An electrical problem in downtown Ottawa caused City Hall, the downtown LaSalle County courthouse, and Ottawa High School to close for the day. Deputy Fire Chief Brian Bressner says there was a report of an explosion about 8am. Smoke was coming from a manhole and a power pole south of the Central Life building because underground power equipment blew out.
Ameren reported more than 100 customers affected by an outage in Ottawa. City Clerk Shelly Munks says Mayor Dan Aussem ordered City Hall closed because of the power being off there. Only emergency lights were on inside.
LaSalle County Board Chairman Don Jensen’s office issued a notice saying the downtown courthouse will be closed all day. At first, courthouse security told people showing up for hearings they could not go in and should expect their cases to be rescheduled.
Ottawa High School announced it would dismiss students at 9am because of the outage.
Only emergency lights were on inside Ottawa City Hall. The mayor ordered the building closed at 9am because power was not expected to be on again for some time.
LaSalle County courthouse security personnel tell the arriving public there won’t be hearings or other courthouse business today.