they’re working or not.”

Houk said the corporate team is discussing the best course of action given the circumstances.

He said he would like to give staff as much of a “heads-up” as possible.

According to Will Boye, senior communications representative with West Penn Power, the outage is planned so that crews can upgrade a high-voltage power line in the area.

“This infrastructure improvement will enhance service reliability for area customers by ensuring a backup power feed is available to help keep the lights on if wires or equipment on their regular line are damaged or need to be taken out of service,” Boye said.

He said the goal is to make essential repairs and improvements to prevent outages in the future.

“We recognize the inconvenience that any power outage may cause,” Boye said. “We carefully weigh several factors, including crew availability and the potential impact on our customers. We also understand the importance of keeping our customers informed. That's why we've provided advance notifications about Sunday’s planned outage, enabling our customers to make any necessary arrangements ahead of time.”