Summit Hill experienced a townwide power outage for about four or five hours during the March 2 snowstorm, shedding light on a problem that must be addressed.

At borough council’s meeting on Monday, the borough’s emergency management coordinator expressed frustration that had it been a prolonged outage, there is no place in the community to provide shelter to the residents.

Kevin Steber, who was reappointed Monday as the emergency management coordinator but served as acting coordinator during the March 2 incident, said the Hilltop Community Center has a generator but it isn’t connected to the heating or air conditioning systems.

Steber said, “I was unable to open a shelter because there was no heat.”

“I asked three times to have the community center put on generator for heat. I don’t want to ask a fourth time. We can’t be caught again like we were caught,” he said.

He said he was able to get someone from the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency to contact PPL Electric and have the borough placed on a priority list for restoring power because there was no shelter available.

Council agreed to refer the matter to the building committee to determine how generator power can be installed to the heating and air conditioning systems.

Council President Michael Kokinda said a similar situation exists at the borough hall where the police department has emergency generator power but other borough offices don’t.

Steber said he responded to two emergency situations within the borough during the past month.

The first was the March 2 snowstorm, when a tree fell onto a residence and a shed was damaged.

He said also during the storm, the Verizon cell tower went down and caused problems for any residents who wanted to contact the fire department.

The fire department set up a landline to be used by residents for emergency purposes when that Verizon outage occurred.

The second emergency was on March 19 when a bullet was found in the Panther Valley Junior/Senior High School and the building was put into a lockdown.

He praised cooperation received from numerous agencies, including police officers from Summit Hill, Nesquehoning, Lansford, Coaldale, Salisbury Township and the Pennsylvania State Police.

He said the Carbon County Emergency Management Agency also responded, as did local fire police.

“It was a long, drawn-out affair,” Steber said. “All the kids went home safe, and that’s all that matters.”