Arnold, CA…First and foremost Thank You to all of our fire personnel who do a remarkable job protecting our area every fire season!! The question is have we reached the point where we should start rethinking how we distribute the energy that powers our homes, businesses & recreation venues. Last year the unspeakable damage from the Butte Fire was sparked by a tree into an overhead power line. Yesterday, Angels Camp all the way past Arnold was without power on arguably one of our busiest tourism days of the year. This isn’t anyone’s fault (Except for the guy who started the fire while working on his pump). This isn’t the first 4th of July weekend we have had this happen. Two years ago a slightly smaller power outage had a similar effect.

In our system now a single incident like yesterday can take down our grid over a wide area. In our connected world when the power goes out everything basically comes to a standstill.

We are the “Happy Place” our visitors and second home owners come to with their guests. When the “Happy Place” goes dark it impacts not only the immediate lost revenue, disappointment and uncertainty for large groups of people it also creates future uncertainty in the minds of those who recreate here. This can have an impact on their future spending patterns.

If you are vacationing with a large group of people you want to go where you can count on having a pleasant experience. Who wants make plans to visit an area if everything stops working on Holiday weekends?

The point of this is not just to complain but to ask if it is time for our business community to become less reliant on, and at the mercy of PG&E and put systems in place so when mother nature, or just someone repairing a pump can cause millions in lost revenue and disappointed potential customers

Some local businesses have invested in generators so they can at least keep basic services up and running. Big Trees Market, Sierra Properties, Round Table Pizza etc In fact two years ago Round Table Pizza in Arnold had their largest single day sales ever on the power outage day.

Many more now have grid tie solar to lower their bills and use renewable energy. Is it time to make sure most of our businesses can just flip a switch and keep our local economy up and running regardless? Is it time where many of our businesses & services can go “Off Grid” if need be?

This may be overstating it but widespread outages like yesterday can slow momentum on second home sales and plans for repeat vacation visits. With our local economy recovering from the body blow that was the Butte Fire we have to make changes to make sure our economy is a fault tolerant as we can make it.

Yesterday a guy with faulty pump wiring cost our area millions. Accidents happen and no, he shouldn’t be punished for more than his negligence. Accidents can and will always happen. Just asking if it is time to plan to make them inconsequential blips for our economy.