Vandals Responsible For Power Outage

St. Croix Electric Cooperative, Hammond, is offering a $2,500 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the persons responsible for a major power outage Thursday morning, September 13.

According to Co-op CEO, Mark Pendergast vandals cut through the locking system on a high voltage transmission line switch near River Falls at 12:20 a.m. The switch was opened, resulting in a power outage for 3,500 Co-op customers for 90 minutes. The blackout stretched from north of River Falls to the Somerset area.

The River Falls Police Department is investigating the incident along with the transmission security division of Dairyland Power Cooperative, owner operator of the high voltage transmission line network serving the Co-op.

Pendergast said operating the high voltage switch under load was a brazen criminal act and is being reported to the Department of Homeland Security. Anyone with information about the persons responsible for this incident are asked to contact the River Falls Police Department.