Defective Underground Cable Causes Outage at Old Middletown High Apts

Connecticut Light & Power crews are still working to repair an underground cable at the Old Middletown High School Apartments on Court Street that has caused a power outage since late Monday.

Deputy Chief Robert Kronenberger said received a call at 11 p.m. from 30 Pearl Street about an outage. There are 65 units in the apartment building, Kronenberger said, and he believes the outage is confined to the basement area.

Just before noon Tuesday, four CL&P trucks were onsite, with workers fixing a defective underground electric cable, according to Michael Begley of CL&P.

A few residents sat outside, watching the linemen, as a Middletown Police cruiser blocked off access to Court Street from Pearl to High.

One resident, David, who declined to give his last name, was outside taking photographs. He was awake last night reading when he heard the sound of a number of doors shutting.

“All the internal apartment doors have electromagnets that hold them open. When the power went out, the doors closed.”

He said crews on the night shift had hoped to fix the problem by morning.

“Underground cable problems take longer to find and fix,” said Mitch Gross, spokesman for CL&P. “Number one, you have to find the issue, then you have to dig up the cable, replace the bad cable with a new one, resplice it, test them and then rebury it.”

Neither Gross nor linemen on scene could say when power would be restored.

“They’ll have the power back on as soon as crews are satisfied that everything looks good,” Gross said.

David said he didn’t think residents were really put out by the outage. “It’s a lovely day,” he said. And if it gets a little warm inside, “they can just open a window.”

The original Middletown High School, a Romanesque Revival-style building, stands on the southwest corner of both Court and Pearl streets, was built in 1894-1896. In 1979, the old school was converted into apartments for elderly housing. They received financing from the federal government under Section 8.

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