The atmosphere was tense during the Nov. 23 Kenmore City Council meeting. Around 25 residents took seats in the council chamber, many waiting to voice their concerns to councilmembers and a representative from Puget Sound Energy (PSE) about widespread power outages after a Nov. 18 windstorm.

Long-time Kenmore resident and business owner Russ Johnson was critical of PSE’s response.

“I felt a great deal of frustration about the loss of contact I experienced with my customers,” he said.

Johnson owns Royal Journeys, a fishing expedition operation. He said he talked with other business owners around town who are also frustrated with lost revenue.

Power outages in the area are fairly common after large storms when branches and trees fall on power lines and equipment.

One area in particular in northwest Kenmore is served by circuit 26, which doesn’t follow a road. In all, there are nine separate circuits that deliver power to Kenmore and most of those lines fallow roads. Circuit 26 lines run through back yards and private property, which PSE spokeswoman RaeLynn Asah said makes it difficult to locate and repair damage.

City officials expressed frustration at their inability to fix the problem since PSE owns the infrastructure. PSE is responsible for keeping lines clear and placement of damaged lines.

“We can’t do anything. If we could, we would,” said Kenmore Mayor David Baker.

Another long-time resident, Carl Michelman, addressed the council.

“Being here at 18 years, I’m seeing it getting worse for the infrastructure of electric,” he said.

Many residents and councilmembers said they had to dispose of perishable food, watched their computers and appliances overload and try to stay warm during the November storm.

“I don’t know how we’re going to work this,” Michelman said.

PSE serves some 9,000 customers in Kenmore, they are the only electrical provider for the area. Many of these customers have family or friends living with them.

Asah said the city is served by the Inglewood Substation along with nine different circuits. She said PSE is aware of their company’s poor performance in Kenmore and said is working on ways to fix it.

One way Asah said PSE is addressing the problem is trimming brush and branches away from lines every four years instead of six, and also suggested the city help their linemen with easement on private property, an idea which struck a sour chord with the council.

“I would say do everything you can to enforce those easements,” Councilman Brent Smith said. “It’s your responsibility to enforce that.”

Asah said the company is also working on installing a recloser on 195th Street, two new switches on 185th Street and a distribution automation in the Juanita area to decrease outage times. These improvements will be installed next year and assessed for another year, Asah said.

Another frustration expressed by residents was the duration of the outages, which they felt was longer than surrounding areas.

Power to Kenmore, Asah said, was restored before many surrounding areas in Snohomish and King Counties.

Concerns about Kenmore being at the ‘end of the line’ were also expressed, leading to other areas willfully being restored first.

“I can tell you that’s not true at all,” Asah said. “We restore power to every community based on the exact same metrics.”

PSE’s metric for restoring power is based on a priority list, Asah said.

Power is first restored to main lines, then priority targets such as hospitals and water treatment plants and finally private customers and distribution lines.

In this last storm, Asah said, the main line supplying power to Kenmore was downed, which the company had to restore before they could begin working on smaller outages.

Weather woes were also blamed for outages in August due to drought-stricken trees becoming more brittle and breaking on lines during what the company said was the third-strongest storm in the last decade.

Councilwoman Laurie Sperry took a softer tone, thanking PSE for restoring power to Kenmore City Hall early, allowing them to use it as an emergency community center, but said it would be better if outages were reduced.

“It does affect us, so anything you can do to shorten that duration,” she said.

Finally, the idea of burying power cables was floated multiple times, an idea which Asah said may not make a difference.

“We can see and repair overhead power lines much easier than underground,” she said.

Kenmore’s contract with PSE will be expiring soon, and city officials said they will continue negotiation the terms of a renewal.