Power outages throughout weekend at Batavia assisted living facility prompts residents to leave

BATAVIA – The power went out at a three-story assisted living facility in Batavia throughout the Memorial Day weekend, prompting some residents to leave for cooler quarters on Tuesday.

Batavia Public Works Director Gary Holm said the problem at The Landings, 2450 W. Fabyan Parkway, was with the facility’s internal electrical system, not with the city’s electric department.

“The equipment that failed was within their building,” Holm said. “They are working to get that equipment repaired. We don’t get involved in private repairs.”

The city’s electric crews were called out to The Landings on Wednesday and Sunday to inspect the city’s system and found nothing amiss, Holm said.

Sarah Barnes, 72, was staying at The Landings temporarily with her husband and son because her son, 39, with Down syndrome, had broken his hip and was in a wheelchair. She said they couldn’t stay at the family home in Maple Park during his recovery because it had too many stairs.

“Three strong men carried him downstairs in his wheelchair from the second floor,” Barnes said.

The power went out May 25 and May 29 and then May 30 it went out before 10 p.m., she said.

“Sunday was a series of outages,” Barnes said, estimating it was at least six. “Out and on and out and on and out. It seemed like it was on for 10 minutes and then sometimes it would be on for an hour. And you’d think, OK, you sit down in front of the TV and boom, everything was black again.”

Her husband went to their house to bring back flashlights, she said.

“It went out last night (Monday) before 10 p.m. and I did not dream that it was out all night long. It was not on yet this morning after 10 when we left,” Barnes said.

St. Charles resident Brian Barnes, the family’s older son, came to take them home to Maple Park on Tuesday morning.

“The handling of this has just been absurd,” Brian Barnes said.

He described residents who were on oxygen in sweltering apartments with the facility’s kitchen unable to prepare some of the meals.

But his mother said the facility sent out for pizzas on Sunday when they could not prepare supper.

Several residents were leaving Tuesday afternoon to go stay with family rather than endure another night without power, but declined to comment about the lack of electricity.

While a reporter was waiting to speak with The Landings officials late afternoon on Tuesday, a generator kicked in and the air conditioning came on.

The Landings officials referred a reporter to the company headquarters in Nebraska, but no one was available to comment.

The building is fairly new, having just received its occupancy permit on Feb. 25, 2021, City Administrator Laura Newman stated in an email.

Holm wrote in an email Tuesday afternoon to city officials that prior to The Landings’ initial occupancy, “our electric crews were called out in regards to an electric issue.”

“Our crews determined that the problems were internal to the building’s private electric system,” Holm wrote. “It is our understanding that The Landings replaced some of their equipment at that time.”

Holm’s email stated that electric crews were there on May 25 and May 29 and again determined no problems with the city’s power, which they informed the facility’s on-site electrician.

“We have inspected The Landings site several times and have never found any issues with our public power,” Holm’s email stated. “We feel there is obviously something occurring with the building’s private electric service equipment.”

Batavia Fire Chief Craig Hanson said the generator The Landings hooked up on Tuesday is on a semi-trailer and provides 1,800 amps of power.

As to why it might have taken so long to get a generator, Hanson said it was a three-day holiday weekend and “It takes a long time to get anything.”

Hanson said the fire department did have to assist in getting some residents out of the facility.

“We were not the only assisting agency,” Hanson said. “A lot of staff was on hand, checking every resident every 30 minutes and every assisted care facility person and memory care person was checked every 15 minutes.”