Trimmed limbs appear to solve Brandon outages

Five seconds left in the game. Packers down, 21-17. Brett Favre goes deep to Donald Driver, the speedy wide receiver. He's streaking down the sideline. He's got his man beat. This … game … is …

Off. The television goes black. The scenario is fictional, but the reality has played out for years in a small neighborhood north of State Road 60 and west of Seffner-Valrico Road.

In five years, the Wellington neighborhood's 64 homes have been hit with 197 power outages, TECO investigators learned. That's two to four times the norm for a neighborhood that size, TECO spokesman Rick Morera said.

Whenever Steve Jarosz came home from work, for a few houses down on Greenbelt Circle, it was always 12. Not 12 noon or 12 midnight, just those green digits on the microwave blinking 12:00, 12:00, 12:00.

A few houses down, William Erickson watched the second hand on his wristwatch as his kitchen lights flickered on and off, on and off, 18 times in three minutes.

The problem seemed to worsen in recent months, with power going out a few times a week.

The outages never lasted long, usually just a few minutes. But they were annoying.

Residents compared notes and found they weren't alone. A petition went around. People called TECO, whose representatives in previous complaints had blamed tree limbs brushing against power lines.

"They've been telling us for years it's squirrels shorting things out and tree branches, but none of it really makes sense to us," said Melissa Winn.

Rumors circulated. Maybe TECO's touted Zapcap surge protection was to blame, or maybe an underground cable, said Winn, who is secretary of the Wellington Homeowners Association.

What if the problem was TECO all along, and now the company is trying to make some squirrel the fall guy? The neighbors wanted answers.

In January, workers trimmed trees along Windhorst and Seffner-Valrico roads. A funny thing happened next.

Nothing.

The outages stopped. "I'm pretty confident that as a result of the tree trimming, we've got the situation under control," Morera said.

That was good enough for Erickson and Jarosz, whose lights are staying on these days.

Winn still isn't convinced. After all, she said, the power company had come out several times over the years. Always, they blamed the trees.

"I don't know what's going on," she said.

Andrew Meacham can be reached at ameacham@sptimes.com or (813) 661-2431.