By Julie BUTCHER

Some Montrose businesses along Honolulu Avenue were unprepared for a power outage reportedly announced for 10 p.m. on Sunday night. They were even more surprised when the power went off around 6 p.m.

“I got a text from a nearby business asking if we were going to need dry ice for the four hours; Nothing from the city. And I’m signed up for those notifications – and I pick up my mail. Then the power went off at 5:30,” said Jim Collins of the Montrose Town Kitchen & Grill. “I called the city and asked for an ETA as to how long it would be out. The poor woman answering the phones was deluged with calls and told me it’d be four to five hours. She said she had notes from earlier in the day.”

Collins continued, “For us, the Sunday of a three-day weekend is like a Saturday; the financial loss is material.”

But the lack of communication from the City of Glendale concerned Collins more.

“When my Internet goes down, Spectrum sends out a text message in like 30 seconds. It helps them because then I’m not calling and bugging them, and it helps me knowing what’s going on. To have to scramble for information in the middle of a power outage – their own answering service didn’t have an accurate update.”

The 10 p.m. shut down was planned by Glendale Water and Power (GWP) for routine upgrades to the power lines in the underground electrical vault running under Honolulu Avenue.

“It was scheduled after-hours specifically because Honolulu is such a busy commercial area, especially the restaurants,” GWP spokesperson Atineh Haroutunian detailed the events of the evening of May 30. She added that something similar had happened two years ago when Edison upgraded overhead power lines in the area, so the utility was even more sensitive to the needs of the community.

The earlier shutdown was “coincidentally caused by a squirrel at 6 p.m. and was not part of the planned outage for later in the night.

“Crews were dispatched to fix the damage first before proceeding with the planned work,” Assistant City Manager John Takhtalian wrote in an email, explaining what happened. “Coincidentally, a squirrel chewed through wires causing a transformer to explode at Broadview, near Market, and our crews were called out to a fire at 5:30 p.m., about a block away from the planned outage area.”

“It had nothing to do with the planned outage,” Haroutunian emphasized. “We would never go before the time we announced – we sent out two postcards and emails to make sure people knew exactly what we were planning. We make every effort to work with local businesses, especially now.”

While some power to the area affected by the transformer explosion was restored at 7:43 p.m., the 3500 block of North Verdugo was dark until just after 11 p.m.

“Power was up to Honolulu Avenue way before 6 a.m.,” the utility’s spokesperson said.

“Mr. Collins’ restaurant was not part of the planned outage; that’s why he didn’t get a notice about it. He’s not fed from the vault we were working on. His outage was from the squirrel.”

The planned outage affected the north side of the 2301-2335 block of Honolulu Avenue and 3807 and 3809 Ocean View Boulevard.

“We don’t just say we sent out an email. Sometimes we even go door-to-door to let people know as the business owner might have gotten the notice. That night, we updated our social media pages to ask for patience and even noted the addresses of what was out. We try our best to keep people updated,” Haroutunian added.

The squirrel died.