Area businesses spring into action in cold

Area businesses and services were called into action on Wednesday as arctic temperatures swept the area.

Local weather forecaster Dennis Howick said while temperatures below zero aren't especially uncommon for this time of year, the wind chill is "what hurts." Celina has an average high temperature of 33 degrees and average low of 19 degrees this time of year. Wednesday's temperature was minus 15 before factoring in wind chill. The bitter cold caused schools in the area to cancel classes, and several businesses opted to stay closed for the day.

About 700 customers of Midwest Electric in southwest Mercer County were without power early Wednesday morning. Twenty households in Chickasaw also experienced outages. Power went out about 6:30 a.m. in Chickasaw and 8 a.m. in southwest Mercer County.

Midwest Electric reported problems with a Dayton Power & Light transmission feed to their Macedon and Sharpsburg substations led to the outages. Crews were dispatched to fix the problems and service was restored by noon. Midwest CEO Matt Berry thanked customers for their patience while crews restored power and employees for their hard work.

While Midwest Electric employees were out working hard, pets at Celina Pet Center were playing just as hard.

Celina Pet Center opened its doors on Tuesday for anyone unable to bring their pets inside. About 18-20 dogs and 10 cats were boarded and pampered for free while temperatures dropped below zero.

Manager Tim Axe and veterinarian and owner Dr. Ralph Hecht came up with the idea. Axe couldn't think of a time in the past when pets faced such a risk of health issues due to the cold.

"They got a mini vacation from the cold weather," he said.

Pets were walked, played with, groomed and received plenty of attention during their stay. Axe said the majority of the pets were dropped off Tuesday night and a few more during the day Wednesday. The manager of 25 years said pet center employees were more than happy to do it and would do it again in the future if necessary.

"It makes us feel good too," he said.

Pets weren't the only ones avoiding the cold weather. The U.S. Postal Service suspended delivery in Mercer and Auglaize counties and across the nation on Wednesday. Packages, medications and express mail were still delivered.

At the same time, a Kogge Plumbing spokesman said the company had received a high number of calls during the day for heating issues. The company received about 30 calls regarding heating problems - an especially large number for one day. However, calls for frozen pipes were relatively few with only four to five.