The family of the late Shirley Squirrel and Lakefront Utilities invite you to celebrate Shirley’s life with a free skate at the Cobourg Community Centre from 10 to 11 a.m. on Sunday, March 29.
Shirley lost her life on January 23 when she touched a live wire causing a widespread power outage for residents of Cobourg. This unfortunate incident serves as a reminder to respect the power and stay back at least three metres from powerlines.
“A vast percentage of power outages are caused by animal interference,” said Dereck Paul, President and CEO of Lakefront Utilities. “Our initial social media post to acknowledge Shirley Squirrel’s passing received 10,000 views. The post announced that a celebration of life would take place at a later date. Lakefront staff put forward the idea of a free community skate to celebrate Shirley’s life.”
In the provincial scorecard comparing the performance of 62 utilities, Lakefront achieved the second lowest rate in Ontario for the number of minutes the average customer’s power is off in a year.
“Lakefront Utilities also delivers among the lowest rates in the province for the number of power interruptions the average customer experiences yearly. However, we take every outage seriously and we understand that reliable utilities contribute to the safety and comfort of our communities and assist the successful operation of businesses and services,” said Paul.
“We are working to minimize the number and duration of outages and their impact on the community, including the animal community. We are installing wildlife protection as we upgrade transformers on our electric distribution system.
This includes installing transformer bushing guards and insulated electrical supply leads to prevent wildlife from making contact with live electrical components and causing harm to the animal and an interruption to the supply of electricity to our customers.”
In addition to the skate, information will be available about electrical safety and ways customers can reduce what they spend on electricity as well as animal adoption information from the Humane Society.
Lakefront Utilities Inc. provides electricity to more than 10,000 homes and businesses in Cobourg and Colborne and operates the water systems for the Town of Cobourg, Village of Colborne and the Hamlet of Grafton.
Author: Pete Fisher
Has been a photojournalist for over 30-years and have been honoured to win numerous awards for photography and writing over the years. Best selling author for the book Highway of Heroes - True Patriot Love
