A 12,000-volt electric distribution line will be deactivated Saturday in the south end of the downtown area.

Todd Meyers, West Penn Power spokesman, said the line over South Jackson Street on the northern end of the county government center will be turned off between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. so workers can finish placing exterior panels on that corner of the government center.

Workers cannot be within 10 feet of a live power line, said John Campbell, the county's director of facilities and operations.

While the rest of the panels have been installed in the $3.5 million construction project, that corner is missing its panels because of the high-voltage line's proximity to the building.

Meyers said 32 customers on and around Main Street will be affected by the deactivation of the line, which feeds electric service to many buildings on the south end of Main Street.

“All 32 customers have been notified,” Meyers said. “No time is convenient for businesses to be out, but they try to do things on weekends or after hours.”

He said a similar outage occurred in November for work on that corner of the building. The brackets to hang the panels were installed at that time.

“This is an outage to wrap that work up,” Meyers said.

He said county officials have indicated that the work would take up the entire six hours on Saturday.