Linemen working to restore power enjoyed a hot meal courtesy of Pub & Grub. Courtesy | Facebook
As businesses opened their doors and donated meals to linemen and first responders, Hillsdale’s Board of Public Utilities and Mayor Adam Stockford thanked the community for their assistance during a near-total city blackout last week.
“Ice storms like that one are once in a score,” Stockford said. “It’s easy for us to take our BPU and our community advocates for granted when everything is working right, but we all walk away with a better appreciation for this city when those sorts of things happen. When it’s all hands on deck, Hillsdale finds out it has more hands than it knows.”
Market House Inc., Here’s to You Pub & Grub, Vested Risk Strategies, Cavoni’s Pizza and Grinders, El Cerrito Mexican Restaurant, Jerome Country Market, and Hungry Howie’s Pizza were among local businesses to donate meals and help feed linemen who were working to restore power.
“The outpouring of generosity and kindness from the community was nothing short of amazing,” BPU Marketing & Developing Coordinator Sam Fry said. “We had so many people – Hillsdale residents, local businesses and BPU customers – who contacted us to thank our staff, or just let us know that they were thinking or praying for our crews’ safety. That means the world to our linemen, who are out in the elements, performing a very dangerous and physically taxing job.”
Fry said the community’s response spoke to the character of the town and residents.
“Anyone who has lived in Hillsdale can tell you that it’s a really tight-knit community, and we have great folks that go above and beyond to help others out during times of need,” Fry said. “That’s what is so special about our city – there’s a spirit of neighborly cooperation and civic pride here that you don’t see in many other communities.”
Aaron Tracey, director of hospitality operations at Hillsdale College’s Dow Hotel and Conference Center, said the hotel provided rooms last-minute for linemen who came in from out of town to help.
“The power went out on Wednesday, and the next day, on Thursday, we still didn’t have power at the hotel,” Tracey said.
Kelly LoPresto, a BPU customer service representative, asked Tracey on Thursday if the hotel had availability for the traveling linemen.
“I said, ‘We don’t have power but we are more than willing to accommodate,’” Tracey said.
The hotel reserved 10 rooms for the linemen the first night, and 18 rooms the next two nights, according to Tracey.
“We were happy to host them, and thankfully we had availability. But it was a day-by-day situation,” Tracey said. “If you drive around town, you can see the amount of work they had to do. It took a lot of hands, so bringing in people from out of town to help was needed.”
Kevin Conant, owner of Here’s to You Pub & Grub, said he enjoyed meeting the linemen and first responders.
“We gave any linemen that came in a free cheeseburger basket, and then on Saturday night we went to BPU and did a full cook outside for all the linemen that were helping in the BPU service area,” Conant said. “About 50 guys were there and about 30 of them came in here, they were warming up and everything. It was nice.”
