Joe Hornaday
When an alleged drunk driver slammed into a utility pole near the Greensburg Police Department in the early morning hours on Saturday, power was knocked out to the surrounding area. Power was returned about 40 minutes after the incident, but the police station continued to have problems, pulling through with the help of quick-thinking employees and assistance from other agencies.
At about 12:05 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 24, the Decatur County Jail, the Greensburg Daily News, the police department and several neighboring homes and businesses lost their electricity. While generators and back-up systems kept the juice flowing, the GPD wasn’t so lucky.
“This building is either possessed or jinxed,” Police Chief Brian Heaton said.
The generator that was to supply the police department in times of electrical outages started but quickly failed, plunging the department back into darkness. After that, the battery back-up system kicked on but did not last as long as anticipated. While officers blocked off the road to protect the public from downed power lines and chased the suspect, the police station spent about one hour in the dark.
Fortunately for the GPD, IT specialist Josh Tressler happened to be in the police station at the time.
“Having him there was a lifesaver,” Chief Heaton said.
The GPD did not reach full power capacity again until 9 a.m., about nine hours after the power was lost. According to Heaton, Tressler was the most familiar with the electrical and back-up systems. Alongside generator service technician Walt Moore, the two men ended up spending the night at the police station working to get it back up and running. Dispatchers Leann Dashiell and Fred Poore also performed admirably and above expectations, Heaton said.
“Those two just performed incredibly,” he explained. “They were able to maintain the place and make do with what they had.”
Despite the incredible challenge of continuing to serve the Greensburg community during a temporary blackout, everyone did a great job, Heaton said. He also gave credit to the deputies of the Decatur County Sheriff’s Department who assisted the GPD that night, taking over some of the city’s workload. Heaton noted that the city residents were never in jeopardy as a result of the electric problems, but the police department was challenged during those nine hours. Emergency 911 still worked, but the regular phone lines were temporarily down.
“We seem to go through at least one major event like this every year, unfortunately,” Heaton said. “But everyone pulled together and got through it.”
